On shore leave in Nagasaki, a French naval officer arranges, through a go-between, a marriage of convenience for the length of his ship’s stay. He sets up house in the hills above the harbour with Chrysanthème and records her family, tea houses, temples and festivals in delicate impressionistic sketches, along with his own boredom and condescension.
The novel that inspired Madame Butterfly, valuable and beautifully written, though its view of Japanese people is that of 1887. Download the free EPUB.