In her third literary Baedeker, Alice Leccese Powers–editor of Italy in Mind and Ireland in Mind – explores France through the senses and sensibilities of thirty-three British and American authors. The food and the people, the culture and viniculture, the architecture and the expatriates, the pleasures (and frustrations) of France are described by intrepid travelers who also happen to be brilliant essayists, poets, and novelists. From Gertrude Stein’s Paris to Ezra Pound’s Pyrenees; from Tobias Smollett, who grumbled, to Peter Mayle, who settled in; and from Edith Wharton on falling in love to David Sedaris on falling over French grammar–here is France in all its splendor in the words of some of the best and most entertaining writers in the English language. Henry Adams • James Baldwin • Elizabeth Bishop • Mary Blume • James Fenimore Cooper • Charles Dickens • Lawrence Durrell • Lawrence Ferlinghetti • M. F. K. Fisher • F. Scott Fitzgerald • Janet Flanner • Adam Gopnik • Joanne Harris • Ernest Hemingway • Washington Irving • Henry James • Thomas Jefferson • Stanley Karnow • Peter Mayle • Mary McCarthy • Jan Morris • Ezra Pound • David Sedaris • Tobias Smollett • Gertrude Stein • Robert Louis Stevenson • Paul Theroux • Gillian Tindall • Calvin Trillin • Mark Twain • Edith Wharton • Richard Wilbur • William Carlos Williams It seems to be a rite of passage for Anglophone authors: go to France and write about it. Americans and Brits have been going for centuries, as the selections in this anthology, with essays by such authors as Charles Dickens, Henry Adams, Joanne Harris, and Mary McCarthy, prove. There is enough variety in the collection that nearly everyone should find something to pique his or her interest, from reflections by Americans on France at a time when the U.S. was quite new, to Lost Generation musings by Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to the wry humor of such contemporary writers as Adam Gopnik and David Sedaris. Editor Powers has included fiction and nonfiction, as well as two poems ("Avignon" by Lawrence Durrell and "Place Pigalle" by Richard Wilbur), and, as she notes in the introduction, made a conscious effort to feature selections from every area of France, not just Paris. The result is a delight to read for anyone in love with France and offers an invitation to seek out the sources of these selections for further reading. Beth Leistensnider Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved In her third literary Baedeker, Alice Leccese Powers?editor of Italy in Mind and Ireland in Mind ? explores France through the senses and sensibilities of thirty-three British and American authors. The food and the people, the culture and viniculture, the architecture and the expatriates, the pleasures (and frustrations) of France are described by intrepid travelers who also happen to be brilliant essayists, poets, and novelists. From Gertrude Stein?s Paris to Ezra Pound?s Pyrenees; from Tobias Smollett, who grumbled, to Peter Mayle, who settled in; and from Edith Wharton on falling in love to David Sedaris on falling over French grammar?here is France in all its splendor in the words of some of the best and most entertaining writers in the English language. Henry Adams ? James Baldwin ? Elizabeth Bishop ? Mary Blume ? James Fenimore Cooper ? Charles Dickens ? Lawrence Durrell ? Lawrence Ferlinghetti ? M. F. K. Fisher ? F. Scott Fitzgerald ? Janet Flanner ? Adam Gopnik ? Joanne Harris ? Ernest Hemingway ? Washington Irving ? Henry James ? Thomas Jefferson ? Stanley Karnow ? Peter Mayle ? Mary McCarthy ? Jan Morris ? Ezra Pound ? David Sedaris ? Tobias Smollett ? Gertrude Stein ? Robert Louis Stevenson ? Paul Theroux ? Gillian Tindall ? Calvin Trillin ? Mark Twain ? Edith Wharton ? Richard Wilbur ? William Carlos Williams In her third literary Baedeker, Alice Leccese Powers-editor of Italy in Mind and Ireland in Mind"-explores France through the senses and sensibilities of thirty-three British and American authors. The food and the people, the culture and viniculture, the architecture and the expatriates, the pleasures (and frustrations) of France are described by intrepid travelers who also happen to be brilliant essayists, poets, and novelists. From Gertrude Stein's Paris to Ezra Pound's Pyrenees; from Tobias Smollett, who grumbled, to Peter Mayle, who settled in; and from Edith Wharton on falling in love to David Sedaris on falling over French grammar-here is France in all its splendor in the words of some of the best and most entertaining writers in the English language. Henry Adams - James Baldwin - Elizabeth Bishop - Mary Blume - James Fenimore Cooper - Charles Dickens - Lawrence Durrell - Lawrence Ferlinghetti - M. F. K. Fisher - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Janet Flanner - Adam Gopnik - Joanne Harris - Ernest Hemingway - Washington Irving - Henry James - Thomas Jefferson - Stanley Karnow - Peter Mayle - Mary McCarthy - Jan Morris - Ezra Pound - David Sedaris - Tobi