Now considered a cult classic, this dreamy portrait of Provence before World War II brings the storied region in vivid color. From one of the great British authors of the twentieth century, this whimsical, personal, and sensual overview of Provençal life, culture, architecture, and history will transport you straight to the south of France.
Ford Madox Ford wrote Provence in the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression and escalating conflicts all around the world, which would come to a head in World War Il. At the time, Provence might have appealed as a refuge from a world gone wrong—the appeal remains—but in this book Ford, as the exploratory novelist and masterful critic that he was, had something bigger in view. Of course he describes, and delightfully, the natural splendor and the daily pleasures of his and his companion Janice Biala’s life in this beautiful region of ancient renown. At the same time, however, he delves into its history, poetry, and art, depicting Provence as a great crossroads between civilizations that is the definition of civilization itself. Provence, Ford writes, is “not a country nor the home of a race, but a frame of mind.”
With a new introduction by Nicholas Delbanco and illustrations by Biala, Provence is not so much a travel narrative as an invocation. As Eudora Welty has said, “The expansiveness and exuberance of spirit, the embracing knowledge of the place, that show forth in Ford’s long love affair with Provence will always give this book a joyous life of its own.”
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