Product Review
The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, from the Revolution to the First World War offers a wide and deep approach to the "discovery" of France. Graham Robb, an expert in French literature with biographies of Balzac and Hugo to his credit, has written an excellent history of France as seen from the provinces and from the seat of a bicycle.
France is still a country of regions and there are towns with very old roots, but modern communications and transport is erasing some of the more glaring differences. France is often regarded as the center of elegant civilization, so it's surprising to find that as late as 1890, most of the population was far from civilizedoutside the confines of sophisticated Paris, as noted biographer Robb explains in his riveting exploration of France's historical geography, great swathes of countryside were terra incognita: dark places inhabited by illiterate tribes professing pre-Christian beliefs and lethally hostile to outsiders. They spoke not French but regional dialects; much of the country had not been accurately mapped; and many in the rural areas lacked surnames.
Robb's biographies of Victor Hugo, Rimbaud and Balzac were all selected by the New York Times as among the best books of the year, an accolade that assures a select readership will be eager to pack his newest alongside their Michelin guides.
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