Pierre Loti i liked very much as i was mopping up the fringe & wake (or "sillage"--the waft of perfume a person leaves behind when they have gone) of Symbolisme. I had not yet encountered the concept of Orientalism but that was definitely a flavor i liked, not only because it was a gateway to various Eastern cultures themselves, but also because of the cultural misunderstandings of the 18th & 19th centuries, fruitful of a certain kind of writing which for me carried the charm of, say, anthropomorphic Disney animal cartoons.
Loti did them all: Japan, Turkey, Morocco, Tahiti... I have [a 30s "privately printed" copy of Ancient Manners (which was not uncommon in our local used book market in those days) &] a wonderful 1912 edition of Carmen Sylva (pic attached), a collection of essays including "Constantinople in 1890" & a couple on Marie of Rumania, who was (according to this) a personal friend. And i am pleased to just now have discovered (via, alas, Wikipedia) that his house was turned into a museum. (More about the house. A Loti collection online.)
The flavor of Loti's writing is, whenever he thinks about exotic women (which is frequently--the other kind, he sentimentalizes quite as much as any Victorian), very similar to the Japanese mood of iroke. From a modern point of view, it's more camp than erotic. I think of Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm (even more than Salome). --Firbank, of course, is hiding in the arras.
"I have followed the moon from evening twilight to morning twilight; and I have gazed on the secrets of that Medusean face which she averts eternally from the earth." --@KlarkashT
POSTSCRIPT. Oops! Ancient Manners (AKA "Aphrodite") is a different Pierre (Louÿs)--& mine is apparently the 1928 Whittaker Chambers translation, illustrated by Pogany... Obviously, iroke fits this Pierre better than the sailor (but not entirely, e.g. Madame Chrysanthemum...
