The real name of PIERRE LOTI is LOUIS MARIE JULIEN VIAUD. He was bornof Protestant parents, in the old city of Rochefort, on the 14th ofJanuary, 1850. In one of his pleasant volumes of autobiography, "LeRoman d'un Enfant," he has given a very pleasing account of hischildhood, which was most tenderly cared for and surrounded withindulgences. At a very early age he began to develop that extremesensitiveness to external influences which has distinguished him eversince. He was first taught at a school in Rochefort, but at the age ofseventeen, being destined for the navy, he entered the great Frenchnaval school, Le Borda, and has gradually risen in his profession. Hispseudonym is said to have had reference to his extreme shyness andreserve in early life, which made his comrades call him after "leLoti," an Indian flower which loves to blush unseen. He was nevergiven to books or study (when he was received at the French Academy,he had the courage to say, "Loti ne sait pas lire"), and it was notuntil his thirtieth year that he was persuaded to write down andpublish certain curious experiences at Constantinople, in "Aziyade," abook which, like so many of Loti's, seems half a romance, half anautobiography. He proceeded to the South Seas, and, on leaving Tahiti,published the Polynesian idyl, originally called "Raharu," which wasreprinted as "Le Mariage de Loti" (1880), and which first introducedto the wider public an author of remarkable originality and charm.

　　Loti now became extremely prolific, and in a succession of volumeschronicled old exotic memories or manipulated the journal of newtravels. "Le Roman d'un Spahi," a record of the melancholy adventuresof a soldier in Senegambia, belongs to 1881. In 1882 Loti issued acollection of short studies under the general title of "Fleursd'Ennui." In 1883 he achieved the widest celebrity, for not only didhe publish "Mon Frere Yves," a novel describing the life of a Frenchbluejacket in all parts of the world--perhaps, on the whole, to thisday his most characteristic production--but he was involved in apublic discussion in a manner which did him great credit. While takingpart as a naval officer in the Tonquin war, Loti had exposed in aParisian newspaper a series of scandals which succeeded on the captureof Hue, and, being recalled, he was now suspended from the service formore than a year. He continued for some time nearly silent, but in1886, he published a novel of life among the Breton fisher-folk,entitled "Pecheurs d'Islande"; this has been the most popular of allhis writings. In 1887 he brought out a volume of extraordinary merit,which has never received the attention it deserves; this is "Proposd'Exil," a series of short studies of exotic places, in Loti'speculiar semi-autobiographic style. The fantastic romance of Japanesemanners, "Madame Chrysantheme," belongs to the same year. Passing overone or two slighter productions, we come to 1890, to "Au Maroc," therecord of a journey to Fez in company with a French embassy. Acollection of strangely confidential and sentimental reminiscences,called "Le Livre de la Pitie et de la Mort," belongs to 1891. Loti wason board his ship at the port of Algiers when news was brought to himof his election, on the 21st of May, 1891, to the French Academy.

　　Since he has become an Immortal the literary activity of Pierre Lotihas somewhat declined. In 1892 he published "Fantome d'Orient,"another dreamy study of life in Constantinople, a sort of continuationof "Aziyade." He has described a visit to the Holy Land in threevolumes, "Le Desert," "Jerusalem," "La Galilee" (1895-96), and he haswritten one novel, "Ramentcho" (1897), a story of manners in theBasque province, which is quite on a level with his best work. In 1898he collected his later essays as "Figures et Choses qui passaient." In1899-1900 Loti visited British India, and in the autumn of the latteryear China; and he has described what he saw there, after the seige,in a charming volume, "Derniers Jours de Pekin," 1902.

　　E. G.