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Loti in
another passage he describes his play with the little girl who lived
next door--across the garden wall. She is six and Pierre is seven.
They are pretending that they insects about to metamorphosis in
butterfly:
Do you think that you will soon be able to fly? Oh
yes! I'll be flying very soon; I feel them growing in my shoulders now
...they'll soon unfold. Finally, we would wake up, stretch ourselves,
and without saying anything, we conveyed by our manner our
astonishment at the great transformation in our condition ...Then
suddenly we begin to run lightly and nimbly in our tiny shoes; in our
hands we held the corners of our pinafores which we waved as if they
were wings.
Curls
Pierre also wore curls as a boy. Aside from
following remembrance, he mentions later in the book that as a boy
most of his playmates were little girls who "... only engaged in
gentle play and with my curled hair I looked like a little
aristocrat".
A scene takes place a little later when he is
visiting the country accompanyed by his much older sister. He
innocently falls in love with a little country girl. His sister
describes her brother's crush:
Veronica was the most attentive of all the country
children. She was about his own age, maybe a little younger, six or
seven years of age. Little Veronica used to run and seat herself upon
our doorstep as soon as she was up; and there she remained like a
faithful loyal spaniel. As soon as Pierre woke he thought of her being
there, and he would immediately get out of bed, have himself quickly
washed, and stand quietly to have his blond curls combed out, and then
run and find his little friend.
Naval Officer
Loti is one of the excellent French novelist
(1850-1923) that were strongly influenced by his own journeys all over
the world. Lotti was a French Navy officer, notably in Turkey, Egypt,
Senegal and Far East.
Literary Works
Loti's experiences in the Far East inspired
perhaps his best known work. It helped inspire his famous Mrs
Chrysantheme which inturn was the inspiration for Puccini's
Madame Butterfly.
His writings are often imaginative, even if his
descriptions of North African countries display a total
misappreciation or misunderstanding of the Arab world and culture. So
his Egypt is certainly not a "treasure" but definitly not
"trash", and can be compared to the nice, contemporaneous "Peinture
Orientalisante".
Home
All those mesmerized by North Africa should
visit the Loti Museum in Rochefort-sur-mer (western France). It is
situated in a fantastic oriental house inspired by Turkish/Syrian
architecture of the 19th century, including a real Damascene mosque.
Built in the 19th century, Pierre Loti's house
is certainly the most original and exotic place you can visit in
Rochefort. Loti was a naval officer and writer. From each of his many
travels around the world he brought back lots of mementoes which he
gradually used to transform his house into a very personal puzzle: one
room became a Turkish lounge, another a gothic room and one even
became a mosque.
Sources:
Pierre Loti, The Story of a Child, 1902.
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