Before You Begin

Before you begin.

Tobias Smollett set out from England in 1763 seeking relief from illness and a different climate. What he made of the journey is something more vigorous than a conventional Grand Tour: a sequence of letters that watches roads, inns, meals, customs, landscapes and public institutions with restless precision.

The route begins at Boulogne, moves through France to the Mediterranean, crosses into Italy, and returns by Provence. Smollett records admired works of art and natural scenery, but his eye is just as quick for a bad room, a difficult crossing, a meal, a toll or an argument. His judgments can be severe; they are also inseparable from the immediacy that makes these letters a living record of travel.

First published in 1766, Travels Through France and Italy offers Europe before railways and modern tourism: a world measured in post-horses, coastal passages and the changing conditions of the road. This edition begins with Letter I and keeps the original forty-one-letter sequence intact. Its maps and contextual plates introduce the journey without giving away later incidents; each visual recap unlocks only after the corresponding letter has been read.