Le Mariage de Loti (1880; also known as The Marriage of Loti, Rarahu, or Tahiti) is an autobiographical novel by French author Pierre Loti. It was Loti's second novel and the first to win him great fame and a wide following. It describes Loti's romantic liaison with an exotic Tahitian girl named Rarahu. It is the basis of two operas
As a young boy in France, Julien Viaud (later known as Pierre Loti) was introduced to Polynesia by his older brother Gustave, a naval officer who brought home stories of the exotic islands, including stories about a relationship he had with a Tahitian woman. Julien would never forget these stories and aimed to one day follow his brother's example. He eventually joined the navy, and at the age of twenty-two in 1872, was stationed at the town of Papeete in Tahiti for two months. It was, as he put it, "the dream of my childhood." [1]
It was in Tahiti that the transformation of Julien Viaud into Pierre Loti began, a transformation that would come to characterize Loti's future work and life. He "went native": living among the local people, learning the language, wearing their dress, adopting their customs, loving their women, even adopting the new pseudonym of "Loti" given to him by the local natives—all the while retaining his military duties, and keeping a detailed diary which would become the source for his novel. Cavorting with natives while on active duty might appear unusual, but French military custom did not generally prevent its officers from socializing with other classes, unlike the English military, so it was easy for Loti to divide his attentions and duties between the navy and the Tahitians. Further, the admiral of the fleet had a personal interest in the history and anthropology of Tahiti and encouraged Loti to learn more. [2]
The Marriage of Loti can be seen both as a non-fiction account of Loti's true-life experiences, and a literary work. [1] Most of the main characters were real people, however Rarahu herself was not [2] —Loti admitted in a letter dated 1879 that she was a composite of many women he had liaisons with during his two months in Tahiti. [3] Loti himself goes by the name of "Harry Grant" in the novel, an English naval officer, to hide his real identity (this was before the public knew Pierre Loti/Harry Grant was actually Julien Viaud). The plot correctly follows known facts about Loti's life and generally corresponds with his diaries. Many of the details such as dialog and specific events were embellished for dramatic effect. [1]
The Marriage of Loti was first published in 1880 under the title Rarahu and later editions under the new title. It was received with wide acclaim from both critics and the public. Le Figaro described it as "one of the most charming works to have appeared for a long time," [1] and Le Temps found it "charming, new without extravagance, original without affection." [1] The public found its exotic and lyric prose a sharp and welcome contrast from the in-vogue French realist school that included such authors as Émile Zola.
The novel reflected prevailing imperialistic attitudes towards the colonies, seeing the natives as innocent and wild children of the forest exposed to the fearsome and old paternal European culture. [1] This was during a period (1880s to 1900s) when European imperialism had reached its height and the genre of "romantic exoticism", of which this work is one of the finest examples, struck a popular chord. [1] In a post-colonial perspective it is largely seen as racist and imperialistic. As biographer Lesley Blanch says, "Loti's works helps to sustain [the] gratifying image of cultural superiority among his European readers. To enjoy reading Loti is to enjoy the personal and cultural complacency of which the colonial venture thrived." [2] However Loti's lyrical prose and hauntingly vivid descriptions of the Polynesian islands are artistically satisfying, [4] and the tragic ending, as Loti recognizes his failure through a broken heart, adds a more human and universal dimension to the strictly colonial interpretation.
Tahiti is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Australia. Divided into two parts, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti, the island was formed from volcanic activity; it is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs. Its population was 189,517 in 2017, making it by far the most populous island in French Polynesia and accounting for 68.7% of its total population.
Pierre Loti was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.
Lesley Blanch, MBE, FRSL was a British writer, historian and traveller. She is best known for The Wilder Shores of Love, about Isabel Burton, Jane Digby el-Mezrab, Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, and Isabelle Eberhardt.
Célestine Hitiura Vaite is a French Polynesian writer.
Ramuntcho (1897) is a novel by French author Pierre Loti. It is a love and adventure story about contraband runners in the Basque province of France. It is one of Loti's most popular stories—"love, loss and faith remain eternal themes"—with four French film adaptations. It was first published in 5 parts, from 15 December 1896 to 15 February 1897, in the Revue de Paris. Calmann-Lévy published the novel in two parts on 10 March 1897. A dramatized version was staged in Paris in 1910, with incidental music by Gabriel Pierné.
My Brother Yves is a semi-autobiographical novel by French author Pierre Loti. It describes the friendship between French naval officer Pierre Loti and a hard drinking Breton sailor Yves Kermadec during the 1870s and 80s. It was probably Loti's best-known book, and its descriptions of Breton seafaring life, on board ship and on shore, set the tone for his later acclaimed work An Iceland Fisherman (1886).
Aziyadé is a novel by French author Pierre Loti. Originally published anonymously, it was his first book, and along with Le Mariage de Loti, would introduce the author to the French public and quickly propel him to fame; because of this, his anonymous persona did not last long.
1148 Rarahu, provisional designation 1929 NA and previously also known as 1148 Raraju, is an Eoan asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 32 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Alexander Deutsch at the Simeiz Observatory in 1929, the asteroid's name was taken from a French novel by Pierre Loti.
The Tahitians are the Polynesian ethnic group indigenous to Tahiti and thirteen other Society Islands in French Polynesia. The numbers may also include the modern population in these islands of mixed Polynesian and French ancestry. Indigenous Tahitians are one of the largest Polynesian ethnic groups, behind the Māori, Samoans and Hawaiians.
The Pōmare dynasty was the reigning family of the Kingdom of Tahiti between the unification of the islands by Pōmare I in 1788 and Pōmare V's cession of the kingdom to France in 1880. Their influence once spanned most of the Society Islands, the Austral Islands and the Tuamotu Archipelago.
Johanna Marau Taʻaroa a Tepau Salmon was the consort of King Pōmare V who ruled from 1877 to 1880 and was the last queen consort of the Kingdom of Tahiti. Her name means "Much-unique-cleansing-the-splash" in the Tahitian language.
Nave Nave Mahana was made in 1896 by Paul Gauguin in Tahiti. It is kept in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon. The painting became part of the collections of the Lyon Museum in 1913.
The Franco-Tahitian War or French–Tahitian War (1844–1847) was a conflict between the Kingdom of the French and the Kingdom of Tahiti and its allies in the South Pacific archipelago of the Society Islands in modern-day French Polynesia.
Fatata te Miti is an 1892 oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, located in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC.
Merahi metua no Tehamana is an 1893 painting by the French artist Paul Gauguin, currently in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting is a portrait of Paul Gauguin's wife Teha'amana during his first visit to Tahiti in 1891–1893. This marriage has always provoked controversy because it was arranged and completed in the course of a single afternoon and Gauguin claimed Teha'amana was just thirteen years old at the time.
The Jarnac Convention was a bilateral agreement between the Kingdom of France and the United Kingdom in 1847 at the end of the Franco-Tahitian War. Its purpose was to end Franco-British diplomatic tension by guaranteeing the independence of the Leeward Islands in Polynesia. It was abrogated with the agreement of both parties in 1887.
L'île du rêve is an 1898 French opera set in Polynesia. It was the first opera by Reynaldo Hahn. The idylle polynésienne in three acts has a libretto by André Alexandre and Georges Hartmann, which was adapted from Pierre Loti's semi-autobiographical 1880 novel Rarahu or Le Mariage de Loti set in Tahiti. It premiered on 23 March 1898 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
The annexation of the Leeward Islands or the Leewards War was a series of diplomatic and armed conflicts between the French Third Republic and the native kingdoms of Raiatea-Tahaa, Huahine and Bora Bora, which resulted in the conquest of the Leeward Islands, in the South Pacific archipelago of the Society Islands in modern-day French Polynesia.
Viaud Ridge is an undersea mountain range in the Indian Ocean located south of India, southwest of Sri Lanka and east of the Maldives. Its morphology remains poorly defined: estimates range from between 15 and 25 kilometers long, peaking at about 1,700 meters above the ocean floor. Discovered in 1970, it was only named in 1993 in honor of the brother of the French writer Pierre Loti, Gustave Viaud, a naval surgeon and the first photographer of Tahiti who died and was immersed in the area in 1865.