Stephanos Xenos | The Devil in Turkey, London, 1851, 3 vols, original cloth

Property from the Loverdos Collection

Stephanos Xenos

The Devil in Turkey; or, scenes in Constantinople… translated from the author’s unpublished Greek manuscript, by Henry Corpe. London: Effingham Wilson, 1851

First series (all published), 3 volumes, 12mo (199 x 125mm.), original maroon cloth, spines gilt, yellow endpapers, leaves uncut, spines slightly sunned, extremities slightly rubbed

A rare work by “one of the most fascinating figures of the Greek community of London in the nineteenth century”. The Devil in Turkey was Xenos’ first work, printed at the outset of his career as a publisher (in parallel to numerous commercial activities). Xenos also published a Greek edition in 1862. The novel, “which is a series of interconnected episodes used to create a vast fresco of Ottoman society in the first decades of the nineteenth century, was a great success” (Michaelides).

LITERATURE:

Chris Michaelides, “Greek Printing in England, 1500-1900”, 2002