In Morocco (Tauris Parke Paperbacks) (original 1919; édition 2005)

Edith Wharton travels to Morocco--a place without a published travel guide--in 1917. She describes her travels, providing background for sites visited and adding colorful bits of Moroccan life. She mentions remarks by guides at several sites. At the close of the book she provides a brief history of Morocco and notes on its architecture. She provides a list of works consulted in preparing her work. While it would not live up to a twenty-first century standard of a travel guide, it works well as a travel narrative. Wharton's well-written descriptions make this short volume a worthwhile read. ( )

This book has problems. Not least being the fact that Wharton couldn’t speak Arabic and appears to have travelled at times without a translator or Moroccan guide. Take the episode in chapter two where they visit the village of black people and come up with a theory about their origins. Why not just ask them? Well, she can’t, and apparently neither can anyone else in her party. On the other hand, in the space of one paragraph Wharton uses five animal metaphors to describe the inhabitants before finally settling on referring to the children as “jolly pickaninnies”. Oh but wait... the inhabitants had already given them directions so they could understand other. Here’s an out-there theory. Perhaps she felt that speaking to them was beneath her or that they couldn’t be trusted to know their own origins. This lack of interest in people extends to her travelling companions. She’s shy of telling us who she’s with so we’re largely denied to pleasure of those little portraits that make travel writing so enjoyable.

The purpose of the book appears to be propagandistic. Eleven pages out of one hundred and twenty-nine are devoted to the work of the colonial administrator. I suspect her tour and book were arranged as war-work to shore up support for the new Protectorate. Compare her comments on the Spanish zone.

But it’s not all bad. The scenes in the harems are particularly interesting, when she’s forced by circumstance to talk to people. She doesn’t seem inclined to join one. Also, she does a good job of parlaying her brief impressions of places into an actual book. You might find some of her descriptions a little florid, but I rather liked the welter of impressions which create a dream-like state. ( )

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La narrazione del viaggio compiuto dalla Wharton nel 1917 sull'onda delle suggestioni esotiche ricavate dalla pittura di Delacroix e dai resoconti letterari dell'Ottocento. Fine osservatrice, la Wharton sa rendere vivide e autentiche le descrizioni del deserto, delle città e dei suoi abitanti, astenendosi da ogni facile tentazione all'esotismo. ( )