A Motor-Flight through France

by Edith Wharton, Mary Suzanne Schriber (Introduction)

Overview

Freed from the dependency upon the timetables and routes of the railway, the early years of the 20th century were a golden age for motorists. This book describes three of Wharton's journeys in this era, travelling in a chauffeur-driven Panhard with servants and luggage sent on ahead. The journeys are: a three-week run from Boulogne to Clermont-Ferrand to Paris in May 1906

a circuit of the South-West, the Pyrenees and the Rhone Valley in March-April 1907, accompanied by Henry James

and a short weekend in Picardy in 1907. Wharton wrote of her "flights" for the "Atlantic Monthly" and collected them into the present volume, which was first published in 1908.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875805535
Publisher:	Northern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1991
Pages:	253
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. She is the author of such classics in American literature as The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, and Ethan Frome.

Date of Birth:

January 24, 1862

Date of Death:

August 11, 1937

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France

Education:

Educated privately in New York and Europe

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface Note on the Text Introduction by Mary Suzanne Schriber
Part I
I. Boulogne to Amiens II. Beauvais and Rouen III. From Rouen to Fontainebleau IV. The Loire and the Indre V. Nohant to Clermont VI. In Auverge VII. Royat to Bourges
Part II
I. Paris to Poitiers II. Poitiers to the Pyrenees III. The Pyrenees to Provence IV. The Rhone to the Seine
Part III
A Flight to the North-East

Editorial Reviews

"A portrait of a long-forgotten France, a country that, when Wharton ranged over it in her 1904 Panhard-Levassor, was largely unchanged from medieval times."—New York Times Book Review

"Those who have been charmed with Mrs. Wharton's novels will not be disappointed by her venture into the unfamiliar role of a travel writer."—New York Times (1908)

"Wharton's reflections will still charm those who've been and those who dream. A nice addition to American literature as well as travel collections."—Library Journal

From the Publisher