TY  - BOOK
AU  - Smollett, Tobias
TI  - Travels Through France and Italy
SN  - 9781848853058
U1  - 914.40434 
PY  - 2010///
PB  - Tauris Parke Paperbacks
KW  - History
N1  - CLASSIC TRAVEL WRITING. In 1763, Tobias Smollett set sail from Folkestone to Boulogne. He would not return to England for two years, during which time he travelled extensively - and in a notoriously ill-tempered fashion - through much of France and Italy. Smollett, seemed 'determined to be pleased with nothing' and was 'sardonic, satirical and decidedly gloomy'. In Paris, everything had 'shrunk' and was twice as expensive as his last visit. Versailles was a 'dismal habitation'. In Rome, he felt that Michelangelo's "Last Judgement" resembled a mob; his inn in San Remo was more miserable than the worst alehouse in England and in Lerici he was sure he would be poisoned. And yet, there were places where even Smollett could not fail to be captivated. Funny, honest and full of subtle magic, this is a rare and revealing portrait of 18th century Europe at a time when Marie Antoinette had just become queen of all France, the Grand Tour was in its infancy and Cannes was a quiet fishing village
ER  -