Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Oxford University Press, USA (1982), Paperback, 512 pages
Description
In 1763, Tobias Smollett set sail from Folkestone to Boulogne. He would not return to England for two years, during which time he traveled extensively--and in a notoriously ill-tempered fashion--through much of France and Italy. His obvious pleasure in the landscapes through which he passed, his keen eye for colorful, telling details, and the fact that his letters appear virtually as they were written, beautifully illuminate both Smollett's character and the places he visited.
Media reviews
Observer
Smollett, who was travelling with his wife and servants, five persons in all, preferred to buy and prepare his own food, such were his British, albeit Scottish, suspicions of the French ragout. As for the French character, vanity is ‘the great and universal mover of all varieties and degrees’.
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A Frenchman will think he owes it to his self-esteem to seduce your wife, daughter, niece and even your grandmother; if he fails he deplores their poor taste; if you reproach him, he will reply that he could not give higher proof of his regard for your family...
No, there is nothing to be said for the French. Their towns are often better than their inhabitants and in the descriptions of places we see Smollett’s virtue as a writer. Clearly, like some architectural draughtsman, ingeniously contriving his perspectives, he has the power to place a town, its streets, its industries, its revenues and even its water supply, before us like a marvellous scale model. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
Cantankerous, spleen-filled, sickly 42-year old Scottish novelist travels with his Jamaican wife through France and Italy on the Grand Tour circuit. Complains and gripes about everything for two years straight. Fascinating portrait of the man, the time and place. Despite the pessimistic and
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negative tone (traits one normally wants to avoid in a travel companion) it is perversely entertaining. Show Less
LibraryThing member mildredabraham
As others have noted, the famous but cantankerous author set off from Folkstone in 1763 with his wife to travel through France and Italy, noting Inns, methods of travel, prices for the benefit of his friends. He saw little to praise.
LibraryThing member Helenliz
This is a series of letters sent by Tobias Smollett as he takes a year or so away from England traveling on the continent. The letters are an interesting mixture of sights to see (he especially admires the roman remains of the south of France) and scenery to admire (or otherwise). He's also full of
I found myself warming to him, he wasn't being unremittingly negative, but had such lovely grumpy interludes.
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information on the local economy, the food produced, as well as how it is produced, he goes into quite some detail of how to produce olive oil, for example. He also provides details on how much it costs ti travel, to eat, to feed the family, what types of food are particularly good or bad for the area. However it is trials and tribulations with the local inns and hostelries where he comes into his own. A more curmudgeonly correspondent it would be hard to imagine. He does give praise where it is due, only that seems to be in only isolated instances. I found myself warming to him, he wasn't being unremittingly negative, but had such lovely grumpy interludes.
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LibraryThing member yarb
I'm a fan of Smollett's picaresques Roderick Random and Humphrey Clinker, and even more so of his Englishing of Don Quixote. I also adore his appearance as the cantankerous (Scottish) Brit abroad, "Smellfungus", in Sterne's Sentimental Journey, written in part as a satirical response to this,
Smollett's account is dragged down by his fussy insistence on providing complete reports on the local economy and the price of everything everywhere he goes, as well as his meticulous detailing of the ancient ruins and monuments to be found in the South of France and every piece of art he views in Florence. But despite his acerbity and pedantry, he comes across as fundamentally honest and harsh but fair in his judgments. At the very least, dear Smellfungus can't be accused of "going native"!
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Smollett's vinegarish account of his two-year tour, an attempt to recover from the death at 15 of his only child and also to benefit his ailing respiratory system. And the dour Scot's antagonistic interactions with the innkeepers, postillions and landlords of the Continent, and his constant unfavourable comparisons of them with their British equivalents, are as much fun as I expected. The French come in for particular abuse, excoriated for their laziness, vanity and above all their shameless pursuit of other (i.e. British) men's wives. The Italians are slightly more agreeable, though sharing their Gallic cousins' absurd religious rituals. Smollett's philippic against duelling is a highlight, as is the incident where he upbraids at length a fellow traveler, believing the poor man to be the local postmaster responsible for assigning him less than adequate horses. There are certain observations on his own countrymen that hold as true today: their despair at not being provided milk for their tea; their self-sabotage through failure to adequately tip; their unaccountable habit of holding aloof each other when they meet by chance in a foreign town.Smollett's account is dragged down by his fussy insistence on providing complete reports on the local economy and the price of everything everywhere he goes, as well as his meticulous detailing of the ancient ruins and monuments to be found in the South of France and every piece of art he views in Florence. But despite his acerbity and pedantry, he comes across as fundamentally honest and harsh but fair in his judgments. At the very least, dear Smellfungus can't be accused of "going native"!
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1766
Physical description
512 p.; 7.31 inches
ISBN
0192815695 / 9780192815699
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