The book deals with the attractions of mystical Christianity and the inherent conflict between Christianity and adultery. This was a problem Rose Macaulay [1] had faced in her own life, having had an affair with the married novelist and former Roman Catholic priest Gerald O'Donovan (1871"1942) from 1920 until his death.

Still a good read to catch a glimpse of evangelical orientalism.

Mavi Boncuk |

The Towers of Trebizond
Paperback: 296 pages NYRB Classics (November 30, 2003) ISBN-10: 159017058X


The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay "'Take my camel, dear,' said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass." So begins The Towers of Trebizond, the greatest novel by Rose Macaulay [1], one of the eccentric geniuses of English literature. In this fine and funny adventure set in the backlands of modern Turkey. The book is largely autobiographical. It follows the adventures of a group of people, the eccentric Dorothea ffoulkes-Corbett (otherwise Aunt Dot), her High Anglican clergyman friend Father Hugh Chantry-Pigg (who keeps his collection of sacred relics in his pockets), and the narrator, Laurie, travelling from Istanbul to Trebizond. On the way, they meet magicians, difficult Turkish policemen, and Billy Graham on tour. Aunt Dot proposes to emancipate the women of Turkey by converting them to Anglicanism and popularizing the bathing hat, while Laurie has more worldly preoccupations.But though the dominant note of the novel is humorous, its pages are shadowed by heartbreak"”as the narrator confronts the specters of ancient empires, religious turmoil, and painful memories of lost love.

[1] Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) was born in Rugby, England, into a family of eminent scholars and Anglican clerics. After studying modern history at Somerville College, Oxford, she began a career as a writer and quickly succeeded in supporting herself as a novelist, journalist, and critic. During World War I, she worked as a nurse and as a civil servant in the War Office before assuming a position in the British Propaganda Department.Rose Macaulay was the author of thirty-five books"”twenty-three of them novels"”and is best remembered for Potterism, a satire of yellow journalism; a biography of Milton; her haunting post-World War II novel, The World My Wilderness; two travel books, They Went to Portugal and Fabled Shore; and her masterpiece, The Towers of Trebizond. She was named a Dame Commander of the British Empire shortly before her death in 1958.