Synopses & Reviews
While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language.Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages. explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France--past and present--remains to be discovered.
Review
"Graham Robb is an engaging and gifted writer, known for his enjoyable and instructive biographies of Hugo and Rimbaud. Moreover, The Discovery of France is the sort of history that seems almost to have disappeared...written in a light and pleasant style, crammed with colorful and unexpected details, it offers what seem like tantalizing glimpses into a vanished, forgotten past. All the more pity that it is actually a distressingly bad book." David A. Bell, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)
Synopsis
"A witty, engaging narrative style....[Robb's] approach is particularly engrossing."'"New York Times Book Review, front-page review.
Synopsis
A narrative of exploration--full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants--that explains the enduring fascination of France.
About the Author
Graham Robb is the award-winning biographer of Balzac, Victor Hugo, and Rimbaud. His other books include The Discovery of France, Parisians, and Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century. He lives in Oxford, England.