ABSTRACT
The Marriage of Loti – a tale of amorous dalliance set in Tahiti – is the exotic romance par excellence, one of the finest examples of that literary genre that enjoyed its European heyday between 1880 and 1914. These years saw the expansion of European colonial possessions abroad on an unprecedented scale, a development that was reflected in the emergence of a new kind of literature devoted to the colonial experience, and to life in all foreign lands beyond the seas. There were colonial adventures, travel books, military novels and memoirs, but the most popular form by far was the exotic romance, whose leading exponent was the French naval officer who wrote under the name Pierre Loti.
