Summary

“The Story of the Prince” is about Prince Osman Jelalettin who spent his life telling stories and having his Scribe write them down. “Where the Prince was concerned, dictating was a way of being himself” (364). As one of thirty children, he spent his early life living in a carefree way, fifth in line to the throne. After turning twenty-nine, he went up to third in line and started reading obsessively. He moved out to a hunting lodge, abandoning his family. For six years he read books, but then came to the realization that he needed to be freed from “all those books, all those writers, all those stories, all those voices” so he could be himself (369). He tells stories for years, trying to become himself. After fifteen years at the hunting cabin, he falls sick...