Synopses & Reviews
A literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation
Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state.
At its center is Hayri Irdal, an infectiously charming antihero who becomes entangled with an eccentric cast of charactersa television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman Empire, a clock whisperer”at the Time Regulation Institute, a vast organization that employs a hilariously intricate system of fines for the purpose of changing all the clocks in Turkey to Western time. Recounted in sessions with his psychoanalyst, the story of Hayri Irdals absurdist misadventures plays out as a brilliant allegory of the collision of tradition and modernity, of East and West, infused with a poignant blend of hope for the promise of the future and nostalgia for a simpler time.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Review
“Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar is undoubtedly the most remarkable author in modern Turkish literature. With
The Time Regulation Institute, this great writer has created an allegorical masterpiece, which makes Turkeys attempts to westernize and its delayed modernity understandable in all its human ramifications.” —
Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“This excellent book . . . is before all else a first-rate comic novel. . . . Not only entertaining and substantial but also, for lack of a better word, timely. For beyond the historical relevance, beyond the comic esprit, Tanpinars elaborate bittersweet sendup of Turkish culture over a half-century ago speaks perfectly clearly to our own, offering long-distance commiseration to anyone whose life is twisted around schedules and deadlines—pretty much everyone, in other words—provided you can find the time to read it.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Ingeniously satirical and hauntingly philosophical . . . Bracingly original . . . [A] superb translation.” —The Wall Street Journal
“A modernist novel par excellence: absurdist, obsessive, funny, dark . . . An excellent book about the terrible struggle to impose order onto inner and outer states.” —New York magazine
“A truly pathbreaking novel, at once nostalgic and modernist, contemporary and out of its time.” —Bookforum
“A splendid new version [of] Tanpinars eccentric, colourful, ruefully comic saga.” —The Independent, “Books of the Year”
“Spellbinding . . . A gem . . . A very funny novel, both in design and line by line . . . As compelling as a lucid dream . . . Its publication feels like a victory. . . . Both novel and author are undeniable stars and deserve, one feels, to have finally reached the world stage, showcased in a spotlight as bright as Penguin Classics.” —The National
“One of the best comic novels of the twentieth century in any language.” —Guernica
“Prepare to enjoy a voice you did not know existed. . . . [A] beguiling twentieth-century writer, [Tanpinar] wrote in the expansive, unhurried tempo of an earlier era—a little like Russias Ivan Goncharov, author of Oblomov, but with more energy, art, and invention. . . . Tanpinars multi-timbred prose [and his] luxuriant language and sensibility will envelop you. . . . Like Joseph Hellers Catch-22 or Jaroslav Hašeks unfinished dark comedy, The Good Soldier Švejk, The Time Regulation Institute defends the individual spirit—faulty and inconsistent as it may be—against the state that seeks to submerge it in burdensome, soulless duty. . . . Splendid.” —Liesl Schillinger, The Barnes and Noble Review
“Laceratingly comic . . . [A] brilliant satire on a modernizing bureaucracy.” —Literary Review
“During Tanpinars lifetime he was misunderstood and underestimated . . . ; today, decades after his death, he is adulated in Turkey almost to the point of worship. . . . The questions of identity and how to escape it were examined by Tanpinar . . . through incisive analysis and subtle satire—and perhaps nowhere more powerfully than in his best-known book, The Time Regulation Institute, which is now available in a new English translation and with a superb introduction by Pankaj Mishra. . . . The translation deserves commendation. . . . The writing feels timeless and universal. . . . The questions [Tanpinar] raised, perhaps now more than ever, matter not only in Turkey but around the world.” —Elif Shafak, The Times Literary Supplement
“Hilarious . . . Richly imagined . . . A brilliant author . . . Like Proust, and Pamuk, Tanpinar opens doors to other books and ideas. . . . Tanpinars prose . . . glows and echoes, and one never quite forgets the strange taste of his sentences after reading them. . . . [The Time Regulation Institute is] perhaps the best Turkish novel of the 20th century alongside Orhan Pamuks The Black Book.” —PEN Atlas
“Like all great satire, this book will make readers laugh and cringe in equal measure. . . . [It] seamlessly combines personal wit with political satire.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Brilliantly comic . . . As you read The Time Regulation Institute, you may have the impression that you are reading a nineteenth-century novel— . . . with dozens of characters, surprising sub-plots and revelations—in short, all the good stuff of those classic French, German, English and Russian classics. So now we can add a Turkish novel to the list. . . . Tanpinars masterpiece [is] finally available in a glorious English translation.” —Counterpunch
Synopsis
The first-ever English translation of what is arguably the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century Hayri Idral, the protagonist of this comic masterpiece, is one of the first antiheroes of Turkish literature. Born in poverty in Istanbul, Hayri seeks to improve his station by taking a position at the Time Regulation Institute, a gigantic organization dedicated to adjusting all the countrys watches and clocks to Western time, just as Turkey is abandoning the traditions of the Ottoman Empire. After a crucial discrepancy is revealed, the Institute closes its doorsbut its legacy survives: society remains the same even as the corporations workers continue to adhere to its ideals. With satirical brilliance, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar evokes the anxiety of a country straddling the divide between east and west.
Synopsis
A literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation
Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state.
At its center is Hayri Irdal, an infectiously charming antihero who becomes entangled with an eccentric cast of charactersa television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman Empire, a clock whisperer”at the Time Regulation Institute, a vast organization that employs a hilariously intricate system of fines for the purpose of changing all the clocks in Turkey to Western time. Recounted in sessions with his psychoanalyst, the story of Hayri Irdals absurdist misadventures plays out as a brilliant allegory of the collision of tradition and modernity, of East and West, infused with a poignant blend of hope for the promise of modernity and nostalgia for a simpler time.
About the Author
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar (19011962) was a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, literary historian, and professor. He is considered the most significant Turkish novelist of the twentieth century.
Alexander Dawe is an American translator of French and Turkish. He lives in Istanbul.
Maureen Freely is the principal translator of the Nobel Prizewinning Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk,. Born in the U.S., she now lives in England.
Pankaj Mishra is an award-winning novelist and essayist whose writing appears frequently in the New York Review of Books, the Guardian, and the London Review of Books. He lives in London and India.