3 h 53 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a traveller reveal about himself when he writes about the people he desires?
In Loves of the Far East, Olivier Diraison-Seylor brings travel and personal feeling together. His journeys through Asia and the Pacific shape an intimate account of encounters abroad. Love and desire run through a world of distant ports, where places and people reach the reader through a French traveller’s eyes.
This is colonial-era travel writing, with the narrator at its centre. His moods, wishes and expectations shape what he describes. Read it as a document of its age: a chance to explore how one European writer presents cross-cultural meetings, and to notice the distance between the places he visits and the meanings he gives them.
What you’ll discover
- Travel shaped by feeling Follow an account in which journeys abroad mingle with the traveller’s own desires.
- Ports through French eyes Enter distant ports as one French author chooses to see and describe them.
- Romance and the faraway Explore how love and desire connect with the period’s fascination with distant lands.
- The traveller at the centre Notice how the narrator’s wishes shape his portraits of the people he meets.
- A revealing period perspective Consider what this personal account reveals about the outlook of its own age.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like period travel writing, the world of French naval officers around 1900, and sharp, ironic sketches of ports from Yokohama to Tahiti.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Exotic means one visit, a sea route, heat
- Strict schooling sends young officers ashore hungry
- Parting gives exotic love its sharp edge
- Japan's smile hides a watching third person
- China and Saigon bring dread and disappointment
- In the Antilles, Creole pride resists the legend
- Madagascar mixes colonial power with local women
- Pacific islands and ship decks end the dream
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Loves of the Far East
A French naval writer walks from Yokohama to Tahiti and asks what exoticism really is, and what sailors find.
Challenging2–5 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What does a sailor really find when he steps ashore at Tahiti or Yokohama? According to one French writer, a good deal less than he tells his friends at home.
Loves of the Far East at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 15 min1 h 50 min fast, 2 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 32,500 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Exotic means one visit, a sea route, heat
Seylor opens with a puzzle. Ask a sailor whether Cádiz or Constantinople is exotic and he protests. Name Tahiti or the Canaries and he agrees at once. Why do travelers sort the world this way?
His first rule is that the exotic is a place you see only once. Where people travel back and forth by regular routes, the magic fades. His second rule is that it must be reached by sea, so it applies chiefly to islands. Ordinary speech links it with parrots, bananas, hammocks and heat, so it belongs to the southern sun.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- Language
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- Level
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Cite this edition
Diraison-Seylor, Olivier. Loves of the Far East. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loves-of-the-far-east.
Diraison-Seylor, O. (2026). Loves of the Far East. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loves-of-the-far-east
Diraison-Seylor, Olivier. Loves of the Far East. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loves-of-the-far-east.
@book{diraisonseylor2026loves,
author = {Diraison-Seylor, Olivier},
title = {Loves of the Far East},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loves-of-the-far-east}
}
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What is Loves of the Far East about?
It is a set of travel sketches and essays about French naval officers and their encounters with women in ports from Japan and China to Madagascar, the Antilles and the Pacific, framed by an essay defining exoticism.
Who is O. Seylor, the author of Loves of the Far East?
O. Seylor is the pen name of Olivier Diraison-Seylor, a French writer who died in 1916. His book shows close knowledge of naval officers' lives and admiration for the novelist Pierre Loti.
What does exoticism mean in this book?
The author defines it as a place seen only once, reached by sea, under a hot southern sky, among people who live with less rigid rules. He ties it to the sorrow of parting.
The author
Olivier Diraison-Seylor
1873–1916 · French novelist
Olivier Diraison-Seylor (1873–1916) was a French writer and naval officer who wrote under the name Olivier Seylor. He was born in Plouescat, France. His novels included Les Maritimes, published in 1901, and Loves of the Far East. He served in the First World War and died at Verdun in 1916.
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