The well-known French author, Pierre Loti, whose real name was
Julien Viaud, died at Hendaye on Sunday. Although he was seventy-three years old, he appeared to have maintained his intellectual and physical strength till the end. He was on active service during the War, and was mentioned in despatches in 1918. Two main themes were the inspiration of most of his life. First, the sea, which drew him from his home at the age of fourteen to join the Navy, and subsequently produced such books as Mon Fr8re Yves and the celebrated Pgeheur d'Islande. Secondly, the East, which by its brilliance of colour and its consequent opportunities for a descriptive stylist exercised upon him the same fascination which other French writers, such as Victor Hugo, have experi- enced. The majority of his books are placed in an Oriental environment. In L'Inde sans les Anglais and La Mort de Philae the subject is used as a means to expose the Imperialism of England. It would be foolish to maintain that Loti was a friend of England, but far more so to deprive oneself of the pleasure of reading him on that account. The excellence of his style is what one might expect from a compatriot of Pascal, Renan, and Flaubert, and his picturesque imagination is a relief from the hard naturalism of Zola and Maupassant.
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