CROWNED BY THE FRENCH ACADEMY

Madam Chrysantheme is nineteenth-century French author Pierre Loti's autobiographical account of his brief stay in Japan. His tale is mostly observation -- but there's an almost outre quality about his description of the exotic and foreign world around him. Loti's quest for a bride to amuse him during this time brings Loti across a young woman of creamy skin, dark hair, and cat-like eyes. Their chance encounter quickly blossoms into a short marriage of convenience for Loti -- and allows him to explore a unique culture dramatically opposed to his own. Using creative diction and descriptive imagery, Loti brings the perspectives of an outsider in a foreign country to the reader in vivid detail, chronicling a seemingly uneventful moment in his life that is remembered even in later years.