Product Details
The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers

The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers
By Ted Jones

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Product Description

The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers is a reader’s journey along the fabled coast which has provided the inspiration and setting for some of the greatest literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From Hyères and St. Tropez in the west to the Italian border in the east, Ted Jones introduces the lives and work of writers who passed this way, from distinguished Nobel laureates to new authors who discovered their voices there. His encyclopaedic work covers them all: writers such as Graham Greene and W. Somerset Maugham, who spent much of their lives there; F. Scott Fitzgerald and Guy de Maupassant, whose work it dominates; and the countless writers who simply lingered there, including Louisa M. Alcott, Albert Camus, Bruce Chatwin, T. S. Eliot, Ian Fleming, Sylvia Plath, Jean-Paul Sartre, Leo Tolstoy, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde – and countless others.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #864157 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-12-15
  • Released on: 2007-12-26
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 264 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"The ultimate travel book for anyone who likes sun and literature. I found it irresistible." --Peter Mayle, author of A Year in Provence
-- Review

Review

"Some travel guides offer the basics. Others, such as Ted Jones' The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for travelers, weave the works of other literary giants into a narrative that gives a sense of history of a place. Jones' book provides glimpses of works by writers such as Agatha Christie, Joseph Conrad, Ian Fleming, Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, Victor Hugo and James Joyce and their feelings about the French Riviera." -- Salt Lake City Tribune
"unsurpassed in literary name-dropping." -- David Armstrong, San Francisco Chronicle
"The ultimate travel book for anyone who likes sun and literature. I found it irresistible." -- Peter Mayle
"Thoughtful, entertaining and vivid, Jones's The French Riviera sweeps us along the coast… Cap Ferrat comes to life. Jones's book is sad only because it reminds us of how much of the Riviera's tranquil beauty has been sacrificed. The list of literary lovers of the Riviera almost beggars belief. It is delightful to have their eloquent, acerbic, lyrical responses collected here, in a book that deserves to become a favorite with all travelers." -- Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times
"There is much to relish. The author is assiduous in recording who wrote what where and when, in seeking out memorial plaques and mourning lost landmarks."
-- E.S.Turner, Times Literary Supplement
"A vivid guide to the Cote d'Azur in the eyes of some of the greatest writers of their time." -- Jane Mays, Daily Mail
"There are two views of the French Riviera. One says it is an overdeveloped blot on the landscape; the other that it is the epitome of style. If you veer towards the latter, and enjoy literary history, this book is for you. Drawing on the stories of more than 150 writers, Jones does a great job of buffing up the legend." -- Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times, Books of the Week
"Certainly among the best of recent books on the area. Jones has done a lot of research and presents his results in a clear and lively style. The book will appeal obviously to those with literary interests but it's also designed to please those who enjoy Sunday paper-style gossip (broadsheet, of course)." -- Patrick Middleton, The Riviera Reporter
"With a cast of more than 150 authors, the book is an incredible tour-de-force. Though taking several years of diligent research to complete, Ted guides the reader on a remarkable journey, where the lives and loves of so many writers unfold before us along the sun-drenched shores of the French Riviera." --www.amb-cotedazur.com
"Part travel-guide, part biography, the elegant text retraces the footsteps of some of the world's greatest literary geniuses. Enough to tempt even the strongest willed to book a ticket. Snap up a copy of Ted's book… The literary world's answer to Heat magazine, Ted uncovers endlessly fascinating material" -- Slough & Windsor Express
"The palm-fringed beaches of Cannes, Nice, Monaco and the other magical Mediterranean coastal towns and villages of sun-swept southeastern France are lovingly described by travel journalist Ted Jones." -- Frequent

About the Author

Ted Jones is a writer and journalist who specializes in travel and the arts. He divides his time between Villefranche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, and Windsor, England..

Customer Reviews

A great book for travelers and book fans5
At first I was sceptical about this book. As someone who knows the South of France quite well, and an avid reader, my expectations were high, but this book didn't disappoint me, to say the least.

I expected it to be informative rather than entertaining but it turned out to be both. It's filled with anecdotes which I had never heard before. Virginia Woolfe's description of an afternoon on the rocks in Cassis is not something that would have made The Hours, but it's just as interesting to travellers, Cote d'Azur fans and bookworms.

The format is original and works well. The author starts with a short introcution to the Cote d'Azur and dives in from the west at Hyères, taking the reader on a literary journey to the Italian border via all towns along the coast (via a few villages in the hills).

Keep my trademark cynicism with me, I started reading casually with the intention of getting to Cannes and Nice and the towns I knew from my travels. What I soon found out was that towns like Grasse, Antibes and Menton figure in the rich literary history. For example, I didn't know that Robert Louis Stevenson knew the area well and wrote: "Mentone is one of the most beautiful places in the world and has always had a warm corner in my heart, since I knew it eleven years ago.

Even after Nice, where I thought the book would drag as the towns faded out, it actually became more interesting as lesser know facts emerged, such as Somerset Maugham's long association with Cap Ferrat or Karl Marx's thoughts on the casino at Monaco.

The author's had a great way of putting things (like describing tubercular authors "haemorrhaging their way along the coast") and the book also includes mini-biographies of the authors and a map of the coast. The title may be a little off-putting to non-scholars like myself, but in fact the book is a light and entertaining guide, unlike many author's biographies. It's part travel reading, part history, part biography and full of anecdotes told against the unique backdrop that is the Cote d'Azur. I highly recommend this book as a great read for travellers, and fans of both fiction and non-fiction.