PROVENCE AND THE BRITISH IMAGINATION IN TOBIAS SMOLLETT'S TRAVELS THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY (1766)

International audienceFrom our side of the Channel Smollett’s Travels through France and Italy (1766) have remained famous for drawing British attention to Nice and its surroundings, as they contain a “particular description” of that city. But the emphasis on Nice should not make us forget that the text provides many details about a larger geographical area which the traveller calls the “South of France” – an area which actually corresponds to our modern definition of Provence. At first sight, Travels seem to leave little space for imagination: they have all the appearance of a travel guide providing the British reader with “Observations on Character, Custom, Religion, Government, Police, Commerce, Arts and Antiquities.” The text therefore gives priority to observations, not to those visions of the mind which the word “imagination” immediately calls forth. Nevertheless, the subjective quality of the observer’s point of view is revealed by the epistolary nature of the text and the cantankerous tone of the ill traveller, who goes south to recover from both chronic lung disorders and “domestic calamity.” As the epistler tours the South of France in quest of health and antiquities, the satirical, patriotic intention that underlies Travels subordinates the representation of Provence to the making of Great Britain’s image as a nation. Thus Provence as it appears in Travels is shaped by “British imagination”, and it is more often that not a foil to the definition of the traveller’s native country. However, we shall wonder whether the text does not at times express another type of imagination – one that goes together with a genuine aesthetic appreciation of Provence’s natural landscapes as well as a more tolerant approach to its people