Who was Pierre Loti?

pierre loti scribbles

When I first went to Istanbul, I was taken to tea at Pierre Loti’s by Necati. We have been back there many times since and each time, it is assumed that I must know of Pierre Loti because he is such an important writer. Well, that may not be quite the case. I think the significance of m. Loti and the preservation of his home on the hillside overlooking the grave of Necati’s father, is less a matter of literary genius and more because he supported the Kemalists and earned the patronage of Atatürk.
Personally, I find it a bit sad that this man is lauded in Istanbul to the exclusion of another man like Edward Lear who drew at least two pictures of the Pierre Loti graveyard even before Loti had built his wooden house there. It is these pictures that we have tried to emulate in our own work and that are posted below. Here, meanwhile, is my copy of one of the Lear drawings:

PIERRE LOTTE final
Loti is nevertheless an interesting if odd man. A French navy man through and through, he found his way to the far east, and began writing, publishing books about Polynesia, Tahiti, Senegal and Breton fishermen. A novel in 1887 called “Madam Chrysanthème” is essentially “Madam Butterfly” and is acknowledged (together with claims by John Luther Long, a Philadelphia lawyer, who wrote a story on something he claimed had happened to “his sister”) as one of the sources for both Puccini (1904) and Messager (1893). Loti himself had a temporary Japanese wife so the story is fairly autobiographical and Pierre is just as unthinking as Pinkerton. Later Loti wrote an impassioned paper against the British Raj called “L’inde” and was involved in quashing the Boxer rebellion in China in 1900.

His praise for Atatürk and support of the “Kurtuluş Savaşı” or Turkish war of Independence (which took in disputes with Greece, Armenia and the Ottoman throne and that really lasted from 1908-1923 but was sealed by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and the abolition of the Sultinate, the abdication and exile of Mehmed VI on the British warship Malaya which went to Malta) is qualified by a fairly blistering attack on Turkey towards the end of his life. But the people of Istanbul love the cafe so Pierre Loti, like El Cid, I recall, has moved out of history and into some sort of mythology. No one reads his novels, but we all drink his tea.

Here are pictures of the graveyard that surrounds the Pierre Loti cafe:

Pierre lotte 1b graves flat

Pierre lotte 2 gravesa flat

Pierre lotte f3 flat

 

And here is a picture of Pierre Loti dressed in a Turkish fez (presumably just before Atatürk outlawed it in 1925 with the “hat law”)

p loti en turc bleu

Finally, here is one of the most bizarre pictures, called an “academic image” but I cannot see why.

pierre loti

Unknown's avatar

Author: timewilson

animator director and teacher

78 thoughts on “Who was Pierre Loti?”

  1. I’m wanting to look at blogs containing music I like, but sifting through all the detached, outdated and crap blogs is a hassle. . I know there are thousands of blogs, is there a good resource to seek out the preferred ones?.

  2. hi!,I love your writing so much! percentage we keep up a correspondence extra approximately your article on AOL?
    I require an expert in this house to resolve my problem.
    Maybe that is you! Having a look ahead to see
    you.

  3. I’m extremely inspired along with your writing abilities as
    smartly as with the layout to your blog. Is this a paid theme or
    did you modify it your self? Either way stay up the nice quality writing, it is rare
    to look a great blog like this one today..

  4. Hmm it looks like your site ate my first comment (it
    was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.
    I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new
    to everything. Do you have any tips for newbie blog
    writers? I’d certainly appreciate it.

  5. Hey! I could have sworn I’ve been to this
    blog before but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me.
    Anyways, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be
    book-marking and checking back frequently!

  6. Hi, I do believe this is an excellent website. I stumbledupon it 😉 I
    will revisit yet again since I book marked it. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and
    continue to help others.

  7. And deeply analysed the critical issues related to reservations and
    recently added Article 21A. 3) Write an outline : After you gather all the necessary information for writing your research paper, the next baest thing
    that you need to do is prepare an outline. An essay is used in marketing presentations to showcase company products to
    buyers.

  8. I like the valuable info you provide on your articles.
    I’ll bookmark your weblog and take a look at once more right here regularly.
    I am relatively sure I’ll be told plenty of new stuff right here!
    Best of luck for the next!

  9. excellent post, very informative. I wonder why
    the opposite experts of this sector do not realize this.

    You should continue your writing. I am confident, you have a huge readers’ base already!

  10. I am really inspired along with your writing abilities and also with the
    format to your blog. Is that this a paid theme or did you modify it your self?
    Anyway stay up the excellent quality writing,
    it’s uncommon to peer a great weblog like this one nowadays..

  11. Greetings from Colorado! I’m bored at work so Idecided to browse your website on my
    iphone during lunch break. I enjoy the information you present here and
    can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my phone ..
    I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, very good blog!

  12. Hey! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I
    could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one?
    Thanks a lot!

  13. Hello there! This blog post couldn’t be written any better!
    Looking through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
    He constantly kept preaching about this. I most certainly will send this article to him.
    Pretty sure he’ll have a good read. Thanks for
    sharing!

  14. I want to study creative writing in college. As in to become a novelist or possibly screenplays. It doesnt really matter where as long as its an english speaking country. Anybody have any ideas of where would be best?.

  15. I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
    It’s pretty worth enough for me. Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever before.

  16. Hi there, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar oone and i wwas just
    wondering if you get a lot of spam remarks? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything
    you can suggest? I get so mmuch lately it’s
    driving me craxy soo any help is very much appreciated.

  17. There’s an interesting webpage that has just been deleted, but thanks to the miracle of hibernation, it’s still open in Firefox. The problem is, when I save it, it seems to attempt to retrieve the page from its source on the internet, which no longer exists. Is there any way I can configure Firefox to save the locally-held files instead?.

  18. Hi there I am so delighted I found your blog page, I really found you by mistake, while I was researching on Bing for
    something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a marvelous post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through
    it all at the moment but I have bookmarked it and also
    included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a great
    deal more, Please do keep up the superb b.

  19. After looking into a few of the blog articles on your website, I honestly appreciate your technique of writing a blog.
    I added it to my bookmark site list and will be checking back soon. Please visit my web site as well andd tell me how you
    feel.

  20. Hello there! Thiss iis my first comment hete so I just wanted to giv
    a quick shout out and tell you I really enjoy reading through our blog posts.
    Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums thqt deal woth the same topics?
    Thank you so much!

  21. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you
    make this websiite yourself or did you hire someone too
    do it for you? Plz reply as I’m looking to create my own bloog and would lke to find out where u got this from.
    thank you

  22. You really make it appear so easy along with your presentation but I
    in finding this matter to be really one thing which
    I believe I’d never understand. It kind of feels too complex and very vast for
    me. I am taking a look ahead to your subsequent post, I’ll
    attempt to get the dangle of it!

Leave a reply to What is IBS Cancel reply