''The Lustful Turk, or Lascivious Scenes from a Harem'' is a pre- Victorian British exploitation

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scu ...

epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...

first published anonymously in 1828 by John Benjamin Brookes and reprinted by

William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coles ...

. However, it was not widely known or circulated until the 1893 edition.

Plot

The novel consists largely of a series of letters written by its heroine, Emily Barlow, to her friend, Sylvia Carey. When Emily sails from England for India in June 1814 her ship is attacked by Moorish pirates and she is taken to the

harem Harem ( Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A har ...

of Ali,

dey Dey (Arabic: داي), from the Turkish honorific title ''dayı'', literally meaning uncle, was the title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers (Algeria), Tripoli,Bertarelli (1929), p. 203. and Tunis under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 ...

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

. Ali

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

s her and subjects her to his will, awakening her sexual passions. Emily's debasement continues when Ali insists on

anal sex Anal sex or anal intercourse is generally the insertion and thrusting of the erect penis into a person's anus, or anus and rectum, for sexual pleasure.Sepages 270–271for anal sex information, anpage 118for information about the clitoris. ...

, arousing the horror of her correspondent Sylvia, who expresses her indignation at Ali's behaviour, in a letter that the latter intercepts. Annoyed at her attitude, Ali arranges for Sylvia to be abducted and brought to the slave market of Algiers. After an elaborate charade in which Ali pretends to be a sympathetic Frenchman, bidding to save her from sexual slavery, and engaging her in a fake marriage, he deflowers her and awakens her sexuality, as he had done with Emily. Revealing his true identity Ali enjoys both girls together. This sexual idyll is eventually terminated when an addition to the harem objects to anal rape, cuts off Ali's penis with a knife, and then commits

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

. Seemingly unfazed by this, Ali has "his lost members preserved in spirits of wine in glass vases" which he presents to Emily and Sylvia, sending them back to England with these tokens of his affection. The novel also incorporates interpolated stories concerning the erotic misadventures of three other girls abducted into the harem, and enlarges on the fate of Emily's maid Eliza who, presented by Ali to Muzra, bey of Tunis, is bound, flogged and raped in turn. The book was one of those condemned as obscene by Lord Chief Justice Campbell when Dugdale was prosecuted in 1857.Sova (2006) p.150

Influences

''The Lustful Turk'' uses the contemporary conventions of the

novel of sensibility The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th-century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Sentimentalism, which is to be distinguished from sensi ...

and Gothic romance and its exotic Oriental themes are influenced by the life, adventures and writings of

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

. It was influential on many other works of erotica, and the theme of the virgin who is forcibly introduced to sexual acts and later becomes insatiable in her appetite for the carnal is common in later erotica. Such works include '' The Way of a Man with a Maid'', a classic work of Victorian erotica concerning the forcible seduction of a girl called Alice by a Victorian gentleman; ''May's Account of Her Introduction to the Art of Love'', first published in the Victorian erotic periodical '' The Pearl'' and '' The Sheik'' written by

Edith Maude Hull Edith Maud Hull (16 August 1880 – 11 February 1947) was a British writer of romance novels, typically credited as E. M. Hull.

, published in 1921.

Adaptations

A film adaptation of ''The Lustful Turk'' was directed in 1968 by Byron Mabe with the screenplay written by David Friedman and starring Abbe Rentz, Linda Stiles and Gee Gentell.

Ingrid Steeger Ingrid Steeger (; born 1 April 1947) (as ''Ingrid Anita Stengert'') is a German actress and comedian. Life Steeger was born in Berlin. She works as a comedian and actress in Germany. She became famous in her role of comedy show ' in the 1970s ...

played Eliza in the

Erwin C. Dietrich Erwin C. Dietrich (4 October 1930 in GlarusRico Bandle: Das Schweizer Filmwunder' In: '' Die Weltwoche'' vom 4. November 2011. – 15 March 2018 in Zurich) was a Swiss film director, producer and actor, often regarded as one of the most influent ...

production ' (1971). In the mystery novel ''Die For Love'' by

Barbara Mertz Barbara Louise Mertz (September 29, 1927 – August 8, 2013) was an American author who wrote under her own name as well as under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. In 1952, she received a PhD in Egyptology from the Univer ...

(under the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters), plagiarism of ''The Lustful Turk'' is a minor plot point.

Oriental setting

Whereas

Steven Marcus Steven Paul Marcus (December 13, 1928 – April 25, 2018) was an American academic and literary critic who published influential psychoanalytic analyses of the novels of Charles Dickens and Victorian pornography. He was George Delacorte Professo ...

employed ''The Lustful Turk'' in his construction of the placeless realm of

pornotopia Pornotopia is an idea in critical theory describing an imagined space determined by fantasies and dominated by human sexual activity, expressed in and encompassing pornography and erotica. The word was coined by American literary critic Steven ...

in Victorian erotica, later writers have stressed the importance of the orientalist setting in generating a further sexualised charge—the harem as a sort of erotic finishing-school. R. B. Yeazell, ''Harems of the Mind'' (2000) p. 118

Footnotes

References

* Anon, ''The Lustful Turk'' (illustrated). Wordsworth Classic Erotica. 1997 *

Gaétan Brulotte Gaëtan Brulotte (born 1945) is a prominent Canadian writer from Quebec and a professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Gaëtan Brulotte studied at Laval University (Quebec City), and earned his Ph.D ...

, John Phillips, ''Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature'', CRC Press, 2006, , p. 841. * Steven Marcus, ''The Other Victorians: a study of sexuality and pornography in mid-nineteenth-Century England'', Transaction Publishers, 2008, , pp. 195–217. *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lustful Turk, The 1828 British novels British erotic novels Works published anonymously British novels adapted into films Novels about rape Fiction about suicide Epistolary novels Novels set in Algeria BDSM literature Female characters in literature Literary characters introduced in 1828 Fictional Turkish people Male characters in literature