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Les derniers jours de Pékin
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208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1902
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48 people want to read
About the author
Pierre Loti
811 books83 followersLouis Marie-Julien Viaud was a writer, who used the pseudonym Pierre Loti.
Viaud was born in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France, to an old Protestant family. His education began in Rochefort, but at the age of seventeen, being destined for the navy, he entered the naval school in Brest and studied on Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906. In January 1910 he went on the reserve list.
His pseudonym has been said to be due to his extreme shyness and reserve in early life, which made his comrades call him after "le Loti", an Indian flower which loves to blush unseen. Other explanations have been put forth by scholars. It is also said that he got the name in Tahiti where he got a sun burn and was called Roti (because he was all red like a local flower), he couldn't pronounce the r well so he stuck with Loti. He was in the habit of claiming that he never read books (when he was received at the Académie française, he said, "Loti ne sait pas lire" ("Loti doesn't know how to read"), but testimony from friends and acquaintances proves otherwise, as does his library, much of which is preserved in his house in Rochefort. In 1876 fellow naval officers persuaded him to turn into a novel passages in his diary dealing with some curious experiences at Istanbul. The result was Aziyadé, a novel which, like so many of Loti's, is part romance, part autobiography, like the work of his admirer, Marcel Proust, after him. (There is a popular cafe in current-day Istanbul dedicated to the time Loti spent in Turkey.) He proceeded to the South Seas as part of his naval training, and several years after leaving Tahiti published the Polynesian idyll originally named Rarahu (1880), which was reprinted as Le Mariage de Loti, the first book to introduce him to the wider public. This was followed by Le Roman d'un spahi (1881), a record of the melancholy adventures of a soldier in Senegambia.
Loti on the day of his reception at the Académie française on 7 April, 1892. In 1882, Loti issued a collection of four shorter pieces, three stories and a travel piece, under the general title of Fleurs d'ennui (Flowers of Boredom).
In 1883 he entered the wider public spotlight. First, he publish the critically acclaimed Mon frere Yves (My Brother Yves), a novel describing the life of a French naval officer (Pierre Loti), and a Breton sailor (Yves Kermadec), described by Edmund Gosse as "one of his most characteristic productions".[1] Second, while taking part as a naval officer in the undeclared hostilities that preceded the outbreak of the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885), Loti wrote an article in the newspaper Le Figaro about atrocities that occurred during the French bombardment of the Thuan An forts that guarded the approaches to Hue (August 1883), and was threatened with suspension from the service, thus gaining wider public notoriety.
In 1886 he published a novel of life among the Breton fisherfolk, called Pêcheur d'Islande (Iceland Fisherman), which Edmund Gosse characterized as "the most popular and finest of all his writings."[1] It shows Loti adapting some of the Impressionist techniques of contemporary painters, especially Monet, to prose, and is a classic of French literature. In 1887 he brought out a volume "of extraordinary merit, which has not received the attention it deserves",[1] Propos d'exil, a series of short studies of exotic places, in his characteristic semi-autobiographic style. The novel of Japanese manners, Madame Chrysanthème— a precursor to Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon and a work that is a combination of narrative and travelog— was published the same year.
During 1890 he published Au Maroc, the record of a journey to Fez in company with a French embassy, and Le Roman d'un enfant (The Story of a Child), a somewhat fictionalized recollection of Loti's childhood that would greatly influence Marcel Proust. A collection
Viaud was born in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France, to an old Protestant family. His education began in Rochefort, but at the age of seventeen, being destined for the navy, he entered the naval school in Brest and studied on Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906. In January 1910 he went on the reserve list.
His pseudonym has been said to be due to his extreme shyness and reserve in early life, which made his comrades call him after "le Loti", an Indian flower which loves to blush unseen. Other explanations have been put forth by scholars. It is also said that he got the name in Tahiti where he got a sun burn and was called Roti (because he was all red like a local flower), he couldn't pronounce the r well so he stuck with Loti. He was in the habit of claiming that he never read books (when he was received at the Académie française, he said, "Loti ne sait pas lire" ("Loti doesn't know how to read"), but testimony from friends and acquaintances proves otherwise, as does his library, much of which is preserved in his house in Rochefort. In 1876 fellow naval officers persuaded him to turn into a novel passages in his diary dealing with some curious experiences at Istanbul. The result was Aziyadé, a novel which, like so many of Loti's, is part romance, part autobiography, like the work of his admirer, Marcel Proust, after him. (There is a popular cafe in current-day Istanbul dedicated to the time Loti spent in Turkey.) He proceeded to the South Seas as part of his naval training, and several years after leaving Tahiti published the Polynesian idyll originally named Rarahu (1880), which was reprinted as Le Mariage de Loti, the first book to introduce him to the wider public. This was followed by Le Roman d'un spahi (1881), a record of the melancholy adventures of a soldier in Senegambia.
Loti on the day of his reception at the Académie française on 7 April, 1892. In 1882, Loti issued a collection of four shorter pieces, three stories and a travel piece, under the general title of Fleurs d'ennui (Flowers of Boredom).
In 1883 he entered the wider public spotlight. First, he publish the critically acclaimed Mon frere Yves (My Brother Yves), a novel describing the life of a French naval officer (Pierre Loti), and a Breton sailor (Yves Kermadec), described by Edmund Gosse as "one of his most characteristic productions".[1] Second, while taking part as a naval officer in the undeclared hostilities that preceded the outbreak of the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885), Loti wrote an article in the newspaper Le Figaro about atrocities that occurred during the French bombardment of the Thuan An forts that guarded the approaches to Hue (August 1883), and was threatened with suspension from the service, thus gaining wider public notoriety.
In 1886 he published a novel of life among the Breton fisherfolk, called Pêcheur d'Islande (Iceland Fisherman), which Edmund Gosse characterized as "the most popular and finest of all his writings."[1] It shows Loti adapting some of the Impressionist techniques of contemporary painters, especially Monet, to prose, and is a classic of French literature. In 1887 he brought out a volume "of extraordinary merit, which has not received the attention it deserves",[1] Propos d'exil, a series of short studies of exotic places, in his characteristic semi-autobiographic style. The novel of Japanese manners, Madame Chrysanthème— a precursor to Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon and a work that is a combination of narrative and travelog— was published the same year.
During 1890 he published Au Maroc, the record of a journey to Fez in company with a French embassy, and Le Roman d'un enfant (The Story of a Child), a somewhat fictionalized recollection of Loti's childhood that would greatly influence Marcel Proust. A collection
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 25, 2024
Loti reist bzw. fährt im Auftrag nach Peking, das vom Boxeraufstand befreit werde muss, wie auch andere europäische Länder und Amerika. Er trifft auf zerstörte Städte, Leichen überall, abgeschlagene Köpfe. Sein Ziel ist die verbotene Stadt und der Kaiserpalast, indem er einen Winter lang wohnen wird. Zu lesen gibt es ausführliche Berichte über die Ausstattung der verbotenen Stadt, von Stoffen, Preziosen, Tempeln, Gräbern. Auf die Dauer ist dies jedoch etwas langatmig. Einladungen von anderen Gesandschaften, Mandarinen und Prinzen. Der Roman gibt einen Einblick in das Peking um 1900, eine Handlung gab es für mich nicht.
November 15, 2021
Der große Pierre Loti zählte zu den meistgelesenen französischen Schriftstellern um die Jahrhundertwende. Als Soldat und Diplomat reiste er um die Welt und stellte deren exotische Schauplätze in den Mittelpunkt seiner Werke. Ich stieß vor rund 20 Jahren auf ihn, als ich mehrere Wochen in Istanbul verweilte und oft zum Café Pierre Loti über den Heiligengräbern von Eyub wanderte, angeblich ein beliebtes Wanderziel von Pierre Loti und auch heute trotz Seilbahn einer der schönsten Orte Istanbuls.
Im vorliegenden Werk - ordentlich übersetzt aber das Nachwort besteht aus Belanglosigkeiten und sinnvolle Fußnoten fehlen leider in Gänze - verarbeitet er im Reportagestil seine Erlebnisse bei den französischen Truppen, bei der Niederschlagung der Boxerrebellion (und der damit einhergehenden faktischen Eroberung der chinesischen Hauptstadt). Loti erscheint, nachdem der Krieg bereits gewonnen ist und sieht und schildert wenig Berichtenswertes. Was bleibt ist der Eindruck, dass Kaiser Wilhelms (Hunnenrede) keineswegs ein besonderer Exponent des Rassismus war, sondern diese Ansicht weit verbreitet war. Loti sieht in den Chinesen Untermenschen, beweint die Plünderung weniger christlicher Gräber, während er die Plünderung der chinesischen Grabstätten durch seine Soldaten belächelt und sich an der Plünderung von Tempeln und Palästen beteiligt. Weiterhin ist es merkwürdig, die traute Einigkeit der damaligen Allianz der Weltmächte (Deutschland, England, Frankreich, Italien, Japan, die KuK-Monarchie, Russland und die USA - klingt fast wie die heutige G8) zu sehen, zumal sich die selben Soldaten bald im ersten Weltkrieg an die Gurgel gehen werden.
Fazit: Ein Buch, das sich überholt hat und einen schalen Geschmack hinterlässt.
Im vorliegenden Werk - ordentlich übersetzt aber das Nachwort besteht aus Belanglosigkeiten und sinnvolle Fußnoten fehlen leider in Gänze - verarbeitet er im Reportagestil seine Erlebnisse bei den französischen Truppen, bei der Niederschlagung der Boxerrebellion (und der damit einhergehenden faktischen Eroberung der chinesischen Hauptstadt). Loti erscheint, nachdem der Krieg bereits gewonnen ist und sieht und schildert wenig Berichtenswertes. Was bleibt ist der Eindruck, dass Kaiser Wilhelms (Hunnenrede) keineswegs ein besonderer Exponent des Rassismus war, sondern diese Ansicht weit verbreitet war. Loti sieht in den Chinesen Untermenschen, beweint die Plünderung weniger christlicher Gräber, während er die Plünderung der chinesischen Grabstätten durch seine Soldaten belächelt und sich an der Plünderung von Tempeln und Palästen beteiligt. Weiterhin ist es merkwürdig, die traute Einigkeit der damaligen Allianz der Weltmächte (Deutschland, England, Frankreich, Italien, Japan, die KuK-Monarchie, Russland und die USA - klingt fast wie die heutige G8) zu sehen, zumal sich die selben Soldaten bald im ersten Weltkrieg an die Gurgel gehen werden.
Fazit: Ein Buch, das sich überholt hat und einen schalen Geschmack hinterlässt.
January 3, 2019
Intéressant au plan historique
Un peu laborieux
Un peu laborieux
July 26, 2025
Il 24 settembre 1900 Pierre Loti inizia la stesura del suo diario cinese, più in particolare il suo racconto intriso di forti emozioni della "Ville imperiale", uno degli ultimi rifugi dell'ignoto e del meraviglioso sulla terra, incomprensibile e favoloso.
Siamo all'alba del XX secolo quando la Cina viene sconvolta dal violento movimento xenofobo dei Boxers. Il quartiere delle legazioni di Pechino, dove si trovano riunite tutte le rappresentanze diplomatiche, viene assediato per due mesi. Le grandi potenze, Germania, Regno austro-ungarico, Stati Uniti, Francia, Italia, Giappone, Regno Unito e Russia si accordano per infliggere una "punizione" e piegare la Cina. la repressione sarà brutale.
Pierre Loti, alias Julien Viaud, sbarca in Cina come membro della Marina francese. nel suo viaggio verso Pechino descrive orrori e violenze, già al termine della battaglia. È la fine di un mito: Pechino non sarà più una città proibita ma violata e smembrata dalle truppe occidentali.
Siamo all'alba del XX secolo quando la Cina viene sconvolta dal violento movimento xenofobo dei Boxers. Il quartiere delle legazioni di Pechino, dove si trovano riunite tutte le rappresentanze diplomatiche, viene assediato per due mesi. Le grandi potenze, Germania, Regno austro-ungarico, Stati Uniti, Francia, Italia, Giappone, Regno Unito e Russia si accordano per infliggere una "punizione" e piegare la Cina. la repressione sarà brutale.
Pierre Loti, alias Julien Viaud, sbarca in Cina come membro della Marina francese. nel suo viaggio verso Pechino descrive orrori e violenze, già al termine della battaglia. È la fine di un mito: Pechino non sarà più una città proibita ma violata e smembrata dalle truppe occidentali.
September 24, 2024
Colonisation de merde
March 7, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews