De Potter's Grand Tour

by Joanna Scott

A gripping novel about a seemingly charmed marriage and a mysterious disappearance at sea.

In 1905, a tourist agent and amateur antiques collector named Armand de Potter mysteriously disappeared off the coast of Greece. His body is never recovered and his wife is left to manage his affairs on her own. But as she starts to piece together his life, she realizes that everything was not as he had said. Infused with details from letters and diary entries, the narrative twists forward and backward through time, revealing a lost world of fake identities, underground antiques networks, and a husband who wasn't what he seemed.

Originally from Belgium, young Armand de Potter comes to New York without a penny in his pocket. With cunning ambition, he quickly makes a name for himself as both a worldwide travel guide and a trusted - if illegal - antiques dealer. After marrying, he moves the family to a luxurious villa in Cannes and embraces an aristocratic life. But as he grows increasingly entangled in the antiques trade and his touring business begins to falter, Armand's control starts to fray. As the world closes in, he believes he only has one option left.

Told with masterful narrative agility, De Potter's Grand Tour is a tale as grand as the tour guide at its center. Drawing on real letters, legal documents, and a trove of diaries only recently discovered, Joanna Scott points delicately toward the story's historical basis and unfolds a detective tale of the highest order.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Book Club, Travel, Mystery Thriller

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

from the backcover:
Joanna Scott is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Rochester. She has also taught in the creative writing programs at Princeton University and the University of Maryland. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship during the writing of Arrogance.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Joanna^^Scott

Reviews

[Miriam Bridenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful detective novel, a melancholic love story, a gripping tale of adventures written in savory and superb prose: the masterful work of a writer at the top of his game.

In 1905, the disappearance of Armand de Potter -- owner of a luxury tour company -- off the coasts of Greece in 1905 stirs up foolish rumors. Aymée de Potter, his widow, is left alone with their quite untalented son, her grief, and an unexpected amount of debts. As she digs into her husband’s affairs, she discovers he wasn’t exactly the man she thought she knew.

A delightful detective novel, a beautifully melancholic love story, a gripping tale of adventures set in the Gilded Age, De Potter’s Grand Tour is definitely all that at once. This masterful work of a writer at the top of her game will enchant the fans of Jules Verne and Agatha Christie. With disturbing ease, Joanna Scott blurs the boundaries between entertaining read and superb literary achievement, proving with much grace and elegance, how superficial this opposition is.

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Onvan : De Potter's Grand Tour - Nevisande : Joanna Scott - ISBN : 374162336 - ISBN13 : 9780374162337 - Dar 272 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2014

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid traveler, I was excited by the premise of world tours for wealthy Americans in the Gilded Age. However, when the travel descriptions were replaced by long itineraries punctuated by names of hotels, I lost interest. Most of the novel was highly predictable and the ending was anticlimactic. The characters felt one-sided, except Aimee, who does grow as the novel progresses. Furthermore, the writing felt clunky and the book was unnecessarily divided into too many parts. Why does a 260 page book need 7 or 8 parts (don't remember exactly how many, but at least 7), especially when not much is changing from part to part.

[Valorie Hallinan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're an armchair traveler, if you love history, and if you want an unusual story, I think you might like De Potter's Grand Tour. I did! See my review at Books Can Save a Life. http://wp.me/p28JYl-17K

[L. Soper · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I still don't understand why we're supposed to care about these people.

[Elizabeth Schlatter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed many parts of this book: the style of writing, the subject of first class international travel during the 19th-20th centuries, the theme of self-invention and self-deception, and the issue of collecting what appear to be anthropological treasures. But there was something sort of missing from the whole plot and I can't quite put my finger on it. In some sections, especially the last quarter, the story reads a bit like a chronological list, which is necessary to move quickly through time, but it also seemed as if the author was in a hurry and too busy to fully develop the story.

I absolutely loved this short paragraph (p. 187):

"He spent some time organizing his papers, writing in page numbers on his essays, putting documents into appropriate folders. As he always did in preparation for a trip, he covered his desk with an embroidered satin runner, placed a bronze pedestal bowl on top, and arranged the drapery over the fireplace."

Something about those two sentences -- the immaculate and ritualistic organization of everything having a proper place and putting those things in the proper places, meanwhile the subject's financial life is in ruins and he's in complete denial. Just thought that paragraph was perfect.

[Jaclyn Day · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel-that’s-not-quite-fiction, De Potter’s Grand Tour is based on Scott’s great-grandfather, Armand de Potter. In the book, Armand and wife Aimee run a successful business leading tours of Europe for wealthy travelers. Armand, a long-time adventurer, is also a passionate collector of antiquities. Then, Armand disappears while traveling on a ship near Greece. After resigning herself to Armand’s death, Aimee begins to sort through the (not inconsequential) mysteries of their life together. Despite what sounded like a great plot with fascinating characters, this book never got off the ground for me. The characters seemed one-dimensional (Aimee improves as the book proceeds), but that could be owed to Scott being hesitant to take too much license. They’re her relatives, after all.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

This odd little book is by one of the authors coming to the Guild Luncheon next month.. if you travel a lot you might enjoy it more than I did as DePotter runs a tourist tour company and the book drops the names of many places.. some I had heard of.. some not.. although the thread running through the story is something? that happens to DePotter.. not really a page turner for me.. I see the author had also written a Pulitzer prize nominee so I think she will be an interesting speaker.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a random grab at a book sale because I liked the cover. Could've used some editing at times but it was enjoyable overall

[Kati Heng · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel starts off around 1902, with the happy life and marriage of Armand de Potter (or, to put it fully, Pierre Louis Armand de Potter) and his young wife, Aimée (fashioned from her maiden name, Amy). The two appear to be the finest types of Americans – educated, proper, with the penchant for traveling in luxury. Of course, Armand makes the large sum of the family’s income from these travels, on which he escorts wealthy Americans and Brits around the world, taking in the sights and “doing the pryamids” and the like. His other source of income is destined to come from his collection, a trove of statues, treasures, figurines and native pieces he has expertly gathered from his adventures.

At least, this is the first glimpse we get of the couple. But life is hardly about the first impression alone.

While Aimée stays back in New York with their young son Victor, news arrives that her husband has been lost at see. Word gets around that he was last seen too close to the railing of a ship; a girl working aboard seems to have seen him fallen off over the edge. No one can say for sure if the man jumped or if the event was purely an accident. Either way, Armand has left Aimée alone with their son to carry on his adventures, requesting simply (although oddly) that should his body be lost and never given a proper burial, his wife should erect a monument in his honor.

There’s a problem, though, when Aimée goes to withdraw funds from their account. It seems their money is gone, or there was never so much in the first place.

I forget exactly where it’s revealed, but of course, Armand is not completely the man he pretends to be. In fact, the man is an immigrant, an ambitious man who arrives in New York in the 1870s, finding his footing and paying the bills through a number of schemes. Over the years, the man de Potter reinvents himself as an aristocrat, a gentleman, a scholar, a collector of rare artifacts, and maybe even a member of the Belgian aristocracy. It’s this remarkable, supposedly world-renowned man that Amy falls in love with while he is working as a French professor in her girl’s school. It’s this man whom the wealthy trust to take them on tours of the world he has traveled in such detail.

Not only is the plot a completely fun, perfect end-of-summer travel and adventure tale, it’s got a rare finesse in the ease of its historical context. If you’ve read a bad historical novel, you’ll know what I mean by this – the author, so desperate to get you in the mindset “HEY THIS IS 19WHATEVER!!” will throw in miscellaneous details that no one cares about to make it seem like they are painting the imaginary world of that 19whatever, only to make you, the reader, so mortifyingly self-conscious to the fact that you are now outside not just the novel, but the author is also outside the novel, and neither of you can get into that time period, so the author desperately is throwing you ropes of events that were maybe very important around that time…. Is this just me? I don’t know, I struggle greatly with historical novels written in 2014. It’s hard for the author to actually convince me we are in that time. But Scott does it, effortlessly. The book flows so easily, you just know you’re in 1900s and she doesn’t have to slam you over the head with it. The work speaks for itself.

Anyway, to summarize after that monster of a ramble I just spewed: De Potter’s Grand Tour is a delightfully witty, clever, perhaps philosophical tale that I really really think you will enjoy.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Potter's Grand Tour was not what I was expecting- it was better. I was expecting a book about a man who is lost at sea. I was expecting a nice historical backdrop and a good story. I got all those things, and more.

As we learn about Armand De Potter through his eyes and his wife's, we discover that he's not the man he has cast himself to be. There are many layers to De Potter, and he is the ultimate in self-creation. He crafted his own identity when he first moved to America, and continued to cultivate a persona when he married Amy Beckwith and started his European tour business. This reminded me of Nabokov's work, the ways in which characters (and unreliable narrators) create versions of themselves as they wish to be seen. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is a good example of this.

I was somewhat confused by the transitions in time in the novel as we flash back from the present (Armand and Aimee) to Armand first moving to America, to Armand at sea, then forward to his wife Aimee and his son Victor after he is lost at sea. This ultimately worked well for the narrative, though, as it cultivated the dreamy, mysterious sense that permeated the novel.

I found the ending surprisingly moving. The subversion of the reader's expectation with regards to Armand's fate, as well as the turn towards Scott herself, and her mother, and all the possibilities and sadness and love represented in the form of the stranger at the door, were enough to make me a little misty-eyed in the final scene.

Scott has expertly crafted a beautiful and poignant novel, an epic and moving love story that subverts expectations throughout. Love this blend of history and literature, fact and fiction. Bravo.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book begins in 1905, on the day that Armand de Potter, a tour guide for the wealthy and antiquities dealer, disappears. After that, the timeline is a game of hopscotch in time, alternating between the Belgian emigre de Potter and his wife, Aimee. At times the book dips into a portion of de Potter's rise, and then it slips forward to incidents that are part of his fall. Slowly, the reader pieces together that little was as it seemed in de Potter's life and that the characteristics that gave him a modest fame and wealth were part of the same package that ultimately led to his downfall.

The trouble here is perhaps one of expectations. From the title, the cover, and the settings, most readers would expect a book about the excitement of the grand tour in Europe back in the days of early travel. It's a romantic and attractive concept. Instead when one finds out that the grand tour in question is a schemer's life, and that the attitudes of the story toward travel are cynical rather than romantic, it's likely to be a letdown. At that point, even though one might persist and ultimately enjoy this riddle of a character study, it is perhaps difficult to recapture enthusiasm.

[Charles Finch · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review for USA Today:

De Potter's Grand Tour

By Joanna Scott

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 272 pp.

***½

Most readers would probably prefer to have fewer images in front of them, not more. In this odd and moving book, however, the erratically placed black-and-white photographs are the only indication of the personal connection that Scott – winner of a MacArthur grant – has to this fictionalized tale of her ancestor, Armand de Potter. De Potter, a bit of a fabulist, but a successful collector of antiquities and leader of tour groups from America back to his native Europe, disappears from a cruise in 1905. There were money troubles; has he run, killed himself? Scott's truest character is de Potter's faithful but clear-eyed American wife, Aimée, and her presence elevates the occasionally sluggish narrative to art – De Potter's Grand Tour is a descendant of the work of Penelope Fitzgerald and W.G. Sebald, with their sensitivity to how unknowable life is, and yet how worth trying to know.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/bo...

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time I thought I knew what sort of novel this was, my expectations were defied. - e.g. Monsieur de Potter is a character I thought I'd pegged, yet he is revealed as much more complicated then he appears. In fact both husband and wife become more complicated the more I read (as it should be, right?) "He was an expert at giving the impression that he was never disappointed and had grown so used to affecting an impenetrable superficiality that he'd forgotten there was more to him." But he also suffers from a sort of imposter syndrome.

Delightful descriptions of Europe/Africa/Levant through the eyes of Europeans on their grand tour.

The photographs throughout: did Scott write this inspired by photographs (like Richard Powers and the August Sanders photograph that inspired Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance)?

I had this impression that Joanna Scott wrote intricate, baroque prose, and perhaps she does in other novels, but not here. The directness fits the voices of the narrators.

[Beth Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose of the book is like a nicely aged wine that you savor in front of the firelight. A very fast read, but also complex in idea. This is a book where I found myself soaking in the language - like a hot bath after a long day of work. It is a novel I will ponder for many days to come as I, too, embark on a professional journey to "reinvent" myself. If you like to travel in your books, this is a good read. If you are looking for something that is simple on the surface but complex as you linger with the consequences of the characters' truths you might consider this as well. If you do no like reading about missed opportunity after missed opportunity...alas, consider another option.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised by the tepid reviews here on Goodreads, as I rather liked this charming, strange little book. It's a short, quick read with no real surprises and kind of a downer ending, but I loved the vivid, captivating imaginings of turn-of-the-century travel. I'm also fascinated by antiquities collecting in this era, and Scott created a simple but pleasing story that added some personality to a solid body of research.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty much a waste of time. Written in the impersonal 3rd person it reads like a newspaper article. There is some meditation on who we are "really" but ultimately you don't care enough about the protagonists. How is it that the fluffy-headed wife manages to sell the company, the artifacts and come out on top? Amazing how little was needed to be "somebody" in Europe at the turn of the century.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the writing clunky, the story was choppy and the ending was predictable.

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming light read. Armand de Potter has never been able to reconcile himself to the fact that his father was the illegitimate son of a famous hero of Belgian Independence, Louis de Potter. By moving to the US, he purchases the right to brag about his grand-father without risking contradiction from relatives. There he eventually marries a nice girl who becomes an invaluable partner in his business as a high-class tour operator. Together, Armand and Aimée take wealthy Americans all over Europe and the Middle East. After 10 years, they finally have a son, Victor, and their happiness is complete, or is it? Armand's true passion is archeology, and his tours turn into buying sprees. His life's ambition would be to have the collection of antiquities he has deposited on loan at the University of Philadelphia properly catalogued and recognized as a national treasure. Unfortunately, he has spent much more money on this collection than he could afford, and when some angry customers threaten to sue him after an accident in Jaffa, Armand sees no way out of his predicament than committing suicide, in order for his widow and son to collect his life insurance. In and of itself, this story is moving enough, and it's a bit of a shame that Scott finds it imperative to tease the reader with the possibility that Armand might have found a way to disappear without trace. Of course, since his body is never found (he jumps from the deck of a ship) it is normal for Aimée to hold out some hope, and and for various people to gossip, since Armand's lies about his origins and the extent of his fortune come to light eventually. But there was something artificial about the way Scott played the suspense element. The real mystery is not so much whether Armand found a way to leave the ship unseen and build a new life (it's very unlikely that he could have pulled it off) but why a man who had a great marriage and a sound business would jeopardize it all for the elusive dream of being recognized as a benefactor of the University of Pennsylvania.

[Kali Napier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set mainly in the first decade of the 20thC, this is a story of Armand and Aimee de Potter, an American couple who lead tours of Europe and Egypt. Until Armand disappears off the side of a boat one day and Aimee pieces together the lies that her husband has told about his life. We see excerpts of Aimee’s diary, introspection and tick-tacking back and forth through time with Armand’s perspective as he contemplates what he is about to do. I thought the inclusion of black and white photographs ingenious, a bit like William Boyd’s Sweet Caress, until I discovered that these were real photographs and the story is based on the author’s great-grandparents and the remnants of this episode that she found locked in a steamer trunk. The fashioning of the story, in photograph-like vignettes made sense from a craft perspective then, and knowing it was based on true events to begin with would have improved my enjoyment of it. However, there was something missing for me at the heart of the story.

[Yasmina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Armand and Aimee De Potter own an exclusive tour company in the late 1800s. Their tours are known for being luxurious and informative. Life for Aimee is perfect. She lives in a beautiful house in Southern France. She is loved dearly by her husband and son , and she enjoys touring with her husband. Everything changes when her husband is reported to have fallen overboard on his way home from a tour. Was it a suicide or an accident? The premise of the story is intriguing, unfortunately the characters are uninspiring and one dimensional. Scott's descriptions of the places the De Potters visit overshadows the characters themselves. The narrative read more like a travel brochure than a story.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have just not finished this one, but I wanted to know how it ended. Now I just wish I had jumped ahead to the end like my husband does quite frequently, I just couldn't stoop to that level. ;) A good premise for a story, and I love to travel so I thought this would be right up my alley, but the writing was only so-so. Downright boring in many places, and the ending, introducing a brand new character...AGH! Don't waste your time like!

[Erica Hafferkamp · Rating 2 out of 5]

So...meh. It felt like it took me forever to get through this one. I thought the cover was very exciting, but sadly that was about the only part of the book that was!

[Rene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing premise. Creatively written. But in the end so
mundane and depressing.

[Laronda Blessing · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit weird.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess this was based on a true story but I didn't know that going in, so I was confused. It was just weird.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed hearing about all about the foreign cities. Didn't love the ending though. Nice narration.

[Melissa Riggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little slow in places, but an interesting book-especially after reading about the "back story". That this is based on the author's great-grandparents and the journals, itineraries, and other items found in a trunk in the basement.

"In 1905, a tourist agent and amateur antiques collector named Armand de Potter mysteriously disappeared off the coast of Greece. His body is never recovered and his wife is left to manage his affairs on her own. But as she starts to piece together his life, she realizes that everything was not as he had said. Infused with details from letters and diary entries, the narrative twists forward and backward through time, revealing a lost world of fake identities, underground antiques networks, and a husband who wasn’t what he seemed. Originally from Belgium, young Armand de Potter comes to New York without a penny in his pocket. With cunning ambition, he quickly makes a name for himself as both a worldwide travel guide and a trusted—if illegal—antiques dealer. After marrying, he moves the family to a luxurious villa in Cannes and embraces an aristocratic life. But as he grows increasingly entangled in the antiques trade and his touring business begins to falter, Armand’s control starts to fray. As the world closes in, he believes he only has one option left."

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sun had not yet set on the Gilded Age when Armand De Potter disappeared. In 1905, Europe was still, officially, at peace and the best families still considered a grand tour part of every civilised life. De Potter set up a thriving tour company. Relying on his amateur historical knowledge to provide unique itineraries, he also bought curios and antiquities along the way. He was a collector — of things, memories, histories, experiences.

So far, all of this is true.

As is the part where De Potter disappears without a trace. He never disembarks from the ship he was traveling on. His body is never found.

What happened to him that night, and in all the in-between moments of his life are filled in by the author, Joanna Scott. Scott happens to be De Potter’s great granddaughter. When she accidentally discovered a steamer trunk full of papers and photographs, she decided to reconstruct the life of her great grandfather.

I asked her a few questions about the process.

Please read my interview and the rest of my review on my site: http://mwgerard.com/review-de-potters...

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded this to my Kindle on a whim, knowing nothing about it, which isn't a thing I do very often because I have such a long list of books that I've heard about and want to read. But this sounded interesting, so I went for it. I didn't love it, however. I just learned that the book is based on a true story of the author's relatives, which I think explains some of the longer, less interesting bits of description. I'm not sure the actual events were exciting enough to fill an entire book, especially with such an open ending. This might have been better as a short story, or a novella, with less of the mundane descriptive paragraphs. Really I think this was just a case of the book not being what I thought it would be, which isn't really the author's fault. I just wasn't very into it.