To ALPHONSE DAUDET
Here is a little tale which I wish to dedicate to you. Accept it, I pray, with my affection.
It has been urged against my books that there is always in them too much of the trouble of love. This time there is only a little love and that an honest love and it comes only towards the end.
It was you who gave me the idea of writing the life story of a sailor and of putting into it the immense monotony of the sea.
It may be that this book will make me enemies, although I have touched as lightly as possible on the regulations of the service. But you who love everything connected with the sea, even the wind and the fog and the great waves—yes, and the brave and simple sailors—you, assuredly, will understand me. And in that I shall find my recompense.
PIERRE LOTI.