“[Roberts] shows how Ottoman women took an active part in [the] cultural exchange with Western women and technologies for their own purposes and how these relations influenced Western women. This study is an important contribution for Middle Eastern studies in general, and Ottoman studies, in particular as well as women’s studies, cross-cultural studies and art history.” - Rachel Simon, Digest of Middle East Studies
“Mary Roberts’s book marks an important turn in the study of representations of the harem in both visual and written texts. . . . Mary Roberts is a rare scholar, one who ably analyzes western and eastern art, when the discipline of art history has generally been confined to narrower (hemi-)spheres of expertise. Roberts’s book bridges the gap in scholarship about the Orientalists and the Ottomans. She writes with real depth and clarity informed by new methodologies that guide but never tyrannize her content. All this comes in a book format that is well-organized, accessible, affordable - and a fascinating read.” - Joan DelPlato, Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net
“Providing an overview of westernization in the empire and the growing interest in European visual culture through the privacy of harem interior, Mary Roberts’s Intimate Outsiders sets an example for interdisciplinary studies. . .” - Günsel Renda, International Journal of Turkish Studies
“Roberts formulates a cogent argument about the subtle, nuanced relationship between various Ottoman elites and their European bourgeois interlocutors, examining a series of case studies ranging from famous British orientalist paintings by John Frederick Lewis, to British women’s travelogues, to honorific portraits commissioned by elite Ottoman women. . . . Roberts’s intervention is undoubtedly a crucial and useful one, opening up the study of orientalism to acknowledge a syncretic and collaborative exchange between ‘West’ and ‘East.’” - Amira Jarmakani, Journal of the History of Sexuality
“Roberts hits all the important marks, and hits them well: political agency; gender roles; the ways in which the harem both fostered and smothered particular types of female power; the ways in which the encounter between westerner and oriental provided the latter an occasion to orchestrate what it was that was on display. All in and of themselves important–and complicated–questions, ones that too often have been treated superficially or unimaginatively. Here we get them all, with care and subtlety–and in a package that makes for surprisingly enjoyable reading.” - K. E. Fleming, Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History
“Roberts offers a three-part, truly interdisciplinary and innovative journey over complicated terrain, but it’s a smooth enjoyable read.” - Maree Boyce, M/C Reviews
“Roberts offers her readers a nuanced take on broader questions of gender, power and imagery. . . . Intimate Outsiders opens up an exciting new field of inquiry.” - Ruth A. Miller, European History Quarterly
“Roberts’ elegant book is the first to offer an extensive critical analysis of artists at work in the harem. Well written, incorporating vivid description too rarely associated with successful academic writing, its verbal imagery helps to give substance to those artists Roberts scrutinizes, while reined in to serve her analyses. . . . This volume is a remarkable contribution to the scholarly literature on Orientalism. . . . Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.” - J. E. Housefield, Choice
“The intimacy Roberts describes in this excellent book is exciting because it provides an alternative to the distancing and empowering notion of orientalism advocated by Said. . . . The stories told in Intimate Outsiders form a significant contribution to the history of painting in nineteenth-century Istanbul, and to the history of international networks among women of privileged social classes. What else they might mean will depend on what, if anything, is able to succeed ‘orientalism’ as a tool for the political analysis of global culture.” - Nicholas Tromans, Art History
“Using an impressive range of archival resources, Intimate Outsiders is a lucid, nuanced and engaging interdisciplinary study of gendered spectatorship, cross-cultural encounters and indigenous agency in nineteenth-century Istanbul and Cairo. Roberts’s work positions itself authoritatively among feminist art historical and literary studies of Orientalism and should be considered an essential read for anyone interested in the field.” - Melanie Vandenbrouck-Przybylski, Studies in Travel Writing
“This is an outstanding example of a truly interdisciplinary study, integrating painting, photography, travel narrative, and especially harem portraiture. Mary Roberts describes encounters between women—both British travelers and the women of Istanbul and Cairo harems—in a refreshing, innovative analysis of the historical and imaginary workings of harem imagery as forms of cross-cultural exchanges and interactions.” - Julie F. Codell, editor of Imperial Co-Histories: National Identities and the British and Colonial Press
“Transforming debates about Orientalism, gender, and cultural and political agency, Mary Roberts writes with beguiling simplicity about complicated subjects, taking her readers through a potentially bewildering maze of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural material with a voice both authoritative and accessible.” - Reina Lewis, author of Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel, and the Ottoman Harem
