Istanbul and The Ottoman Empire in Romantic and Victorian Culture

"From Romantic Byzantium to operatic sultans and vampiric janissaries, the arc of this book takes on a fascinating but often overlooked area of 19th century studies--- the encounter with Constantinople/Istanbul, "the diamond between two sapphires" on the Bosphorus and the effect of the city's complicated history on Romantic /Victorian writers and artists. Piya Pal Lapinski explores the transformation of the Ottoman empire (and its Byzantine ghosts) during the period 1800--1900 in terms of its crucial impact on British and European transnational identities"--