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Mein Bruder Yves
Als Angehöriger der französischen Kriegsmarine lernte Julien Viaud Weltmeere und Kontinente kennen, als Pierre Loti formte er aus seinen Erlebnissen eine Fülle von Romanen und Reiseberichten, die den Leser nach Konstantinopel, Palästina, Marokko und bis nach Japan und China führen.
In seinem frühen Roman Mein Bruder Yves (1883) geht es um ferne Länder nur am Rande; im Zentrum steht das Leben auf dem Schiff und die besondere Beziehung zwischen dem Ich-Erzähler und Yves Kermadec, dem »geschicktesten, seetüchtigsten Mann« an Bord, der jedoch an Land dem Teufel Alkohol nicht entrinnen kann. Seine Schönheit – er ist »groß, schlank wie eine Antike, mit muskulösen Armen, dem Hals und den Schultern eines Athleten« – fasziniert den Erzähler. Er sieht es als seine Aufgabe an, Yves vor seiner eigenen Zügellosigkeit zu schützen, hat dies auch Yves’ Mutter versprochen.
Der autobiografische Hintergrund des Romans ist besonders deutlich. Die beiden fast gleichaltrigen, aber vom Temperament und von der sozialen Stellung her ungleichen Männer verband eine lebenslange Freundschaft, von der diverse Notate, Briefe und Fotos Zeugnis ablegen; der auch zeichnerisch begabte Pierre Loti imaginierte seinen »Bruder« dabei auch als nackten keltischen Heroen in mythischer Landschaft.
In seinem frühen Roman Mein Bruder Yves (1883) geht es um ferne Länder nur am Rande; im Zentrum steht das Leben auf dem Schiff und die besondere Beziehung zwischen dem Ich-Erzähler und Yves Kermadec, dem »geschicktesten, seetüchtigsten Mann« an Bord, der jedoch an Land dem Teufel Alkohol nicht entrinnen kann. Seine Schönheit – er ist »groß, schlank wie eine Antike, mit muskulösen Armen, dem Hals und den Schultern eines Athleten« – fasziniert den Erzähler. Er sieht es als seine Aufgabe an, Yves vor seiner eigenen Zügellosigkeit zu schützen, hat dies auch Yves’ Mutter versprochen.
Der autobiografische Hintergrund des Romans ist besonders deutlich. Die beiden fast gleichaltrigen, aber vom Temperament und von der sozialen Stellung her ungleichen Männer verband eine lebenslange Freundschaft, von der diverse Notate, Briefe und Fotos Zeugnis ablegen; der auch zeichnerisch begabte Pierre Loti imaginierte seinen »Bruder« dabei auch als nackten keltischen Heroen in mythischer Landschaft.
- GenresFrench Literature
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1883
3 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Pierre Loti
810 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 17, 2020
Free download available at Project Gutenberg
We (Dagny and I) made the proofing of this book for Free Literature and Project Gutenberg will publish it.
DEDICATION
To ALPHONSE DAUDET
Here is a little tale which I wish to dedicate to
you. Accept it, I pray, with my affection.
It has been urged against my books that there
is always in too much of the trouble of
love. This time there is only a little love and
that an honest love and it comes only towards
the end.
It was you who gave me the idea of writing the
life story of a sailor and of putting into it the
immense monotony of the sea.
It may be that this book will make me enemies,
although I have touched as lightly as possible on
the regulations of the service. But you who love
everything connected with the sea, even the wind
and the fog and the great waves--yes, and the brave
and simple sailors--you, assuredly, will understand
me. And in that I shall find my recompense.
We (Dagny and I) made the proofing of this book for Free Literature and Project Gutenberg will publish it.
DEDICATION
To ALPHONSE DAUDET
Here is a little tale which I wish to dedicate to
you. Accept it, I pray, with my affection.
It has been urged against my books that there
is always in too much of the trouble of
love. This time there is only a little love and
that an honest love and it comes only towards
the end.
It was you who gave me the idea of writing the
life story of a sailor and of putting into it the
immense monotony of the sea.
It may be that this book will make me enemies,
although I have touched as lightly as possible on
the regulations of the service. But you who love
everything connected with the sea, even the wind
and the fog and the great waves--yes, and the brave
and simple sailors--you, assuredly, will understand
me. And in that I shall find my recompense.
January 11, 2019
Superbement bien écrit. Pour les amoureux la Bretagne. Nous fait vivre dans l'atmosphère et la vie des Bretons terriens et des Bretons marins... il y a plus d'un siècle. Pas si loin et on mesure le bond qu'à fait la Bretagne en si peu de temps. Un autre monde.
September 25, 2022
Ayant lu et apprécié plusieurs romans de Loti, surtout ceux qui se déroulent dans les lieux plus “exotiques”, je ne savais pas trop quoi attendre de ce roman centré sur la Bretagne et sur la vie de son ami matelot. Mais encore une fois le récit intéressant et l’écriture rêveuse de Loti m’ont enchantés.
August 13, 2019
Loved the book because it talks so much about my Brittany before the time we came around. I loved the water paintings the noise of the sabots on the streets of Brest and les coiffes and so forth. All that makes Brittany a charm!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews