Bibliograph

The Time Regulation Institute, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar ; translated by Alexander Dawe and Maureen Freely ; introduction by Pankaj Mishra

Type

Label

The Time Regulation Institute, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar ; translated by Alexander Dawe and Maureen Freely ; introduction by Pankaj Mishra

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

novels

Main title

The Time Regulation Institute

Responsibility statement

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar ; translated by Alexander Dawe and Maureen Freely ; introduction by Pankaj Mishra

Series statement

Penguin classics

Summary

" 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 characters-a 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 Irdal's 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"--, Provided by publisher

Target audience

adult

Classification