France: An Adventure History

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Part travelogue and part eclectic episodic history essays that covers certain events from the time of the Roman Empire in France to 2020 (with large gaps in between, a comprehensive time line it is not), this is at times funny, thought-provoking, and gives a flavor of the complex country that is France.

His 2007 book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes.France: An Adventure History is a profoundly original and endlessly entertaining history of France, from the first century BC to the present day, based on countless new discoveries and thirty years of exploring France on foot, by bicycle and in the library. Sheas Eileen leis ar feadh 42 mí go dtí gur ghéill an tSeapáin, tír a bhí briste, brúite ar deireadh, i mí Lúnasa, 1945.

This is a fairly ambitious book, covering a huge amount of time in an attempt to give an impression of the whole history of France as a nation.Other than Napoleon, the French Revolution, and Vichy France, I didn’t know much of anything about France’s history. The point of the book wasn’t to focus on France’s famous history but rather, as appropriately titled, the adventure histories. Having met Graham Robb and read several of his books, I was VERY DISAPPOINTED to find that this edition, bought by my wife as a gift for my birthday in August has NO MAPS OR DIAGRAMS included. I want to know more about the scandal of the Murder of Madame Bovary, more theories into The Tree at the Center of France, or simply more recounts of Robb’s own stories of visiting the hidden parts of France.