Madame Chrysantheme

Madame Chrysanthème is novel by Pierre Loti, presented as the autobiographical journal of a naval officer who was temporarily married to a geisha while he was stationed in Nagasaki, Japan. Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and peculiar bay. All around us was exquisitely green. The strong sea-breeze had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a calm; the atmosphere, now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In the valley resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering one another from shore to shore; the mountains reechoed with innumerable sounds; the whole country seemed to vibrate like crystal.