orig. Louis-Marie-Julien Viaud
born Jan. 14, 1850, Rochefort, France
died June 10, 1923, Hendaye
French novelist.
As a naval officer, Loti visited the Middle East and East Asia, which later provided the exotic settings of his novels and reminiscences. His first novel, Aziyadé (1879), won him critical and popular success. Other novels include An Iceland Fisherman (1886), Japan: Madam Chrysanthemum (1887), and Disenchanted (1906). Among his recurring motifs are love, death, and despair at the passing of sensuous life. He reveals his compassion in such works as The Book of Pity and of Death (1890). His themes anticipated some of the preoccupations of French literature between the world wars.