[LEMAN THE FOX: THE EARLY ANTIHEROINE OF TURKISH & WORLD LITERATURE BY A SEXIST TURKISH AUTHOR] Tilki Leman’in Harikûlâde Maceralari: Kizil maskeli kadin [i.e., The Extraordinary Adventures of Leman the Fox: The woman in the red mask]

COMPLETE TITLE: [LEMAN THE FOX: THE EARLY ANTIHEROINE OF TURKISH & WORLD LITERATURE BY A SEXIST TURKISH AUTHOR تیلکی لمانك خارق العاده ماجرالری: قزیل ماسکلی قادین / Tilki Leman’in Harikûlâde Maceralari: Kizil maskeli kadin [i.e., The Extraordinary Adventures of Leman the Fox: The woman in the red mask].

BEDI, SERVER [Pseud. of Peyami Safa] (1899-1961).

Gündogdu Matbaasi ve Kitabhânesi, Istanbul, [c. 1926].

Original illustrated loose wrappers and leaves, without staples or stitching, as issued. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 15,5 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 15 p., with publisher’s advertisements and announcements of forthcoming titles on the rear cover. Toning to pages and covers, with chipping to extremities. Otherwise, a brittle but good copy.

The very rare first edition of this detective novella, the third volume in a five-part series published in 1926 or 1927, following the author's celebrated detective "Cingöz Recai" series, written by a conservative, sexist, and moralist Turkish novelist and columnist. The adventures of a femme fatale antagonist, "Leman the Fox", described as "a devilish woman who captivates all men with her beauty, defrauds all the wealthy with her intelligence, and robs numerous institutions with her audacity", follow Istanbul Police Department chief inspector Ahmet Fatin’s relentless pursuit of her, from which she repeatedly manages to escape. The work represents one of the earliest antiheroines in Turkish and world literature.

Peyami Safa came to the fore in the Turkish literature of the Republican era with his psychological works such as Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu [i.e., Ninth External Ward]. He reflected his life and his changes in his works. He wrote many novels under the pseudonym Server Bedi. He created "Cingöz Recai", a character inspired by Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin. Tilki Leman was adapted into a film on 30 October 1958 by Yeşilçam, becoming one of the cult classics of Turkish cinema.

Safa is regarded as one of the most important Turkish writers in the conservative-nationalist tradition, particularly for his works addressing the tensions of early Republican modernization, the East–West conflict, and shifting moral values in Turkish literature. His writings and discourse have frequently been the subject of academic study on account of their conservative and often sexist perspectives. In addition, from 1929 onwards, the author served on the jury of the Turkish beauty contests organized by the newspaper Cumhuriyet and also acted as the presenter of these competitions.

Özege 10793., As of March 2026, we couldn't trace any copies in OCLC.