The Dark Moment

by Ann Bridge

Feride and Nilufer, accustomed to the elegance and protection of an old, aristocratic society, were suddenly forced by their love for the men they had married to become pioneers for the freedom of their countrywomen! The revolution started by the sensational general Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had swept their husbands up in the fight for a new and modern Turkey, while Feride and Nilufer were left behind. And so the two girls, escaping in coarse disguises from a palace overlooking the Bosporus, made their hazardous way to the Ankara to join their husbands. Through rain and mud and past glittering snowy peaks, the inexperienced creatures plunged into hardships they had never dreamed of - learning to cook, living with the roar of Greek guns, and fearing the horrors of military disaster. The magnetic Ataturk, having led his forces victoriously against the Greeks, proceeded to cajole and bully his people into doffing the veil and fez, wearing hats, using a new alphabet. He persuaded them - with the help of courageous women like Feride - to become almost overnight a 20th-century nation.With this exciting theme and background, Ann Bridge has written a one-sitting kind of book that combines the excitement of a well-told story with the dramatic appeal of history in the making.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Mid twentieth-century novelist [real name, Mary Anne O'Malley] who began by exploiting the milieu of the British Foreign Office community in Peking, China, where she lived for two years with her diplomat husband. Her novels combine courtship plots with vividly-realised settings and demure social satire.

She went on to write novels which take as the background of their protagonists' emotional lives a serious investigation of modern historical developments (such as the leap by which Turkey progressed from a feudal-style government to become a modern republic in which women enjoyed equality of rights and equality of opportunity).

Ann Bridge also wrote thrillers centred on a female amateur detective, travel books, and family memoirs.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dark Moment is by the British author Ann Bridge (1889-1974). She wrote under a pseudonym. Her real name is Mary Ann Dolling Sanders, Cottie for short, or Lady O'Malley after marriage to a British diplomat. She and her husband met in Switzerland. As the wife of a diplomat, she lived in China, Hungary, Portugal and Turkey. Her knowledge of these countries, their history and the customs of the people, is clearly made evident in her books.

In this novel, published in 1951, she writes of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of a new Turkey under its charismatic leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). The book magnificently depicts the old ways and the new in the years following the First World War. What is drawn is seen from the perspective of the Turkish people, and it is this that makes the book special. Historical events and the customs and traditions of the people are interwoven in a way which I appreciate. This doesn’t read as a history book despite that it is filled with historical details.

We follow two friends, one British and one Turkish. They spend their childhood together on the Bosporus in Istanbul. With the establishment of the new nation, we travel to Ankara in Anatolia, roughly synonymous with Asian Turkey. It is around the two women and their families that the story is woven. It shines a light on the emancipation of women with the coming of Ataturk.

This book is for those curious to learn more about the birth and formation of the new Turkish Republic.

“The Treaty of Lausanne was signed on 24 July 1923. On 13 October Ankara officially became the capital of the new Turkish state. On 29 October a republic was proclaimed, with Mustafa Kemal as its first president.” (Source Wiki)

Here is a fictional story woven around these and other historical events. The events underlying the fictional tale are accurate. Historical facts are abundant. That they are delivered from the Turkish point of view is what has made this book particularly interesting for me.

The audiobook narration by Annie Hinkle is easy to follow. Her intonations fit the characters well. The performance is not overdramatized. Four stars for the narration.

Ann Bridge is a classical author of historical fiction to take note of.

*********************

*The Dark Moment 4 stars
*Enchanter's Nightshade 4 stars
*A Place To Stand: A Novel TBR
*Illyrian Spring TBR
*Peking Picnic TBR

*Portrait of a Turkish Family byIrfan Orga 5 stars
*Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes 5 stars
*Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières 5 stars

[Mukerrem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I founded very interesting, it’s like a small history class …also meaning of such a of true friendship !

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting novel about the Turkish Revolution in the 1920s. Hard to get into at first because of foreign vocabulary. One of those books you can take a long time to read because there isn't a "page-turner" plot. Probably very factual, which I liked.

[Elizabeth Bentley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Ann Bridge's books, and this was one I had long wished to re-read. Particularly intriguing in the light of recent news about Turkey. Interesting to hear about the early days of the post-Ottoman period and Kamal Ataturk. As usual, Bridge sees duty as more important than love.

[Tunc Boran]

I always enjoy Ann Bridge's books, and this was one I had long wished to re-read. Particularly intriguing in the light of recent news about Turkey. Interesting to hear about the early days of the post-Ottoman period and Kamal Ataturk. As usual, Bridge sees duty as more important than love.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent history. Well-done, interesting characters. A good story. I'm just sorry that I didn't read Ann Bridge when she was first recommended to me many years ago.