Pierre Loti : A most Turkish French writer

By Victoria, Lucie, Laurie-Anne, Benjamin, Grgoire and Maxime.

Born on January 14
th
1850 in Rochefort, Pierre Loti was a French naval officer and novelist. His real
name was Julien Viaud. At the age of 17 he entered the naval school of Brest. After graduating, his
career as a naval officer took him to the Middle East and Far East and North Africa.
He kept a diary and he was so talented that his friends encouraged him to write books.
In the course of his travels he had a few love affairs. They inspired the plots of several of his exotic
novels. His first book, Aziyad published anonymously in 1879, is about his amours with a
Circassian slave girl he had met in Salonica and Constantinople three years earlier. It was only partly
autobiographical. That was the beginning of a parallel literary career. While in Turkey Loti immersed
himself in Turkish life; he adopted the local dress, learned the language and lived in the village called
Eyp on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.
He also spend some time in the South Seas and he later published a novel about his Polynesian love
story called Rarahu ( 1880). He evoked his temporary marriage with a Japanese girl in Madame
Chrysthme. In 1881 he wrote Le Roman dun Spahi a sad story about the adventures of a soldier in
Senegal. He also wrote a novel describing the life of a French naval officer (My brother Yves). He was
threatened with suspension when he published some disapproving articles about the French Navy in
North Vietnam known then as Tonkin.
In 1886 he wrote one his most popular and finest books: Iceland Fisherman. It is one of the classics of
French literature. It deals with the heroic lives of the Bretons who had to sail to dangerous fishing
grounds in Icelandic waters every year leaving their wives and sweethearts behind.
He was elected to the French Academy in 1891. A great honour! In 1892 he published Oriental ghost
a short novel he wrote following a trip he made to Istanbul. After visiting India (1899/1900) he
published, India ( without the English). He visited China and also wrote about the Boxer rebellion and
the siege of Beijing.
Loti travelled a lot. He was a prolific writer. He wrote many travel books. He visited Fez before
Morocco became a French protectorate. He travelled through Persia on his way to Ispahan. These
books present an interesting picture of certain Islamic countries before the arrival of Westerners.
Loti loved collecting objects from his journeys. His house in Rochefort (two houses made into one in
fact) has now become a museum. It includes a suite of rooms designed by Loti. They reflect his
romantic fascination for the Islamic world: the Turkish salon, the Arab room Loti spent a lot of his
spare time there, remembering, daydreaming and writing. Another room takes you back into the
middle ages. His bedroom is like a monks cell. It has a mixture of Christian and Moslem artifacts.

Loti was a one of the greatest and most original writers of his time. His descriptions could make you
see the colours, hear the sounds, smell the perfumes. He also put a lot of his sensibility into his
books; he included a lot of personal and intimate memories
He loved Turkey and supported the Turkish war of independence. He returned to Istanbul many
times. He was even invited to dinner at Topkapi Palace. On his last visit in 1913 a cheering crowd
welcomed him when his ship docked. His orientalist views were not always well understood by
Turkish intellectuals but the Turkish government named one of Istanbuls famous hills Pierre Loti
Tepesi in honour of the Franziz zabiti. There is also a coffee shop at the top of that hill. Turkish
people have not yet forgotten Pierre Loti.
He died in 1923 at Hendaye and was buried in the Ile dOlron. He got state funeral in France and on
that particular day in Constantinople flags flew half mast.