The Discovery of France: a historical geography from the Revolution to the First World War by Graham Robb, 454 pp., WW Norton, NY, $27.95
By John A. Talbott
The "Discovery of France" is not an easy book to summarize. It is divided into two parts: the first ostensibly about various populations, that he calls tribes or microcivilizations, and the second ostensibly about maps and the evolution of France from scores of pays (countries) to a modern, unified state. However, I say ostensibly, because in fact, issues and themes appear and reappear throughout the book. In addition, it is a combination of history, exploration, personal discovery, sociology, science, cartography and geography. At one point I found myself asking “what was his point in writing this book?” Even after setting it down, I’m not sure.
On the one hand, if we take its title and his methodology in “discovering” France literally – that is, bicycling 14,000 miles all over the country and spending four years in the library – it’s about uncovering the hundreds of hidden and unknown areas that comprise the “hexagon.” On the other hand, if we look at how he goes about chunking out the content into separate chapters, it’s about everything from language to warfare, from poverty to religion, and from staying close to where one was born to traveling all over the country rapidly.
He also singles our micro-areas for closer inspection, in particular the spectacular town of Goust near the Pyrenees (where inhabitants were isolated for centuries until almost modern times) and the incredible Grand Canyon of the Verdon (navigated, thus really “discovered”) in 1905-6, 37 years after Powell’s similar exploit on the Colorado. These two examples serve to reinforce his point that most of us barely scratch the surface of knowing France, far less understanding its diversity.
French, the language, as unifying force in France, was the subject of an entire earlier book – “The Story of French” by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow – but Robb addresses it from a slightly different angle, focusing on Abbe Gregoire’s monumental study of different languages and the need to have French become the language of France. He notes that even as modern and important a city as Lyon was divided into many language sub-areas. Other unifying forces were those brought about by mapping, to which he devotes a great deal of time, by departmentalization and by the comprehensive transportation systems (rivers, canals, rail and automobile.)
There are also extended sections on thievery, wild people, shunned populations, lost tribes, commune rather than town or city focused living, feasts and holidays, animals as workers and subjects of eating and the different languages and slang, dress and customs of all the populations he discovers. As someone obsessed by French culinary history and practice, I was disappointed to find only 5 pages devoted to the subject. In addition, as someone who watches the Tour de France every year attentively, I was surprised that the author, having spent much of his recent life on a bike on his “tour of France,” did not cover this greatest of all athletic events in greater detail, save for referring to the dastardly treatment of some riders by local populations.
Despite the fact that he’s told us he’ll cover the subject only up to WWI, he ends the book with a amusing modern story of the three towns that claim to be in the “center of France” and in an “Epilogue” talks of putting the book to bed the week of the riots in the suburbs of Paris last year, noting that immigration (which he touched on lightly earlier) had once again become a crucial issue among the French. He truly ends it with the suggestion that we continue his quest for discovery of new areas, towns and peoples ourselves.
This is a funny book: I bet librarians will have trouble cataloging it and book sellers displaying it because of the diversity of its topics and approaches. In addition, I think it’s not for everyone, however pleasant it may be for the specialist and for French-lovers who delight in trivia and the minutiae of France’s many hidden areas and populations.
Thank you for this writeup, John. It makes me want to get the book! Interesting methodology in any case!
Posted by: Lucy V | March 26, 2008 at 10:48 PM