[INDIVIDUALISM AND UTOPIA] Hayat-i muhayyel. [i.e. Imaginary life]

HÜSEYIN CAHIT [YALÇIN], (1875-1957), Kanaat Kitabhânesi / Ikdam Matbaasi, Istanbul, [1326 AD] = 1910.

Contemporary very aesthetics half-leather bdg. lettered gilt on the spine, and decorative gilt on boards. Marbled end-papers. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 315, [3] p.

Exceedingly rare first edition of one of the early literary utopias in which a fictional island is the place of the novel, which is a symbol of the freedom longed for in the conjuncture of the period. The main theme is the effort to create an ideal atmosphere of love for lovers in the novel, in which factors such as social injustice and economic inequality affect the author. The novel centers on the theme of love, therefore, differs from other utopias.

Yalçin was a prominent Turkish theorist, writer, and politician. He is famous for being a dissident journalist, who has been put on trial and punished due to his columns. His publications defending the idea of a homogenous nation became popular within Ittihat ve Terakki Partisi [i.e. The Party of Union and Progress].

Özege 7115. (Utopias from the Middle East 16).