Before Lafcadio Hearn, there was Pierre Loti.  The Frenchman is (in)famous in Japan for his 1887 novel, Madame Chrysantheme, which influenced the short story Madame Butterfly (1898) by John Luther Long. In collaboration with David Belasco, Long turned the story into a play, which in turn inspired Puccini to write his opera of the same …Read More