Madame Chrysantheme Complete

This novel is about a naval officer who is posted to Nagasaki in Japan. He knows that he will be there for an extended period so he arranges to rent a 'wife' for the time. Pierre Loti was the pen name of a real French naval officer called Louis-Marie Julien Viaud and this is a fictionalized account of a real event in his life.

"Madame Chrysantheme - Complete Work" from Pierre Loti. French novelist and naval officer (1850-1923).

Pierre Loti’s novel Madame Chrysanthème (1888) enjoyed great popularity during the author’s lifetime, served as a source of Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly, and remains in print to this day as a classic in Western literature. Loti’s story, cast in the form of his fictionalized diary, describes the affair between a French naval officer and Chrysanthème, a temporary "bride" purchased in Nagasaki. More broadly, Loti’s novel helped define the terms in which Occidentals perceived Japan as delicate, feminine, and, to use one of Loti’s favorite words, "preposterous"—in short, ripe for exploitation. The Pink Notebook of Madame Chrysanthème (1893) sought, according to a newspaper reviewer at the time, "to avenge Japan for the adjectives that Pierre Loti has inflicted on it." Written by Félix Régamey, a talented illustrator with firsthand knowledge of Japan, The Pink Notebook retells Loti’s story but this time as the diary of Chrysanthème. The book, presented here in English for the first time and together with the original French text and illustrations by Régamey and others, is certainly surprising in its late nineteenth-century context. Its retelling of a classic tale from the position of a character marginalized by her sex and race provocatively anticipates certain aspects of postmodern literature. Translator Christopher Reed’s rich and satisfying introduction compares Loti and Régamey in relation to attitudes toward Japan held by notable Japonistes Vincent van Gogh, Lafcadio Hearn, Edmond de Goncourt, and Philippe Burty. Reed provides further intellectual context by including new translations of excerpts from Loti’s novel as well as a portion of the travel journal of Régamey’s travel companion, the renowned collector Emile Guimet. Reed’s emphasis on competing Western ideas about Japan challenges conventional scholarly generalizations concerning Japanism in this era. This elegant translation of The Pink Notebook and Japoniste documents will delight both general and specialized readers, particularly those interested in the ambiguities in the dynamics of nationalism, gender, identification, and exploitation that, since the nineteenth century, have characterized the West’s relationship to Japan.

"Madame Chrysantheme Complete" is a unique written by means of French author Pierre Loti. The story unfolds as a semi-autobiographical narrative, imparting readers with a glimpse into the exceptional global of Japan during the overdue 19th century. The novel facilities around the protagonist, Pierre Loti, a naval officer who unearths himself stationed in Nagasaki. Loti turns into immersed inside the Japanese lifestyle and lifestyle, and the narrative takes a poignant flip as he enters into a transient marriage with a Japanese woman named Madame Chrysantheme. The novel delves into the complexities in their relationship, exploring cultural variations, fleeting emotions, and the ephemeral nature of such unions. Pierre Loti, a professional and observant creator, captures the essence of Japan with brilliant descriptions and cultural insights. The narrative is marked with the aid of a blend of romanticism and realism, presenting readers a nuanced portrayal of Madame Chrysantheme and the wider Japanese society. "Madame Chrysantheme Complete" reflects Loti's capability to navigate the intersections of culture and romance, offering a bittersweet exploration of affection and transience. The novel has been praised for its evocative prose and remains a vast painting in French literature, supplying readers a poignant and culturally wealthy narrative set in opposition to the backdrop of Japan inside the past due 1800s.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

1890. After joining the French Navy, Loti (pen name of Julien Marie Viaud) saw the world from shipboard. He spent long months among the palm groves of the South Seas; he visited the scorching coast of Senegal and the seas of Iceland. A prolific writer, Loti used every strange and exotic scene as a background for his romance novels. Madame Chrysantheme is an impressionistic diary of Loti's trip to Japan, his encounter with a famous Japanese girl and their romance. This romantic tale of travel and adventure in Japan is thought to have influenced Puccini's Madam Butterfly. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

"We were at sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a fine night, under a starry sky. Yves stood beside me on the bridge, and we talked of the country, unknown to both, to which destiny was now carrying us. As we were to cast anchor the next day, we enjoyed our anticipations, and made a thousand plans. "For myself," I said, "I shall marry at once." "Ah!" said Yves, with the indifferent air of one whom nothing can surprise. "Yes-I shall choose a little, creamy-skinned woman with black hair and cat's eyes. She must be pretty and not much bigger than a doll. You shall have a room in our house. It will be a little paper house, in a green garden, deeply shaded. We shall live among flowers, everything around us shall blossom, and each morning our dwelling shall be filled with nosegays-nosegays such as you have never dreamed of." Yves now began to take an interest in these plans for my future household; indeed, he would have listened with as much confidence if I had expressed the intention of taking temporary vows in some monastery of this new country, or of marrying some island queen and shutting myself up with her in a house built of jade, in the middle of an enchanted lake. I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had unfolded to him. Yes, led on by ennui and solitude, I had gradually arrived at dreaming of and looking forward to such a marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile on land, in some shady nook, amid trees and flowers! How tempting it sounded after the long months we had been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of faint odors of China and of death). We had made great way in latitude since our vessel had quitted that Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a series of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the same time as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear, rising on the horizon, was almost on as high a level as it is in the sky above France. The evening breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the memory of our summer-night watches on the coast of Brittany. What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a tremendous distance !" Pierre Loti. **************************************************************************** Other books available in North Star Ed. (Lettres Classiques, SF Anticipation, Fantastic) click on the link: "North Star Ed" under book title. See also our site: http: //north-stared.wix.com/editions ****************************************************************************