Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The White Castle

3.39 of 5 stars 3.39 · rating details · 3,630 ratings · 298 reviews

From a Turkish writer who has been compared with Borges, Nabokov, and DeLillo comes a dazzling novel that is at once a captivating work of historical fiction and a sinuous treatise on the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West. In the 17th century, a young Italian scholar sailing from Venice to Naples is taken prisoner and delivered to Constantinople. T...more

ebook, 176 pages

Published August 24th 2010 by Vintage (first published 1979)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 24, 2011 Ian Graye rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews, read-2010, reviews-5-stars, pamuk

A Short Start

I started reading this novel, because it was Pamuk's shortest and although I liked the subject matter of his other novels, I was worried I might bite off more than I could chew (I am the sort of person who must finish a book once I've started it, even if I hate it).
So this was a taster for me.

From A to B Inevitably

I think it is fair to say that what happens at the end is inevitable. His craftsmanship lies in how he achieves it.
There is a moment towards the end of the book when the...more

17 likes · like · see review

May 18, 2010 Lavinia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, fiction

Pamuk’s talent for storytelling is definitely unquestionable. Well, OK, you can disagree, I don’t care.
I loved the setting; it was basically the main criteria for choosing the book (I’d probably need to mention the reader-friendly length, as well). I loved the plot (the double / the identical twin, the capacity of exchanging not only identities, but also memories, ideas and beliefs), the framing device, the (unreliable) 1st person narrative, the mind games and the twisted relationship / brutal...more Pamuk’s talent for storytelling is definitely unquestionable. Well, OK, you can disagree, I don’t care.
I loved the setting; it was basically the main criteria for choosing the book (I’d probably need to mention the reader-friendly length, as well). I loved the plot (the double / the identical twin, the capacity of exchanging not only identities, but also memories, ideas and beliefs), the framing device, the (unreliable) 1st person narrative, the mind games and the twisted relationship / brutal conflict / love between Hoja and the slave and the cultural confrontation (West VS East).

I definitely loved Luminita Munteanu’s translation. She’s the exclusive translator of Pamuk’s books in Romanian and she’s done an incredibly good job, not only translating, but also offering a huge deal of Ottoman background – for My Name Is Red, at least – and explanatory footnotes. It rarely happens that I really appreciate translations, but when I read a book that sounds so naturally Romanian to me, it’s a good translation, don’t you think? Well, all those words of Turkish origin that we have in Romanian helped a lot, as well. Actually, thank goodness for all the influences Romanian has got over the years – I would never, NEVER read a Russian (or other Slavic language), Hungarian or Turkish book in English if the Romanian version was available. OK, I’m getting weird, let’s move on.

So, apparently, I liked the book; a comparison to My Name Is Red seems inevitable, hence the 3*. I’m not sure if it was the slow pace or something else, but somewhere after the middle I felt Pamuk lost me, the book was getting nowhere and I was tempted to abandon it. The reader is actually advised to do so, but I think it’s just a trick Pamuk uses in order to keep his reader curious, only to leave him with a dilemma at the end. Hmm.

So in order to feed my recent interest in Turkish culture, I think my next Pamuk will be something quite different. Something that focuses on modern Turkey / the conflict between traditional and modern, old VS new etc. And I need some films, as well; I feel Fatih Akin’s are not enough.
(less)

5 likes · like · see review

Apr 19, 2008 Chul-hyun Ahn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Are we really so different from one another? Why am I not the magnificent white castle that sits on top of the hill but a rusty, creaking and nonsensical monstrosity wrought in hopes of "proving things to them", stuck in mud and sinking to its death with poor, accidental participants in it? Why can't I be you? If I knew who you were, where you come from and what you thought of while eating lunch with your family on an idle summer day of your youth? Are there really things to be found inside ones...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 14, 2012 Michiyo 'jia' Fujiwara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asian-literature, historical-fiction, classics-series, realisme-magis, ebook, novel-dewasa, orhan-pamuk

Buku yang sangat menarik..penggunaan 'Aku' untuk dua sudut pandang orang berbeda..Orhan Pamuk memang benar-benar seorang penulis yang 'tidak biasa'.

The White Castle
Novel yang secara khusus dipersembahakan untuk Nilgun Darvinoglu (1961-1980), saudara perempuan tercinta dari Orhan Pamuk. Cerita dimulai dengan kata pengantar yang ditulis oleh sejarawan Faruk Darvinoglu (karakter yang dirujuk dalam buku sebelumnya Pamuk, The Silence House atau Sessiz Ev, bahasa Turki) antara 1984-1985.

Istambul Tur...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 30, 2012 metralindol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Можливо, можливо треба спрямовувати німе питання в напрямку перекладача; можливо, можливо це той випадок, коли роман пишеться на одному подиху, стрімголов, щоби не втратити сирої соковитої енергії, й автор, неначе художник на етюдах, стримує свої поривання розвинути, підчистити, виправити і "вдосконалити" текст; можливо, можливо "Біла Фортеця" - наче той вододіл нерозуміння між двома передгір'ями, річки яких живляться одними й тими ж почуттями-пориваннями, але впадають у моря різних символьних с...more Можливо, можливо треба спрямовувати німе питання в напрямку перекладача; можливо, можливо це той випадок, коли роман пишеться на одному подиху, стрімголов, щоби не втратити сирої соковитої енергії, й автор, неначе художник на етюдах, стримує свої поривання розвинути, підчистити, виправити і "вдосконалити" текст; можливо, можливо "Біла Фортеця" - наче той вододіл нерозуміння між двома передгір'ями, річки яких живляться одними й тими ж почуттями-пориваннями, але впадають у моря різних символьних світів, у результаті чого навіть поміж науковцями виникають непорозуіння щодо трактування, приміром, османських літописних витіюватостей і європейської фразеологічної специфіки.
(це коли вислів "оперезатися мечем" викликає подив у османіста, і спокуса витлумачити середньовічний східний текст буквальною модерною мовою перемагає бажання знайти отим "витіюватостям" гідне сучасне літературне втілення)
Щоби уточнити оце доста баламутне своє відчуття, зазначчу, що перший Памуків твір, з яки мені випало познайомитись, був "Мене звуть Червоний". Враження від того роману були значно яскравіші й гаптування мені подобалося (бо це було радше гаптування, аніж ткацтво), постійно підтримуючи читацький голод. "Біла фортеця " - радше ткана: проста й невибаглива, "глибина задуму" ніби й переслідує тебе по ходу читання, але врешті-решт особисто мені так і не вчулась ота задекларована ув анотації "блискуча алегорія протистояння Сходу й Заходу". Звісно ж, на це можна відповісти, мовляв, "Мене звуть Червоний" завдячує магнетизмом своєму активному, динамічному сюжетові, отій чарівливій привабливості книги, яка зміщує текст на грань тривіальної (популярної?) літератури, коли, приміром, романи академічного гуманітарія стають раптом бестселерами і торують собі дорогу в кіно і маси. Натомість, у "Білій фортеці" натяку на складну конструкцію немає і взагалі, навіщо ж тоді ці твори порівнювати?
Навіщо? - У моєму випадку справа в очікуваннях і тому що поробиш, коли власноруч їх високо підняв, розпочавши знайомство із турецьким автором з "Червоного" роману. "Біла фортеця" у цьому не винна. Зрештою, коли полишити загальні фрази, то ні деталізація картинки, ні, навпаки, забавки з розмитим фокусом, недотриманими чи перетриманими витримками та рештою арсеналу фотолоабораторського сленгу не залишили в мені відчуття, що фотографію "Біла Фортеця" готували з наміром повісити на стінку в рамочку. Бо задум і справді цікавий, однак , як стверджують оці щойно народжувані з-під бездротової клавіатури рядки, написаний дещо поспіхом, недбало або ж зі слідом втоми, перегорілости від первинного письменницького натхнення. Усі ці відчуття, звісно, суб'єктивні, загострені, й з книжкою справді варто познайомитись. Однак моє побажання: тумблер контексту (а Білу Фортецю мені пощастило відвідати в паралельному, книжно-дослідницькому світі) покрути до мінімуму, а очікування - до нуля. Тоді все буде гаразд!(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jul 29, 2012 ☽ Moon ☯ 佛月球 Будда Луны rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to ☽ Moon ☯ by: Sasha Menon

To plunge into the abysmal recesses of one's memories is to enter a reality within realities . A parallel formless universe that silently resides inside one's mind that is directly proportional or reversely different from what they actually are. As the material form of the sensual world merges with the formless realm of the human consciousness, it recreates a reality in some other form that seems to belong in another dimension...

For in truth, memories are but a combination of fact and fiction, b...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 24, 2012 Desi Puspitasari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'Mengerikan'. In a good way.

Kalau Patrick Suskind menyelesaikan Perfume dengan banal atau 'kasar', maka Pamuk dalam White Castle adalah sebaliknya. Mungkin bukan analogi yang tepat, tapi akan lebih tidak tepat lagi bila aku menggunakan Smooth Operator milik Sade. Hehe.

1 like · like · see review

Sep 15, 2008 rr added it · review of another edition

I wanted to love this book, and it seems uncomfortably unintellectual for me to say that I have mixed feelings about it. Much of the time I felt like I was reading through a haze which had the added effect of slowing all action down. The end of the novel I first found vexing in the extreme--I spent the whole rest of the day after I finished it in a snit. But I've made my peace with it, and I understand (I think) why it may have done what it did. In the end, I'm glad I read it, but I didn't entir...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 20, 2009 Ririenz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiksi-religi

THE WHITE CASTLE
~ Orhan Pamuk ~

Pernah gak sih dalam diri ini dan diri kalian semua terbersit keinginan, bermimpi atau bercita2 untuk melakukan dan merasakan sesuatu yang berbeda? Sesuatu yang gak biasa Qta lakukan… Sesuatu yang bukan diri Qta… Sesuatu yang tidak lazim terjadi pada diri Qta… hingga membuahkan terjadi revolusi pada diri Qta…
Pernah kan????
Dan gak mungkin rasa itu hanya sekali timbulnya…
Kan Qta masih manusia, masih terlalu banyak komposisi duniawinya...

Kalo ada yang pernah nonton f...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 06, 2012 catcarlo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Libro affascinante ma non semplice, questo breve romanzo impegna il lettore più di quanto le sue ridotte dimensioni lascino immaginare. Ambientato nel ‘600 e costruito sul rapporto tra un padrone turco e un servo italiano che si somigliano come due gocce d’acqua, il romanzo è una lunga meditazione sul tema del doppio e del confronto con/desiderio dell’altro. I due personaggi non hanno nome: dapprima è netta la divisione tra l’io narrante e il Maestro suo padrone, ma al termine niente è più sicur...more

like · see review

Oct 15, 2012 Igor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, history

The account of a Venetian slave in service of a Turkish inventor and erudite in XVII century Istanbul sounds like the perfect setup for a colourful and captivating adventure. But it quickly becomes clear that the main theme of the story is the question of what makes us us and not someone else. That question itself is a byproduct of a never ending game for intellectual dominance the two men are playing over the years while leading mostly uneventful lives - only the answer is never fully pursued n...more

like · see review

Oct 06, 2012 Marco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english, historical-fiction, nobel

The book starts reads, at first, as a classic novel. The first person narrator is the main characters, and everything is seen and described from his point of view. At first, the story is a reckoning of his misadventures (he was a 17th century Venetian, that was captured and enslaved by the Turks). Soon enough the book gets more intriguing. The unnamed Venetian is given in custody to the scholar Hoja, which physically resemble him to an almost sinister degree. The encounters from the East and the...more

like · see review

May 06, 2012 Alan Newman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read this because I was travelling to turkey--certainly an interesting view at life in the Sultans Court in the 16t C. Actually the book, I believe Pamuk's first, was really about a relationship, this time between an Italian nobleman enslaved to a Turkish scientist/inventor; about the merging of identities between the slave and master who happen to look very much alike; and about the corruption that went with power in the sultan's court. As in the Museum of Innocence, the relationship is obsessi...more

like · see review

Feb 18, 2012 Francesca Forrest rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read a description of the scenario of this (Venetian man captured in the Mediterranean and becomes the slave of a Turkish man who is his physical double; their lives mysteriously blend) and thought it sounded fascinating, so gave it a try. I knew from the description I had read that there'd be no dialogue, but I found this made more of a problem for me than I was expecting, for this reason: everything I-the-reader experience is filtered through the consciousness of the narrator, and I find the...more I read a description of the scenario of this (Venetian man captured in the Mediterranean and becomes the slave of a Turkish man who is his physical double; their lives mysteriously blend) and thought it sounded fascinating, so gave it a try. I knew from the description I had read that there'd be no dialogue, but I found this made more of a problem for me than I was expecting, for this reason: everything I-the-reader experience is filtered through the consciousness of the narrator, and I find the narrator's consciousness incomprehensible, and the situation, too, a little incomprehensible.

I found myself looking for clues in the outer world of the story--the politics and intrigue of court, the growing up of the young sultan, the reactions of others to the things the two men (the doubles) are studying--to try to get some bearings, but meanwhile there was the relentlessness of the two men's impossibly close, impossibly difficult relationship.

I couldn't get any sense of development in their relationship or in either of their attitudes. Hoja (the Turkish man) veers this way and that in his attitudes toward his own research, his own abilities, others' approval, and the narrator. I didn't get a sense of progress. One minute it's this, then it's that, then it's back to this again. And the same with the narrator. And the narrator writes about, for example, tedious repetition of the days and months... and I was feeling that reading the book. Where was it all going? Nowhere that I understood, and not fast enough.

I felt low, giving it up. I felt like this was clearly a case of my not reading it with the right mental equipment, not looking at it through the right lens. Someone compared Orhan Pamuk's writing to Italo Calvino's and I can see this! I have some of the same sort of reaction to Calvino's stuff, but enough stuff falls on the side of accessibility for me that I can enjoy it. Here I felt just lost.

More than that, though, I just didn't like the process of getting to wherever the story was going. There's going to be some conflation, or substitution, of the one man for the other, I gather but--gah, I just wanted out of the brain of the first guy, and away from the whole situation. So I quit reading.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Nov 07, 2010 Al Bità rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is almost impossible to talk about this book without revealing its ending (or at least what one might consider to be its ending). This strange work purports to be a 17th century manuscript found by one Faruk Darvinoglu in 1982. We find that in the manuscript we are about to read, '... some events described in the story bore little resemblance to fact', although the 'truth' of the general knowledge of the period seemed to be accurate (p.2). On page 3 Faruk reveals that a professor he had consu...more It is almost impossible to talk about this book without revealing its ending (or at least what one might consider to be its ending). This strange work purports to be a 17th century manuscript found by one Faruk Darvinoglu in 1982. We find that in the manuscript we are about to read, '... some events described in the story bore little resemblance to fact', although the 'truth' of the general knowledge of the period seemed to be accurate (p.2). On page 3 Faruk reveals that a professor he had consulted tells him that 'in the old wooden houses on the back streets of Istanbul there were tens of thousands of manuscripts filled with stories of this kind'. Faruk tells us that the manuscript we are about to read is his own rendition into contemporary Turkish. He then writes: 'Readers seeing the dedication at the beginning may ask if it has a personal significance. I suppose that to see everything as connected with everything else is the addiction of our time. It is because I too have succumbed to this disease that I publish this tale.' The dedication he refers to is: 'For Nilgun Darvinoglu/ a loving sister/(1961—1980).' One presumes, therefore, that this dedication is by Faruk, not Pamuk (or is it?). In between this dedication and Faruk's Preface is a quotation allegedly from Marcel Proust (with no reference as to where in Proust's work this quotation is to be found) but with the qualification 'from the mistranslation of Y. K. Karaosmanoglu'. All this is in the beginning before the actual story itself... We are obviously in some murky territory here...

The manuscript itself is a rather straightforward telling of a strange tale, told by an unnamed Italian narrator about his capture by Turks, and his adventures in Istanbul where he becomes the servant of/collaborator with one Hoja (a name which apparently means 'master') who is a few years older than him, but who apparently looks exactly like the narrator. The first ten chapters details almost obsessively the relationship between the narrator and his 'double', a kind of love/hate relationship, where gradually the differences between the two men become indistinguishable, until, at the end of chapter ten, when the assault on the Polish Doppio Castle (the White Castle of the Title) fails, and Hoja dons the narrator's clothes and identity and disappears from the story. Hoja becomes the Italian; the Italian becomes Hoja. It is from these ten chapters that all the 'discussion' about self-identity, self/other distinctions, slave/master relationships, and even the relationship between East and West derive from: but I would suggest that these come more from the readers than from the novel itself. By the way, is it just a 'concidence', or merely an example of seeing everything connected to everything else, that the name of the White castle is 'Doppio' (the Italian word for 'double')?

It is really only in the final chapter (Chapter eleven) that one becomes embroiled in the complex literary trap that this novel really is, for it is here that the distinctions between the two men are, I believe, deliberately blurred, so that in the end one is no longer sure who is who. Stories of 'Hoja' as the Italian are referred to; narratives by the Italian, which point out his ignorance of Italian cities are cited; 'Hoja' is referred to as He and Him (with capital letters), and the sultan refers to Him as being the Italian captive while he is talking to the Italian (believing him to be Hoja) — or does he? The narrator, whoever he is, also seems to think his Childhood memories, exchanged with Hoja earlier, are indeed his own. There are numerous puzzling associations and confusions in this final chapter, and they all resonate with the general undermining of the narrative provided in the Preface by 'Faruk'.

A complex example is provided on page 141 of my Faber 2009 paperback edition: The Italian (?) narrator is wishing that he might once more dream of 'my childhood in Edirne' (which is supposed to be Hoja's childhood) '... of the first time I saw Him (Hoja(?)) unbearded at the pasha's door, of the chill down my spine.' Going back to the beginning of Chapter two, we are told that 'The resemblance between myself and the man [Hoja] who entered the [pasha's] room was incredible! It was *me* there...'; then later in the paragraph: 'Then I decided he didn't resemble me all that much, he had a beard;...' So there is no way, really, that we can even say that the overriding images of the similarity of the two men more or less insisted upon throughout nine chapters is anything more than a delusion of the narrator... or if not, is Hoja bearded or unbearded? Any attempt to unravel the unravellable is bound to frustration. There is no way anyone will be able to find out. The novel resolves itself into a trick which, because of its paradoxical nature, cannot be resolved: so many of the images of the novel remain in the mind, never finding any peaceful resolution. This also means that any arguments about self/other, slave/master and East/West are also not able to be resolved. Whether this is a good thing is not is problematical (precisely because of its internal paradoxes).

The final image of an old man, looking out through a window to his garden, remembering, is perhaps the best image to rest on at the end. It is a sad image, a suggestion that our memories are only what we make of them, of the narratives we tell ourselves — these are what ultimately provide us with meaning, regardless of whether they are true or not.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 14, 2010 Helmisade rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, human-mind, nobel-winners, places-in-the-world, have-a-copy

I was surprised at how easy and fast this was to read. Until I got to the end, I mean. Then I felt that I should start over and read it again, because I was sure I missed something. You tricked me, Mr.Pamuk! And I liked it!

The best part about this book was the exploration of identity. What does it mean, when I say who I am? What makes me me and not someone else? Not something I want to think about all the time, but excellent thoughts to spin around in the early hours of the morning.

Slightly besi...more

3 likes · like · see review

Apr 22, 2010 Dennis Littrell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Pamuk, Orhan. The White Castle (1979) ****
A case of intellectual incest?

Nobel Prize Literature Laureate (2006), Orhan Pamuk, in his first work translated into English from the Turkish, gives us in The White Castle an obsessive tale of a bizarre relationship. He begins with an old framing device, that of finding a manuscript which he then publishes. (Actually, Pamuk is even further removed since he has a fictional character, one Faruk Darvinoglu, find the manuscript and dedicate the book to his d...more Pamuk, Orhan. The White Castle (1979) ****
A case of intellectual incest?

Nobel Prize Literature Laureate (2006), Orhan Pamuk, in his first work translated into English from the Turkish, gives us in The White Castle an obsessive tale of a bizarre relationship. He begins with an old framing device, that of finding a manuscript which he then publishes. (Actually, Pamuk is even further removed since he has a fictional character, one Faruk Darvinoglu, find the manuscript and dedicate the book to his deceased sister.) Nathaniel Hawthorne used a similar conceit in The Scarlet Letter (1850). This manuscript is a first-person narrative by an unnamed Italian author who was captured by the Turks and taken into slavery in 17th century. He eventually becomes the personal servant of a Turkish man of similar age--and most importantly--of similar appearance. In fact the two could pass as twins.

This similarity of appearance begins to haunt the Italian, partly because the similarity is inexplicable and partly because the two become so intertwined intellectually and emotionally. Their relationship deepens as Hoja, the Turk who is obsessed with learning, especially learning what he considers science, begins to pick apart the narrator's brain. As time passes they exchange ideas and memories, beliefs and every aspect of their knowledge with the sense that it is the Italian slave who is tutoring the Turkish intellectual. Eventually Hoja with the help of the narrator's learning becomes an advisor of sorts to the young sultan. He interprets his dreams, predicts the end of a plague, constructs mechanical devices and toys for the sultan's amusement, tells stories for entertainment and generally becomes one of the favored members at court. He gains in power and influence and is rewarded with grants of land by the sultan so that he has a secure income.

Meanwhile the narrator, whom Hoja often abuses physically and mentally, has learned Turkish and has made himself indispensable to Hoja. The sultan senses that much of Hoja's impressive learning comes from the Italian slave, and eventually the narrator also becomes a favorite at the sultan's palace. It could be said that what we are witnessing in this story in a symbolic sense is the encroaching influence of science and technology on the Islamic state.

It is psychologically understandable and indeed perhaps inevitable that the narrator would form in his mind ambivalent feelings of love and hate for Hoja, whom he so resembles and with whom he is in nearly constant contact. As the years pass and their differences meld, and as each learns the heart and soul of the other, they become more and more alike until...

Is Hoja the doppelganger or is it the other way around? Is it possible that Hoja will leave Turkey and "return" to Italy after having so thoroughly gleaned the narrator's brain that he can pass as the narrator, even to his Italian family? After all these years, the suggestion that Pamuk makes--and this is really the brilliance of the novel--is that yes it could happen. And could the narrator stay on in Turkey, marry and have children while assuming the identity of Hoja without anyone really being able to tell the difference? Could time and acquaintance overcome the accident of one's birth, overcome even the accent with which one speaks so that one is the other and vice-versa? In a larger sense could such an intense, close relationship over several decades so confuse the minds of these two that they no longer know where the one begins and the other leaves off?

Pamuk's narrative is deliberate and slow-paced, as least by contemporary standards, intensely felt, and carefully wrought. You may find yourself putting it aside at first, so slowly does the story develop. It covers the span of several decades until the narrator is in his seventies. It is picturesque in the style of stories from centuries past which told of exotic places and strange adventures. There is a vivid sense of a world in transition from the feudal to the modern, of a world hungry for the renaissance, hungry for the knowledge of the West, and yet content within an Islamic society ruled by sultans and imams.

This is the first novel of Pamuk's I have read, and one of his earliest. It is obvious from this relatively modest work that he is a writer of vision and understanding. I am looking forward to reading his more recent work.

--a review by Dennis Littrell(less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 09, 2010 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

". . . was it not the best proof that men everywhere were identical with one another that they could take each other's place" (p. 151). On one level, this is a novel about cultural confrontation, with two characters from very different worlds engaging one another. Among other differences, the Venetian is obsessed with confession, with himself, the other, a Turkish Muslim, always sees the fault in others. But in the end they are a demonstration of the quote above, able to switch places and assimi...more

like · see review

May 18, 2013 Asmaa Hijazi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: أجمل-ما-قرأت, روايات

قلعة بيضاء وأبطال لا يتسامحون مع كونهم أنفسهم ولذا يريد كلا منهما حياة الآخر وقصص خيالية وسلطان أحمق أم أنة أذكاهم وشيطان لا يمكن السيطرة علية إن خرج و"هم" و "نحن" وهو أصبح الآخر والآخر أصبح هو..!!
ثلاثة أيام بلياليها اقتطعت منها سويعات في قراءة القلعة البيضاء, اقرأ قبل نومي و أول استيقاظي مباشرة على ضوء مصباحي الصغيرة أحب أن أضيف طقوسي الشخصية على كل رواية اقرأها, القلعة البيضاء رواية تستحق القراءة أكثر من مرة ربما أقراها بعد عدة أسابيع.
قبل نهايتها أو في الثلث الأخير تحديداً شعرت بقليل من الدوا...more قلعة بيضاء وأبطال لا يتسامحون مع كونهم أنفسهم ولذا يريد كلا منهما حياة الآخر وقصص خيالية وسلطان أحمق أم أنة أذكاهم وشيطان لا يمكن السيطرة علية إن خرج و"هم" و "نحن" وهو أصبح الآخر والآخر أصبح هو..!!
ثلاثة أيام بلياليها اقتطعت منها سويعات في قراءة القلعة البيضاء, اقرأ قبل نومي و أول استيقاظي مباشرة على ضوء مصباحي الصغيرة أحب أن أضيف طقوسي الشخصية على كل رواية اقرأها, القلعة البيضاء رواية تستحق القراءة أكثر من مرة ربما أقراها بعد عدة أسابيع.
قبل نهايتها أو في الثلث الأخير تحديداً شعرت بقليل من الدوار واختلت رؤيتي لها واختلطت عليا الأمور من الكاتب الحقيقي وأين حدود الخيال من الحقيقة. لا اعلم هل أعجبني كاتبها الأصلي اورهان أكثر أم أنة الخوجة أم أنة ذلك الشاب التركي الذي عثر على الكتاب في أرشيف مهمل لمدينة جيبزى وسرقة خلسة حيث أنة مكتشف الرواية في الأساس أم أنة الشاب الإيطالي العالم الذي يعرف كل شيء..أو أنها رؤيتة في أن "الحياة يجب الاستمتاع بها لا تحملها", ثم "أين يجب أن نبحث عن القصص" وهل بحثنا عنها بداخلنا والاستغراق في التفكير الطويل هو ما جلب لهم ولي البؤس والتعاسة..!؟ وهل كان احدهم يشبه الآخر تمام الشبه حقاً..؟وألعابهم الشريرة تلك التي صاحبت الرواية حتى أخرها.
نسختي الورقية هي الأخرى لها قصتها" نسخة مستعملة طبعة 2006" صاحبها الأصلي لم يهتم بكتابة أسمة عليها ولا أي تفاصيل أخرى سوي عدة خطوط عشوائية على أجزاء غريبة من الرواية حيث وضع دائرة غير منتظمة حول كلمة "إحساسة به" في السطر التاسع عشر من الصفحة "122" وكتب فوقها بخط رمادي مهتز "إدراكة"..!!
وفي الصفحة "132" حدد بالرصاص مربع غير منتظم حول أربعة أسطر من كلمة "حدة الخوجة التي تروقني" حتى كلمة "الحمقى"..!!
وفي الصفحة "152" خط بالرصاص تحت كلمتين "سكرة إنتصارتة"..!!
وفي الصفحة البيضاء التي تلت نهاية الفصل الثامن "166" رسم بعرض الصفحة شخبطة مثالية لطفل بالقلم الرصاص "هكذا تخيلت" وهذا أمر عليا التخلص منه ألا وهو إصدار الأحكام المسبقة لأنني لسبب مجهول عندما شرعت في بدء قراءة الفصل التاسع قلبت الكتاب لأجد أن شخبطة الطفل تلك هي رسم كروكي لغرفة ذات نافذة وبها ثلاثة طاولات على أولها وبجوار النافذة تحديدا شخص يجلس امامة أطباق وأكواب فارغة تداخلت خطوطها لكن مع شيء من التركيز يمكنك تميزها من بعضها البعض وكأنة كادرا سينمائياً.
أنا صنعت قصة من المالك الأصلي لروايتي تلك والذي لا اعلم عنة شيئا سوى هذا, ربما أصابتني لعنة الخوجة وصديقة في خلق القصص حد اختلاط الحقيقة بالخيال والخيال بالحقيقة.
ملحوظة أخيرة: هذا كتابي الثالث الذي اقرأة لـ أورهان باموق كان الأول "الحياة الجديدة" والثاني "ألوان أخرى" ولن يكون الأخير"القلعة البيضاء".

(less)

like · see review

Feb 14, 2013 Shoshi ♥~ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

" أليس الجانب الأمتع من الحياة هو تلفيق حكايات ممتعة ،، والاستماع إلى حكايات ممتعة " - في البدء شكرا لامتاعي ..

باموق في تجربتي الأولى معه

وحتماً لن تكون الأخيرة ...

سحرني ...أدهشني ..أحببت الصيغة التي كتب بها هذه الرواية ...

وقبل أن أبدأ في الثرثرة عن هذه الرواية فتحذيراً لمن لم يقرأ الرواية ربما سأتحمس وأكشف شيئا بدون قصد ..ولكن في كلا الأحوال ..باموق ساحر حتى وإن كنت تعرف مسبقاً تسلسل الرواية !!

أحببت أنه أختار شخصاًآخر ليكتب هذه الرواية .. وكأنه يتحدث معنا ككقراء ويتحاور معنا ..
وازداد الأمر...more

6 likes · like · see review

Feb 08, 2013 Peter Fortune rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-high

I am an Orhan Pamuk fan but this one left me on the cool side. A 17th century Venetian scholar's ship to Naples is captured by the Turks and the scholar passed hand to hand until he becomes the slave of Hoja, an Ottomon scholar who advises the Pasha on scientific matters. Hoja is keenly interested in the Venetian's western knowledge and the two spent lots of time in conversation until the Turk is as well versed as the Venetian. Not only does the Turk's brain become like his slaves, but he is the...more

like · see review

Oct 29, 2012 Indah Threez Lestari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: in-english

911 - 2012

Konon, setiap orang memiliki kembaran di seluruh dunia, tak peduli ada hubungan darah ataupun tidak. Aku sendiri belum pernah bertemu orang yang mirip denganku, tapi sudah cukup sering ditegur atau disapa orang tak dikenal karena dikira kenalan mereka. Masih mending kalau mereka sadar dan minta maaf kalau kujawab salah orang, tapi pernah ada juga yang tidak mau percaya, malah ngotot memastikan berkali-kali dengan nada menuduh seolah aku yang bohong. Kalau sudah begitu, jadi kepingin ca...more 911 - 2012

Konon, setiap orang memiliki kembaran di seluruh dunia, tak peduli ada hubungan darah ataupun tidak. Aku sendiri belum pernah bertemu orang yang mirip denganku, tapi sudah cukup sering ditegur atau disapa orang tak dikenal karena dikira kenalan mereka. Masih mending kalau mereka sadar dan minta maaf kalau kujawab salah orang, tapi pernah ada juga yang tidak mau percaya, malah ngotot memastikan berkali-kali dengan nada menuduh seolah aku yang bohong. Kalau sudah begitu, jadi kepingin cari gitar terus menyanyi sendu:"Begini nasib, tampang pasaran..."

Lalu, apa hubungannya curcol di atas dengan review ini?

Buku Orhan Pamuk ini (yang kudapat tahun lalu dalam bookwar IRF 2011 tapi baru sempat kubaca sekarang) bertutur dari sudut pandang seorang cendekiawan Italia muda yang tertangkap oleh armada Turki dan menjadi budak di Istanbul. Sedikit ilmu pengobatan yang dikuasainya membuat ia dapat mengaku sebagai "dokter" sehingga nasibnya sedikit lebih baik daripada budak kebanyakan. Dalam status barunya, suratan takdir mempertemukannya dengan kembaran sekaligus majikan barunya, seorang cendekiawan Turki yang hanya disebut "Hoja" sepanjang buku.

Selama belasan tahun hidup bersama (peringatan: ini bukan gay lit, chicklit, ataupun hisrom, pokoknya kering habis!), mereka bukan saja saling mempelajari dan mengembangkan ilmu pengetahuan yang dimiliki satu sama lain, tapi juga mengorek kepribadian dan masa lalu masing-masing. Makin lama, bukan hanya tampang yang serupa, tapi jalan pikiran pun bisa berada dalam waktu dan gelombang yang sama. Lantas, dalam satu titik tertentu ketika mereka pada akhirnya harus berpisah, siapakah yang akhirnya pergi ke Italia dan siapakah yang tetap tinggal di Turki?

Dalam salah satu episodenya, buku ini mengangkat tema: Mengapa kita menjadi kita yang sekarang? Jatidiri kita dibentuk oleh lingkungan, ilmu pengetahuan dan segenap pengalaman sepanjang hidup kita. Apa jadinya bila seluruh jatidiri kita dapat dipelajari dan disalin oleh orang lain, dan kita juga dapat mempelajari dan menyalin seluruh jatidiri orang lain? Katakanlah orang lain itu bak pinang dibelah dua dengan kita, apakah kita dapat bertukar jatidiri tanpa dapat disadari oleh siapapun, bahkan oleh diri kita sendiri?

Soal pertukaran jatidiri ini, aku malah jadi teringat film Face/Off-nya John Travolta dan Nicolas Cage (lupakan bagian di mana para tokoh yang seharusnya hanya sekedar bertukar kulit wajah, entah bagaimana body dan rambutnya yang jelas-jelas beda kok ikutan tertukar juga). Awalnya mereka dapat menipu keluarga dan rekan kerja hanya karena telah lama mempelajari kehidupan lawan masing-masing, tapi karena kepribadiannya bertolak belakang, toh pada akhirnya ketahuan juga...

Kembali ke masalah kembaran, karena penasaran aku mencoba beberapa situs find your lookalike/doppelganger di internet. Dan hasilnya... tidak ada yang mirip! Hm... mungkin karena kebanyakan situsnya celebrities lookalike? Atau para kembaranku (yang jelas bukan seleb) belum pernah meng-upload fotonya di dunia maya? (less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 17, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-around-the-world, fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, novels

Orhan Pamuk has won the Nobel Prize for literature and is supposed to be the premier man of letters in contemporary Turkey. However, I noted that more than one person on my friends' list on Goodreads was less than enthused with his books. Thus, instead of reading his more famous My Name is Red or Snow, I deliberately chose the slimmest volume on the shelf for my introduction--The White Castle--a mere 161 pages--yet this couldn't hold me even that far.

Set in seventeenth century Turkey, it's the f...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 16, 2011 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

After reading “My Name is Red”, I knew that I would be reading more by Mr. Pamuk. So, in preparation for a multi-week trip overseas, I scoped out the volumes in the local library branch. In a way, “The White Castle” was pre-selected both for size (light, good form factor for reading in planes, trains, and hotels) and for holding my interest (I read the blurbs on the books that were available). Usually, I won’t do such pre-screening other than to look at the cover. (You’d be surprised how many de...more After reading “My Name is Red”, I knew that I would be reading more by Mr. Pamuk. So, in preparation for a multi-week trip overseas, I scoped out the volumes in the local library branch. In a way, “The White Castle” was pre-selected both for size (light, good form factor for reading in planes, trains, and hotels) and for holding my interest (I read the blurbs on the books that were available). Usually, I won’t do such pre-screening other than to look at the cover. (You’d be surprised how many decent books you can find by the cover title or art.)

As you can tell from my ranking, I don’t think I made a bad choice. I found the book to be original, highly engaging and well-written. Whether this is a reasonable parallel or not, I was reminded of the writings of Umberto Eco both during and after reading “The White Castle”. I didn’t think that way when reading or reviewing “My Name is Red”, but the echoes are there even though that novel is so strikingly different.

Once again, the background of historical fact and fiction was a very large part of keeping an exhausted reader attentive. But the interplay of the two central characters and their “overt” influences on each other also kept me reading. The more subtle thread of identity which is explored but also deliberately obscured is appreciated best after more than 3-1/2 hours of sleep a night. So, several days later my mind has mulled over the layering of this part of the tale and its supposed outcome. Is “A” now “B”? Or did “A” remain “A” but take on the thoughts and internal identity of “B”? Read it and decide for yourself.

While it is not the tour-de-force of “My Name is Red”, this is a very satisfying and very good book. It certainly takes an author of the caliber of Mr. Pamuk to conceive and create such an original, but once done an imitator might produce something that’s 80% of the tale. While me-too books might be okay for an average read, they won’t get high marks from me. So far I think that I will stick with historical fiction from this author. I like getting intimate details of a culture that I knew only superficially. Free mind stretching and great writing; who could ask for anything more?

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jun 30, 2011 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Herkes

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: Orhan Pamuk Bey kitaplar

Shelves: read-in-2011, turkey

The White Castle, or Beyaz Kale as it was first printed in Turkish is a book which looks long and hard at the idea of personal identity. The narrator asks "Of what importance is it who a man is? The important thing is what we have done and will do." This Kafka-esque statement eloquently sums up the essence of the two main characters, the Hoja (teacher) and his Italian slave. Throughout their time together slave and master are caught in a tussle over their identities.

Both recognise the similarit...more

6 likes · like · see review

May 03, 2011 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

Unfortunately my reading of this book was interrupted by 'Our Tragic Universe' which had been requested from the library. I zapped through the first forty or so pages of 'White Castle', but when I returned to it after a hiatus, I found it much more of a slog.
The premise is that a Venetian scholar is taken as a slave by Turks and ends up being the companion of Hoja, his master, who entreats our scholar to teach him all he knows. The story is set in seventeenth century Constantinople. The scholar...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 24, 2009 Harun Harahap rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: punya, fiksi, terjemahan

5 Bintang buat Covernya..wah menarik banged..agak sedikit ga jelas apa maksudnya tapi terlihat keren dan bagus..

Cerita tentang Seorang budak asal venesia dan Tuannya yang berasal dari Turki..pada awalnya mereka berdua adalah seorang ilmuwan yang belajar secara otodidak..namun Sang Tuan mulai dipercaya menjadi peramal bagi sang Sultan...Ia meramal dengan mengarang2 sebuah cerita dan menafsirkan mimpi sesuai dengan kehendaknya sendiri..

sebenernya ni cerita bikin pusing ya..apalagi saat membicaraka...more

like · see review

Dec 04, 2010 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century-lit

This is a curious little novel about two virtual physical doubles who happen to meet by accident: One is an Italian scholar captured by Turkish ships on the Mediterranean and sold as a slave, and the other is the Turk called only Hoja who buys him. We never learn the Italian's name, because he always speaks in the first person. Hoja becomes a confidant of the young sultan and collaborates with the narrator in coming up with predictions, stories, weapons -- whatever the sultan wants. Although the...more

like · see review

Apr 20, 2012 Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Pamuk won the Nobel Prize I put him on my list of authors to read at some point. I found this copy of his first novel for a good price at Half-Price Books. It is a short, quick read. I don't think I've read any Turkish authors before, so I can mark that off my "list" as well.

The story is of a young Venetian man captured by Turks during a naval battle, he then spends years as a slave to an official in the Turkish court. It is a deeply psychological novel, exploring topics of identity and per...more

like · see review

Jul 26, 2011 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I love the idea of this book: a glimpse of 17th-century Istanbul, a meeting of Italian and Turkish cultures, a murky confusion of identities, a project to build a revolutionary new weapon. Yet despite these elements of philosophy and adventure, when I finished the book I was left with no desire to contemplate its message and no hangover of excitement.

I recall no images from the novel, no sense of the narrator's everyday life, no sights or sounds or smells. I recall no turns of phrase, no memora...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
At one point in the novel, does Hoja resemble the torturers of totalitarian regimes?	1	5	Apr 28, 2013 03:04pm

combine
Other Editions (67)

More editions...

Genres

Literature

29 users

Novels

9 users

Nobel Prize

8 users

Literary Fiction

8 users

Classics

7 users

Contemporary

4 users

Asian Literature > Turkish Literature

3 users

Asian Literature > Indonesian Literature

3 users

Historical Fiction

2 users

Cultural > Turkish

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Orhan Pamuk

Ferit Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist. Pamuk is often regarded as a post-modern writer. As one of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has been translated into more than forty languages. He is the recipient of numerous national and international literary awards. He was the first Turkish person awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on October 12, 2006, commended for bei...more

More about Orhan Pamuk...

Books by Orhan Pamuk

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About 白色城堡

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The White Castle

“في تلك الأيام ربما كانت هذهِ هي الطريقة الوحيدة التي يفهم بها أحدنا الآخر: كان كل منّا لا يبالي بالآخر.” — 14 people liked it

“Es algo sabido que la vida no está predeterminada y que todas las historias son una cadena de casualidades. Pero incluso los que son conscientes de esa realidad, cuando llega cierto momento de su existencia y miran atrás, llegan a la conclusión de que lo que vivieron como casualidades no fueron sino hechos inevitables. ” — 3 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The White Castle
avg rating	preview: The White Castle Goodreads rating: 3.39 (3630 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9266708-the-white-castle?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1283975451l/9266708.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9266708-the-white-castle?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk[/url]

The White Castle

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website