Inspired by true events, 'The Blue Hour' is a story of political intrigue and doomed love set in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire during the summer of 1876. All Prince Hamid and the Belgian glove-maker, Flora Cordier, want is to pursue their for...
Years ago, a friend gave me the biography of Abdul Hamid II, Sultan the Ottoman Empire. In it, I found the grain of a story that I wanted to tell. In the summer of 1876 before Hamid took the throne he had a love story with Flora Cordier, the Belgian owner of a glove store. They secretly married and then, she disappeared without a trace. That's all we know about their story. But what happened to her? What happened to their love?
Much more, of course, is known about him. Abdul Hamid II was the last Ottoman Sultan to wield absolute power over the crumbling Ottoman empire. When he took the throne in 1876, he must have sensed that it was beyond saving. Still he stepped up. He deposed his brother, eliminated his enemies and manipulated the great European powers for 33 years. At the end of Abdul Hamid's reign he was universally known as "the red Sultan" - red as in bloody. Was that really the man Flora fell in love with?
These questions triggered my imagination. The result is a story about Hamid's and Flora's forbidden love which is only loosely inspired by true events. For the most part, the timeline of events relating to the empire are real and easily retraceable in history books. All the fascinating main characters have existed, their lives described in biographies. The Great Istanbul earthquake of 1876 is, unfortunately, also real. It had a magnitude estimated between 7.1 and 7.4, and caused significant destruction in Istanbul, resulting in widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure, and the loss of thousands of lives.
For the rest, we can only imagine.
I first wrote this story as a screenplay. Then I published an unfinished first draft of the novel here on Wattpad, with the working title The Last Sultan. Now, I'm excited to give you the The Blue Hour, and hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
I will publish a new chapter every Tuesday and Friday. Thank you for reading, I cherish your feedback and support!
P.S. I have included some material which might be helpful to navigate the story: a character list, maps of the Empire and of Constantinople, and a glossary.
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