A foremost example of this tendency to look to the East in the field of writing was Edmond de Goncourt, who was the first European to produce comprehensively researched monographs on Japanese artists. He wrote on Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai, but died before he could accomplish a further twelve planned essays. His deep interest in Japanese culture was part of a general fascination amongst Western writers and artists with the Far East in general and Japan in particular. But for the majority of them (Goncourt included) this fascination was felt at a distance, since very few of them actually travelled to the places they so admired. This is why the writings of Pierre Loti, a French naval officer and novelist who travelled across the globe, proved so alluring for the public. His 1887 novel, Madame Chrysanthème, was a major success, and it would partly inspire Giacomo Puccini’s celebrated opera, Madama Butterfly (1904).