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My Name Is Red
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My Name Is Red (2001) (edit title/settings)

by Orhan Pamuk (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers. The... read more

Summary edit see section history

The main characters in the novel are miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire, one of whom is murdered in the first chapter. The novel generally follows the main character, Black, in his attempt to find the murderer and pursue his long-lived love of the beautiful Shekure.

Each chapter of the... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The main characters in the novel are miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire, one of whom is murdered in the first chapter. The novel generally follows the main character, Black, in his attempt to find the murderer and pursue his long-lived love of the beautiful Shekure.

Each chapter of the novel has a different narrator, and usually there are thematic and chronological connections between chapters. In addition, unexpected voices are used, such as the corpse of the murdered, a coin, Satan, two dervishes, and the color red. Each of these "unusual" narrators is contributed by specific characters, which detail the philosophical system of 16th century Istanbul.

The novel blends mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles, illustrating the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III during nine snowy winter days in 1591.

Characters/People edit see section history

Show all 78 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “To know is to remember that you've seen. To see is to know without remembering. Thus, painting is remembering the blackness.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight.
    Highlighted by 97 Kindle customers
  • Before my birth there was infinite time, and after my death, inexhaustible time. I never thought of it before: I’d been living luminously between two eternities of darkness.
    Highlighted by 56 Kindle customers
  • A great painter does not content himself by affecting us with his masterpieces; ultimately, he succeeds in changing the landscape of our minds.
    Highlighted by 55 Kindle customers
  • painting is the act of seeking out Allah’s memories and seeing the world as He sees the world.”
    Highlighted by 54 Kindle customers
  • “Blindness is silence. If you combine what I’ve just now said, the first and the second questions, ‘blindness’ will emerge. It’s the farthest one can go in illustrating; it is seeing what appears out of Allah’s own blackness.”
    Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers
  • Where there is true art and genuine virtuosity the artist can paint an incomparable masterpiece without leaving even a trace of his identity.
    Highlighted by 43 Kindle customers
  • I thank Allah that I, the humble tree before you, have not been drawn with such intent. And not because I fear that if I’d been thus depicted all the dogs in Istanbul would assume I was a real tree and piss on me: I don’t want to be a tree, I want to be its meaning.
    Highlighted by 42 Kindle customers
  • To avoid disappointment in art, one mustn’t treat it as a career. Despite whatever great artistic sense and talent a man might possess, he ought to seek money and power elsewhere to avoid forsaking his art when he fails to receive proper compensation for his gifts and efforts.
    Highlighted by 40 Kindle customers
  • Now that I’ve reached this age, I know that true respect arises not from the heart, but from discrete rules and deference.
    Highlighted by 38 Kindle customers
  • To know is to remember that you’ve seen. To see is to know without remembering. Thus, painting is remembering the blackness.
    Highlighted by 32 Kindle customers
Show all 11 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Map
1-I am a corpse
2-I am called black
3-I am a dog
4-I will be called a murderer
5-I am your beloved uncle
6-I am orphan
7-I am called black
8-I am esther
9-I, Shekure
10-I am a tree
11-I am called black
12-I am called "butterfly"
13-I am called "stork"
14-I am called "olive"
15-I am called esther
16-I, Shekure
17-I am your beloved uncle
18-I will be called a murderer
19-I am a gold coin
20-I am called black
21-I am your beloved uncle
22-I am called black
23-I will be called a murderer
24-I am death
25-I am esther
26-I, Shekure
27-I am called black
28-I will be called a murderer
29-I am your beloved uncle
30-I, Shekure
31-I am red
32-I, Shekure
33-I am called black
34-I, Shekure
35-I am a horse
36-I am called black
37-I am your beloved uncle
38-It is I, Master Osman
39-I am esther
40-I am called black
41-It is I, Master Osman
42-I am called black
43-I am called "butterfly"
44-I am called "olive"
45-I am called "stork"
46-I will be called a murderer
47-I, Satan
48-I, Shekure
49-I am called black
50-We two dervishes
51-It is I, Master Osman
52-I am called black
53-I am esther
54-I am a woman
55-I am called "butterfly"
56-I am called "stork"
57-I am called "olive"
58-I will be called a murderer
59-I, Shekure
Chronology

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Outstanding books by Nobel Prizes in Literature. (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Orhan Pamuk (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Erdağ Göknar (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: Turkish
Publisher: Alfred Knopf
Country: Turkey
Publication Date: 2001
ISBN: 0375406956
Page Count: 417

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PL248.P34 B4613 2001
  • Dewey: 894.3533

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Miniaturist
  • The Illuminator

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Orhan Pamuk, Secularism and Blasphemy: The Politics of the Turkish Novel

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Name of the Rose

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Birds Without Wings
  • Everything Is Illuminated

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