Loti, Pierre (pyĕr lôtē`), pseud. of Julien Viaud (zhülyăN` vyō), 1850–1923, French novelist, an officer in the French navy. He achieved popularity with his impressionistic romances of adventure in exotic lands, such as Aziyadé (1879), set in Constantinople, Rarahu (1880, later titled Mariage de Loti), set in Tahiti, and Madame Chrysanthème (1888), set in Japan. His most enduring novels, however, are Pêcheur d'Islande (1886; tr. An Iceland Fisherman), a tale of Breton fishermen, and Ramuntcho (1897; tr. 1897), a story of French Basque peasant life. Of his many travel books, Vers Ispahan (1904) is highly esteemed.

Loti, Pierre

orig. Louis-Marie-Julien Viaud

(born Jan. 14, 1850, Rochefort, France—died June 10, 1923, Hendaye) French novelist. As a naval officer, Loti visited the Middle East and East Asia, which later provided the exotic settings of his novels and reminiscences. His first novel, Aziyadé (1879), won him critical and popular success. Other novels include An Iceland Fisherman (1886), Japan: Madam Chrysanthemum (1887), and Disenchanted (1906). Among his recurring motifs are love, death, and despair at the passing of sensuous life. He reveals his compassion in such works as The Book of Pity and of Death (1890). His themes anticipated some of the preoccupations of French literature between the world wars.