News

The latest in our series of late-eighteenth/nineteenth century French and German travel writings, Maxime du Camp and Gustave Flaubert's record of their walking tour through Brittany, entitled 'By Field and Shore: Brittany' (‘Par Les Champs et Par Les Grèves : Bretagne’, 1847) is now available for browsing and download here.

Their journey in 1847 was partly a literary pilgrimage motivated by admiration for François-René de Châteaubriand, the father of French Romanticism. They travelled through north-west Brittany from May to July, taking in Saint-Malo, Châteaubriand’s birthplace and the site of his tomb, and co-produced an account of the trip. They produced alternate chapters, with Du Camp ‘developing’ his contributions, from a combination perhaps of his own notes and those of Flaubert. The precise method, and the extent of Du Camp’s personal contribution, is unclear. The result of their efforts is usually included in Flaubert’s collected works.

This enhanced translation has been designed to offer maximum compatibility with current search engines. Among other modifications, the proper names of people and places, and the titles given to works of art, have been fully researched, modernised, and expanded; comments in parentheses have been added here and there to provide a reference, or clarify meaning; and minor typographic or factual errors, for example incorrect attributions and dates, in the original text, have been eliminated from this new translation.

The edition is copiously illustrated with around 240 lithographs, by Auguste Étienne François Mayer (French, 1805–1890), Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot (French, 1810–1871), Eugène Cicéri (French, 1813–1890), Léon Gaucherel (French, 1816–1886) and Félix Benoist (French, 1818–1896), which have, generously, been made available to us by the Musée de Bretagne in Rennes, Brittany.

The reader may also view a map of all locations on Flaubert and Du Camp's route, provided by uMap.