A Little Tour in France

Book by Henry James

A Little Tour in France

Cover of the 1900 edition, published by Houghton Mifflin

Author| Henry James
Illustrator| Thomas Watson Bell (1900 edition pictured)
Language| English
Genre| Travel writing
Publisher| James R. Osgood and Company, Boston

Publication date

| 5 September 1884
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print
Pages| 255

A Little Tour in France is a book of travel writing by American writer Henry James. Published under the title En Province in 1883–1884 as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly, the book recounts a six-week tour James made of many provincial towns in France, including Tours, Bourges, Nantes, Toulouse, Arles and several others. The first book publication was in 1884. A second, extensively revised edition was published in 1900 with illustrations by Joseph Pennell.

James gives the idea for the book in the first paragraph of the first installment of the original magazine serial: "France may be Paris, but Paris is not France." He conceived the book as a description of and even homage to the provinces. James had tried living in Paris before settling in London in 1876. He returned to France in 1882 to discover more of French provincial life than he had previously been able to see.

## Summary and themes[edit]

James began his tour in Touraine, then journeyed southwest through Provence, and then north along the flooding Rhône River to Burgundy. The resulting book was a pleasant mix of art and architecture criticism, references to classic literature as well as guide-books and pamphlets, sharp observation of people and places, and knowledgeable discussion of French history and culture - all communicated in an easygoing, urbane, witty style.

James could never resist the piquant detail, like the chatty nun who guided him through Marmoutier Abbey or the tough soldiers quartered in the dismal old papal residence at Avignon. He was particularly interested in ancient cathedrals and castles, the less restored the better, though he hardly neglects present-day realities of shabby inns, talkative diners, uncomfortable train rides, and dreary museums. There's little attempt at generalization or abstract theorizing. James is usually content to describe what he saw as accurately as possible. He wrote in a letter of November 12, 1882, to Isabella Gardner: "I have seen more of France than I had ever seen before, and on the whole liked it better."

### Table of contents[edit]

* Preface
* Introductory
* Tours
* Tours: the Cathedral
* Tours
* Blois
* Chambord
* Amboise
* Chenonceaux
* Azay-le-Rideau
* Langeais

* Loches
* Bourges
* Bourges: Jacques Cœur
* Le Mans
* Angers
* Nantes
* La Rochelle
* Poitiers
* Angoulême
* Toulouse
* Toulouse: the Capitol

* Toulouse: Saint-Sernin
* Carcassonne
* Carcassonne
* Narbonne
* Montpellier
* The Pont du Gard
* Aigues-Mortes
* Nîmes
* Tarascon
* Arles

* Arles: the Museum
* Les Baux
* Avignon
* Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
* Vaucluse
* Orange
* Mâcon
* Bourg-en-Bresse
* Beaune
* Dijon

|
|
|

## Sources[edit]

* Henry James Collected Travel Writings - The Continent - A Little Tour in France, Italian Hours, Other Travels edited by Richard Howard (New York: Library of America 1993) ISBN 0-940450-77-1

## External links[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

A Little Tour in France

* Original magazine text of A Little Tour in France under the title En Province (1883)
* Project Gutenberg text of A Little Tour in France (1884 book version)
* A Little Tour in France public domain audiobook at LibriVox
* Note on the various texts of A Little Tour in France at the Library of America web site

* v
* t
* e

Henry James

Bibliography

Novels|

* Watch and Ward (1871)
* Roderick Hudson (1875)
* The American (1877)
* The Europeans (1878)
* Confidence (1879)
* Washington Square (1880)
* The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
* The Bostonians (1886)
* The Princess Casamassima (1886)
* The Reverberator (1888)
* The Tragic Muse (1890)
* The Other House (1896)
* The Spoils of Poynton (1897)
* What Maisie Knew (1897)
* The Awkward Age (1899)
* The Sacred Fount (1901)
* The Wings of the Dove (1902)
* The Ambassadors (1903)
* The Golden Bowl (1904)
* The Outcry (1911)
* The Ivory Tower (1917)
* The Sense of the Past (1917)

Novellas|

* Madame de Mauves (1874)
* Daisy Miller (1878)
* The Aspern Papers (1888)
* The Turn of the Screw (1898)
* The Beast in the Jungle (1903)

Plays|

* Theatricals (1894)
* Theatricals: Second Series (1895)
* Guy Domville (1895)

Non-fiction|

* French Poets and Novelists (1878)
* Hawthorne (1879)
* A Little Tour in France (1884)
* Partial Portraits (1888)
* Essays in London and Elsewhere (1893)
* Picture and Text (1893)
* William Wetmore Story and His Friends (1903)
* English Hours (1905)
* The American Scene (1907)
* Italian Hours (1909)
* A Small Boy and Others (1913)
* Notes on Novelists (1914)
* Notes of a Son and Brother (1914)
* Notebooks
* The Middle Years (1917)

Related|

* Henry James Sr. (father)
* William James (brother)
* Alice James (sister)
* Lamb House
* New York Edition

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template