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Le Roman d'un enfant
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
- GenresFranceMemoir19th Century
330 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1890
10 people are currently reading
69 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 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 24, 2024
Der Autor erzählt teilautobiographisch von der Kindheit des Kindes Pierre im Westen Frankreichs in der Region nördlich von Bordeaux. Naturbeschreibungen, seine Liebe zu Schmetterlingen, Pflanzen, eingewachsenen Gärten, einer vorgelagerten Insel, Urlaub im Zentralmassiv haben einen melancholischen Charakter. Er hat eine besondere Beziehung zu seinem älteren Bruder, der sich für die Marine entschlossen hat. Er hält sich in seinem Zimmer auf, bekommt von ihm persönliche Post aus Polynesien. Er ist der Auslöser, dass er sich mit 14 entscheidet, zur Marine zu gehen. Reisen in ferne, exotische Länder ziehen ihn an. Pierre Loti selbst war bei der Marine.
May 3, 2017
Un doux récit d'enfance. Bref et nostalgique. Un peu à la proustienne, hormis la nature du héros.
Enfant et plein de ressources ici, décadent et maladif dans l'autre.
Un livre qui constitue un moyen d'évasion à la demande de la pression de la vie et du stress des intrigues compliquées.
Enfant et plein de ressources ici, décadent et maladif dans l'autre.
Un livre qui constitue un moyen d'évasion à la demande de la pression de la vie et du stress des intrigues compliquées.
December 24, 2019
Ce “roman de l’enfant”, qui se compose de courts récits autobiographiques et qui de ce fait n’est pas vraiment un roman est mon premier rencontre avec cet auteur qui m’avait toujours intéressé. Pierre Loti est sans doute l’auteur français préféré des lecteurs turcs dont une grande partie ne connaissent pas tellement la littérature française. Il a séjourné en Turquie, il s’y a écrit, il a défendu les turcs avec sa plume en s’opposant l’invasion de l’empire ottoman par les français par le biais des milliers d’articles qu’il a écrits sur ce sujet.
Personnellement j’ai désormais une autre raison d’être tombé amoureux de Loti. Avec ces récits, avec du style qu’il y a œuvré, à travers les pages qui contiennent l’expression des sentiments les plus intimes de son enfance et quelques éclaircissements sur sa vie d’adulte il peut certainement être désigné comme le précurseur de Proust. Certes, Proust c’est plus frictionnel et plus et plus élaboré, mais je crois qu’il a beaucoup été influencé par Loti. D’ailleurs, il y a des échanges entre ces deux auteurs qu’il faudra lire un jour. Je serais également très intéressé par « Aziyadé ». Bref, comme je l’ai dit, je viens de faire connaissance avec Loti et je vais sans doute voir le reste de son œuvre.
Personnellement j’ai désormais une autre raison d’être tombé amoureux de Loti. Avec ces récits, avec du style qu’il y a œuvré, à travers les pages qui contiennent l’expression des sentiments les plus intimes de son enfance et quelques éclaircissements sur sa vie d’adulte il peut certainement être désigné comme le précurseur de Proust. Certes, Proust c’est plus frictionnel et plus et plus élaboré, mais je crois qu’il a beaucoup été influencé par Loti. D’ailleurs, il y a des échanges entre ces deux auteurs qu’il faudra lire un jour. Je serais également très intéressé par « Aziyadé ». Bref, comme je l’ai dit, je viens de faire connaissance avec Loti et je vais sans doute voir le reste de son œuvre.
December 4, 2020
J'ai acheté ce livre lorsque j'avais à peine 12 ans. J'avais lu les premières pages et été juste fascinée. Je n'ai jamais dépassé ces premières pages jusqu'à ce que je décide à l'âge de 24 ans de revisiter ma lecture d'enfance.
Là, j'ai beaucoup de regret et de mépris pour l'auteur.
Peut être qu'il ne fallait jamais dépasser les premières pages de ce livre!
Là, j'ai beaucoup de regret et de mépris pour l'auteur.
Peut être qu'il ne fallait jamais dépasser les premières pages de ce livre!
May 9, 2025
Pierre Lotis Kindheitsautobiografie fängt gut an, wird aber schlechter, je mehr er zum jungen Mann wird. Zauberhaft, diese gute alte, behütete Frankreich-Zeit! Man versteht aber schon auch, warum fast niemand mehr dieses Buch kennt. Marcel Proust hat danach noch was Ähnliches angefangen. Nur viel größer. Und man versteht, warum aus dem kleinen, bärtigen Menschlein (deutsche Leser müssen notgedrungen an den von Heinz Schubert gespielten Hadschi Halef Omar in der Fernsehserie der 1970-er Jahre, „Kara Ben Nemsi Effendi“, denken, auch Loti ließ sich gern in Wallah-wallah-Gewändern sehen) ein Kapitän zur See, ein maritimer Autor, Misogyn und Masochist wurde. Das Kind Loti war das Geschöpf seiner Mutter. Ist sie nicht mehr da, muss er einem starken Mann suchen, der sein großer Bruder sein kann. Er muss so etwas wie eine heterosexuelle Tunte gewesen sein. (Und Proust war eine homosexuelle und verachtet die Tunten daher so nachdrücklich.) Ich gestehe allerdings, irgendwas nimmt mich für sich ein, wenn jemand ein Leben lang sich standhaft weigert, die Kindheit für vergangen, vorbei, nicht mehr rückholbar zu akzeptieren. Mich erreichte das in der gewohnt behutsamen Lesung des Sprechers Gert Heidenreich, dessen eigene Bücher ich nie lesen wollte. (In einer CD-Box aus Hans Eckhardts „Verlag und Studio für Hörbuchproduktionen“, die inzwischen selten geworden ist.)
October 31, 2018
Filled with banal observations. I've read a lot of childhood memoirs by writers you've never heard of that are better than this.
April 9, 2025
Endormant…
May 18, 2025
Livre très proustien de Loti qui évoque son enfance et la naissance de sa vocation de marin
August 1, 2014
I think this is the same, the version I read was titled 'A Child's Romance' which I really like a lot more. This book is a true treasure, and I wish more had read it. For any that know exactly how deep the peter pan syndrome can send pangs of longing, this book is for you. It's the most beautiful sense of 'nothing gold can stay', I really loved this book. I will recommend it to anyone I think would appreciate the smallest moments in life.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews