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CHAPTER 4 – HALIDE EDIP AND YAKUP KADRI 
115 
West and East that is different from the one proposed and imposed by the Kemalists 
of the time.
38
In terms of language Sibel Erol rightly observes that her English not being her 
mother tongue has a defamiliarising effect and that her Turkish style is as 
idiosyncratic as her English
39
. Although Halide Edip’s language has been criticised 
by some of her contemporaries (Fuat Köprülü being one of them) for not always 
following the established grammatical rules, it has been accepted by others as fresh, 
new language sometimes resembling ‘tasty and bony sardines’. Yakup Kadri 
observes that sometimes her voice and harmony flow with an undulation which goes 
beyond grammatical and syntactical rules
40
.
The 
Memoirs
of Halide Edip present a vivid picture of upper class life in the late 
Hamidian period while 
The Turkish Ordeal
in its English original covers the years of 
the national struggle and presents a story somewhat different from the official 
Kemalist version and reveals a critical view of Mustafa Kemal’s personality that is 
obviously derived from close personal acquaintance. The differences were toned 
down in her own Turkish translation thirty years later. By then Mustafa Kemal was 
long dead and it is likely that Halide Edip had revised her views on him and on the 
whole situation in Turkey.
38
Adıvar 2005,xxii- xviii, Kurdakul II, 73-74 
39
Adıvar 2003, xiii 
40
Kudret II, 67 

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CHAPTER 4 – HALIDE EDIP AND YAKUP KADRI 
116 
As the subjects of her books and her activities show, she was always an outspoken 
advocate of personal, national and international freedom and rejected any form of 
authoritarianism.
Some of the more nuanced views she expressed both in her 
Memoirs 
and
 
in 
The 
Turkish Ordeal 
are not at all reflected in the narrative of her two Kurtuluş novels 
which will be discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. These present a cruder form of the 
national narrative. 
One of these views is her overtly critical stance against the authoritarianism of 
Mustafa Kemal of which she claims to have a personal experience during the war in 
Anatolia. There follows an excerpt from the chapter ‘Important phases of the Civil 
War’
41
from 
The Turkish Ordeal
42
: 
 ‘What do you think, Hanım Efendi, am I not right?’ 
‘I don’t clearly understand what you want to say, Pasham’ 
‘Come to this chair near me and I will tell you.’ 
I took the chair near him. At once he lost his vagueness and dropped his 
childish debating tone. Then he was so dazzlingly clear that I remember 
vividly not only the sense of what he said but the very words he used. For 
once his life-motive was apparent without concealment., and he said 
what he really meant with the utmost simplicity.
‘What I mean is this: I want everyone to do as I wish and command.’ 
‘Me too, Pasham?’ 
‘You too.’ 
His absolute sincerity deserved a reciprocal frankness.
‘I will obey you and do as you wish as long as I believe that you are 
serving the cause.’ 
‘You will obey me and do as I wish,’ he repeated, ignoring the 
condition. 
41
Adıvar 1928, 151-190 
42
Adıvar 1928, 187-190 

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