Kéraban-Le-Têtu, Volume I

In the shuttered streets of Constantinople during Ramadan, where even the famous noise has gone quiet, a Dutch tobacco merchant and his long-suffering servant wander through a city that feels like a beautiful dream gone slightly wrong. They've come for adventure and exoticism, but find instead a capital hushed by religious observance, its bazaars half-closed, its famous chaos replaced by an eerie calm. Then they meet Kéraban. His name literally means 'the stubborn one,' and he earns it daily. When the government imposes a new tax on anyone crossing the Bosporus, Kéraban refuses on principle. Not because he can't afford it, but because he refuses. Period. What follows is a comic masterpiece of human obstinacy, as Kéraban drags his friends through increasingly elaborate schemes to circumvent authority rather than simply pay the pittance and move on. Verne, here at his most mischievous, uses one man's magnificent pigheadedness to skewer tradition, pride, and the particular Turkish税收 - no, I must not spoil what becomes of that tax. The joy is watching a truly stubborn man build an entire adventure around refusing to budge.