Madame Chrysanthème | Page 4

ideas before making
an entire meal of them. D.W.]

MADAME CHRYSANTHEME
By PIERRE LOTI
With a Preface by ALBERT SOREL, of the French Academy

BOOK 1.
PIERRE LOTI
LOUIS-MARIE-JULIEN VIAUD, "Pierre Loti," was born in Rochefort,
of an old French-Protestant family, January 14, 1850. He was
connected with the French Navy from 1867 to 1900, and is now a
retired officer with full captain's rank. Although of a most energetic
character and a veteran of various campaigns--Japan, Tonkin, Senegal,
China (1900)--M. Viaud was so timid as a young midshipman that his
comrades named him "Loti," a small Indian flower which seems ever
discreetly to hide itself. This is, perhaps, a pleasantry, as elsewhere
there is a much more romantic explanation of the word. Suffice it to say
that Pierre Loti has been always the nom de plume of M. Viaud.
Loti has no immediate literary ancestor and no pupil worthy of the
name. He indulges in a dainty pessimism and is most of all an
impressionist, not of the vogue of Zola--although he can be, on
occasion, as brutally plain as he--but more in the manner of Victor
Hugo, his predecessor, or Alphonse Daudet, his lifelong friend. In

Loti's works, however, pessimism is softened to a musical melancholy;
the style is direct; the vocabulary exquisite; the moral situations
familiar; the characters not complex. In short, his place is unique, apart
from the normal lines of novelistic development.
The vein of Loti is not absolutely new, but is certainly novel. In him it
first revealed itself in a receptive sympathy for the rare flood of
experiences that his naval life brought on him, experiences which had
not fallen to the lot of Bernardin de St. Pierre or Chateaubriand, both of
whom he resembles. But neither of those writers possessed Loti's
delicate sensitiveness to exotic nature as it is reflected in the foreign
mind and heart. Strange but real worlds he has conjured up for us in
most of his works and with means that are, as with all great artists,
extremely simple. He may be compared to Kipling and to Stevenson: to
Kipling, because he has done for the French seaman something that the
Englishman has done for "Tommy Atkins," although their methods are
often more opposed than similar; like Stevenson, he has gone searching
for romance in the ends of the earth; like Stevenson, too, he has put into
all of his works a style that is never less than dominant and often
irresistible. Charm, indeed, is the one fine quality that all his critics,
whether friendly or not, acknowledge, and it is one well able to cover,
if need be, a multitude of literary sins.
Pierre Loti was elected a member of the French Academy in 1891,
succeeding to the chair of Octave Feuillet. Some of his writings are:
'Aziyade,' written in 1879; the scene is laid in Constantinople. This was
followed by 'Rarahu,' a Polynesian idyl (1880; again published under
the title 'Le Mariage de Loti,' 1882). 'Roman d'un Spahi' (1881) deals
with Algiers. Taton-gaye is a true bete-humaine, sunk in moral slumber
or quivering with ferocious joys. It is in this book that Loti has eclipsed
Zola. One of his masterpieces is 'Mon Freye Yves' (ocean and Brittany),
together with 'Pecheur d'Islande' (1886); both translated into German
by Elizabeth, Queen of Roumania (Carmen Sylva). In 1884 was
published 'Les trois Dames de la Kasbah,' relating also to Algiers, and
then came 'Madame Chrysantheme' (1887), crowned by the Academy.
'Japoneries d'automne' (1889), Japanese scenes; then 'Au Maroc'
(Morocco; 1890). Partly autobiographical are 'Le Roman d'un Enfant'

(1890) and 'Le Livre de la Pitie et de la Mort' (1891). Then followed
'Fantomes d'Orient' (1892), 'L'Exilee' (1893), 'Le Desert' (Syria; 1895),
'Jerusalem, La Galilee'(Palestine; 1895), 'Pages choisies' (1896),
'Ramuntcho' (1897), 'Reflets sur la Sombre Route' (1898), and finally
'Derniers Jours de Pekin' (1903). Many exquisite pages are to be found
in Loti's work. His composition is now and then somewhat
disconnected; the impressions are vague, almost illusory, and the
mirage is a little obscure, but the intense and abiding charm of Nature
remains. Loti has not again reached the level of 'Madame
Chrysantheme,' and English critics at least will have to suspend their
judgment for a while. In any event, he has given to the world many
great books, and is shrined with the Forty "Immortals."
ALBERT SOREL de l'Academie Francaise.

DEDICATION
To Madame la Duchesse de Richelieu
MADAME LA DUCHESSE,
Permit me to beg your acceptance of this work, as a respectful tribute
of my friendship.
I feel some hesitation in offering it, for its theme can not be deemed
altogether correct; but I have endeavored to make its expression, at
least, in harmony with good taste, and I trust that my endeavors have
been successful.
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