A large number of men of letters visited Istanbul during the second half of the 19th century. In the books they wrote one can find reflections of a world that had unfortunately begun to disappear. The well-known American satirist Mark Twain was among these visitors and he recounts the journey in one of his books. Istanbul did not make a favourable impression on this visitor from the New World. There is also a book of travels by Reuter, whose works are difficult to understand because they are written in a dialect of German, not the standard language. However, just as we encounter foreigners who did not like Istanbul we also meet poets and men of letters who loved it very much. For Gerard de Nerval "its green and mobile horizons, houses of many hues, lead-covered cupolas and slender minarets" made it "a magnificent city". According to Maxime du Camp, it was "As if all creativity's works of art had been collected inside a semicircle". Charles de MoOy, who was resident in Istanbul between 1875 and 1878, described his first encounter with the city in these words: "Suddenly, rising out of the waters like a dream from the world of fairies, a vague silhouette composed of cupolas, minarets, palaces and gardens becomes visible." Without doubt the city possessed muddy, unprepossessing streets "but one's eyes are constantly drawn to an attractive and fantastic picture in vivid colours".

The Italian man of letters Edmondo de Amicis, who explored Istanbul in the same period, produced one of the most beautiful books ever to be written about the city. "The corners of these quiet streets meet in a small square usually shaded by the spreading branches of an enormous plane tree. There is a drinking fountain on one side and on the other, a rush mat is spread in front of the cafe upon which men lie asleep or smoke and next to its door there is a large fig tree and a shady verandah. Between its leaves one can glimpse a tiny patch of blue sea on which there are a few white sails in the distance. These lights and tranquil places draw one irresistibly towards EyOb, where one loses all concept of time and distance... However, one is astonished to find that upon reaching the end of these little roads everything changes abruptly.You are now in one of Istanbul's main streets. You are surrounded on all sides by monuments that fatigue the eyes. You wander among mosques, mansions, vaulted corridors, marble fountains, shrines with inscriptions in gold leaf and walls covered with enamelled tiles... There is a whiteness, an architectural beauty everywhere, the sound of running water and shady coolness, all of which caress one's senses like mysterious music. Amicis states that the dogs of Istanbul were "so many in number that they resembled a caste of city dwellers lower than its human inhabitants " and goes on to say that they were like "a gang of vagabonds that enjoyed extreme freedom",thus enriching the realistic aspects of his narrative with these vivid and colourful descriptions. Edmond About and De Blowitz, who came to Istanbul in 1883 with a largegroup as guests of the Wagon Lit company, rightly commented on the "invasion" by European fashions that was beginning to make its presence felt in Istanbul at that time. About, who felt that the neglect of elegant and tasteful Turkish goods on the one hand and the excessive demand for showy and tasteless articles imported from Europe on the other were inappropriate, made the acquaintanceship of Hamdi Bey, amuseum curator,to whom he regretfully confided that he had been unable to explore as he wished "thiscollectivity of miracles, Istanbul, a city fully appreciated neither by European guides nor by its inhabitants." De Blowitz, for his part, was captivated by "this radiant world of dreams, a beauty the like of which can be found nowhere else, nor can it be imitated," to such an extent that he "had never seen a thing of such extreme beauty and had no desire to do so."

The eminent French man of letters Theophile Gautier, who visited Istanbul in the middle of the last century, dressed as a Turk of the Tanzimat (reform) period, (circa 1839), with a fez on his head, a redingote on his back and a six-month growth of beard; he explored the city in minute detail and his descriptions are unparalled in terms of colour and vividness. Gautier found Istanbul so beautiful that "one suspects this lovely view to be unreal". These lines of Theophile Gautier, in which he describes a view of the city from what is now Tepeba~i one night in Ramazan form the crux of his modest anthology about this incomparable city: "On the other side of the Golden Horn the city was shimmering like the jewelled crown of an eastern emperor; each balcony of the minarets was adorned with bracelets of lanterns,and verses from the Koran picked out in lights like the pages of a sacred book upon the dark blue sky were strung in the manner of bunting from one minaret to the other. Ayasofia, Sultan Ahmed, the New Mosque, Suleymaniye and all the places of worship that rise along the coastline stretching from Sarayburnu to the heights of EyOb were blazing with light and announced the verses of Islam in sentences of fire. The moon in the form of a crescent with its accompanying star resembled the coat of arms of the state embroidered upon a heavenly flag."