The Towers of Trebizond

Infobox Book |
name = The Towers of Trebizond
title_orig =
translator =


image caption =
author = Rose Macaulay
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Autobiographical novel
publisher = Collins, London
release_date = 1956
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = NA
preceded_by = The World My Wilderness (1950)
followed_by =

"The Towers of Trebizond" is a novel published in 1956 by the English novelist, biographer and traveller Rose Macaulay (1881-1958). The last of her novels, "The Towers of Trebizond" is also Macaulay's most successful. Widely regarded as her masterpiece, it was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1956.

Plot

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 (or Constantinople as Fr. Chantry-Pigg would have it) to Trebizond. A Turkish feminist doctor attracted to Anglicanism acts as a foil to the main characters. On the way, they meet magicians, difficult Turkish policemen, juvenile British authors, and observe the BBC and Billy Graham on tour. Aunt Dot proposes to emancipate the women of Turkey by converting them to Anglicanism and popularizing the bathing hat, [Macaulay, Rose: "The Towers of Trebizond" (Collins, London, 1956), Chapter 2] while Laurie has more worldly preoccupations. Historical references (English Christianity since the Dissolution of the Monasteries, nineteeth-century travellers to the Ottoman Empire, the First World War, The Fourth Crusade, St. Paul's Third Missionary Journey, Troy) abound. The geographical canvas is enlarged with the two senior characters eloping to the Soviet Union and the heroine meeting up with her semi-estranged mother in Jerusalem. The final chapters after the fatal accident on the return journey are played out in a very English setting raising multiple minor issues such as the souls of animals.

The book however , against its Anglo-Catholic backdrop, mainly deals with the attractions of mystical Christianity and the inherent conflict between Christianity and adultery. [http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?usca_p=t&product_id=1239 The Towers of Trebizond] at nybooks.com (accessed 14 November 2007)] This was a problem Macaulay 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. [ [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34668 Macaulay, Dame (Emilie) Rose (1881–1958), author] by Constance Babington Smith, revised by Katherine Mullin, in Dictionary of National Biography online (accessed 15 November 2007)]

The famous opening sentence is,Macaulay, Rose: "The Towers of Trebizond" (Collins, London, 1956)] [ [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3894040 Pearl, Nancy: "Famous First Words"] at npr.org (accessed 14 November 2007)] cquote|"Take my camel, dear", said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.

The Turkish woman doctor says in the book of Aunt Dot, "She is a woman of dreams. Mad dreams, dreams of crazy, impossible things. And they aren't all of conversion to the Church, oh no. Nor all of the liberation of women, oh no. Her eyes are on far mountains, always some far peak where she will go. She looks so firm and practical, that nice face, so fair and plump and shrewd, but look in her eyes, you will sometimes catch a strange gleam."

Barbara Reynolds has suggested that the character of Aunt Dot is based on Rose Macaulay's friend Dorothy L. Sayers, and that Father Hugh Chantry-Pigg has elements of Frs. Patrick McLaughlin, Gilbert Shaw and Gerard Irvine. [ [http://copies.anglicansonline.org/churchtimes/000910/feat.htm Take away the camel, and all is revealed] by Barbara Reynolds at anglicansonline.org (accessed 14 November 2007)]

The book was described in "The New York Times": "Fantasy, farce, high comedy, lively travel material, delicious japes at many aspects of the frenzied modern world, and a succession of illuminating thoughts about love, sex, life, organized churches and religion are all tossed together with enchanting results."

Editions

*The first UK edition was published by Collins of London in 1956.
* The first US edition (under the same title) was published by Farrar, Straus, of New York, in 1957, with a new edition by Farrar Straus & Giroux in 1980. [ [http://www.amazon.com/Towers-Trebizond-Rose-Dame-Macaulay/dp/0374278547 The Towers of Trebizond (Farrar Straus & Giroux)] at amazon.com (accessed 14 November 2007) ISBN 978-0374278540]
*A "de luxe" edition from the Folio Society, of London, with an introduction by Joanna Trollope, appeared in 2005 and is still in print.
*A UK paperback version is also still in print, published by Flamingo. [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Towers-Trebizond-Flamingo-Rose-Macaulay/dp/0006544215 The Towers of Trebizond (Flamingo)] at amazon.co.uk (accessed 14 November 2007) ISBN 978-0006544210]

References

*cite journal | first = David | last = Hein | year = 2006 | month = Winter | title = Faith and Doubt in Rose Macaulay's "The Towers of Trebizond" | journal = Anglican Theological Review | volume = 88 | issue = 1 | pages = 47–68 | id = ISSN 0003-3286 | url = http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3818/is_200601/ai_n16066373
*cite book | last = Crawford | first = Alice | year = 1995 | title = Paradise Pursued: The Novels of Rose Macaulay | publisher = Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | location = Madison, N.J. | id = ISBN 0-8386-3573-3 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=MgiPY8D02r0C&dq=paradise+pursued+the+novels+of+rose+macaulay+by+alice+crawford

Footnotes