Madame Chrysantheme is a novel by Pierre Loti , presented as the autobiographical journal of a naval officer who was temporarily married to a Japanese woman while he was stationed in Nagasaki , Japan. ^[1] It closely follows the journal he kept of one-month paid relationship with Kiku (Chrysanthemum) in the J?zenji ( 十善寺 ) neighbourhood (modern day J?ninmachi ( 十人町 )) in 1885. ^[2] Originally written in French and published in 1887 , Madame Chrysantheme was very successful in its day, running to 25 editions in the first five years of its publication with translations into several languages including English. ^[3] It has been considered a key text in shaping western attitudes toward Japan at the turn of the 20th century. ^[4] It is known in Japan under the title of お菊さん ( O Kiku-san ), which is a direct translation of the French name.

Andre Messager's 1893 opera of the same name is based on it, as are some aspects of Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly . ^[5]

References [ edit ]

Notes

Sources

• Reed, Christopher (2010). The Chrysantheme Papers: The Pink Notebook of Madame Chrysantheme and Other Documents of French Japonisme . University Press of Hawaii. ISBN   978-0-8248-3345-9 .
• Van Rij, Jan (2001). Madame Butterfly: Japonisme, Puccini, and the search for the real Cho-Cho-San . Stone Bridge Press. ISBN   1-880656-52-3 .

External links [ edit ]

• Madame Chrysantheme at Google Books .

• Madame Chrysantheme at Project Gutenberg
• Audio version of original French
• Madame Chrysantheme public domain audiobook at LibriVox

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