Madame Chrysantheme: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Madame Chrysantheme, credited to Pierre Loti, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Madame Chrysantheme by Pierre Loti. (Translated by Laura Ensor.) Read in English by Peter Tucker. Pierre Loti (a nom de plume) was for many years an officer in the French Navy, giving him the opportunity to sample and analyze different national and cultural milieux, in which he deeply immersed himself. The present book, said to have formed the basis for the famous "Madame Butterfly" story, is presented as an autobiographical account of his marriage to a young Japanese woman while his ship was stationed in Nagasaki. His style is surprisingly modern for the period, perhaps anticipating Camus. His descriptions of summer in Nagasaki have a detail which is at the same time personal and detached, while his observations of the people are less than sympathetic. A sense of ennui and lack of conventional morality pervades. (Summary by Peter Tucker)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Madame Chrysantheme
• Author credits: Pierre Loti
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 9
• Listed recording duration: 5:04:02

Catalogue topics

• Japan
• naval
• xenophobia
• madame butterfly

Track guide

1. 00 - Dedication and Introduction — 4:30
2. 01 - Chapters I-III — 40:01
3. 02 - Chapters IV-XI — 39:48
4. 03 - Chapters XII-XXIII — 29:26
5. 04 - Chapters XXIV-XXXIII — 39:15
6. 05 - Chapters XXXIV-XXXVI — 35:12
7. 06 - Chapters XXXVII-XLVI — 47:05
8. 07 - Chapters XLVII-L — 30:37
9. 08 - Chapters LI-LV — 38:08

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.