1902. From the French Classical Romances. Translated from the French with a critical introduction by his Excellency M. Jules Cambon Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to the United States. A frontispiece and numerous other portraits with descriptive notes by Octave Uzanne. After joining the French Navy, Loti (pen name of Louis Julien Marie Viaud) saw the world from shipboard. He spent long months among the palm groves of the South Seas; he visited the scorching coast of Senegal and the seas of Iceland. A prolific writer, Loti used every strange and exotic scene as a background for his romance novels. The book begins: There they were, five huge, square-built seamen, drinking away together in the dismal cabin, which reeked of fish-pickle and bilge-water. The overhead beams came down too low for their tall statures, and rounded off at one end so as to resemble a gull's breast, seen from within. The whole rolled gently with a monotonous wail, inclining one slowly to drowsiness. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.