The Grand Tour

by Christopher Hibbert

aristocratic European travel

Genres: History, Travel, Nonfiction, Italy

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 1974

About the author

Christopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS (5 March 1924 - 21 December 2008) was an English writer, historian and biographer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads.

Described by Professor Sir John Plumb as "a writer of the highest ability and in the New Statesman as "a pearl of biographers," he established himself as a leading popular historian/biographer whose works reflected meticulous scholarship.

Reviews

[Victor Sonkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review of the heyday of the Grand Tour, structured more or less as its itinerary. Quite interesting, with quotes from the travelers and the like. Perhaps a bit lacking in depth, but, also perhaps for that reason, not boring.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly-informative survey of the young, often aristocratic, Englishman abroad in the 18th. century. It pulls no cultural punches on the myriad shocks & sudden surprises that awaited them all over Europe & particularly in popular France & classical Italy.
A Protestant Englishman being nauseated by a Roman Catholic ritual or saint's day struck home with me, as I too had felt such a reaction to such rites & processions with hideous symbols & sycophantic clerics & peasants, in the 1980s!! But Italy is not all like it was in the 18th century, and neither are English visitors. But 'The Grand Tour' is now a 'gap year' for left-wing liberal elites not barely educated sons of blue-blooded buffoons!
Christopher Hibbert tells the truth about a mixed experience for most, naive travellers, but there were many moments of wonder & disbelief at landscapes, architecture, history & art...as well as obliging women & helpful guides. I enjoyed this immensely & the illustrations & pictures were a delight for my eyes, even showing some of the places in Italy I remember with affectionate English regard.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Hibbert, who obviously wrote a bit too much to be consistently good, as he was on the Indian Mutiny, or the interaction between England and China in the 19th C.
But it's Hibbert, so you know what you get: a wealth of research, an abundance of anecdotes, quotes and quips, a flowing organisation and structure that make it all very readable: Hibbert, quoi.
Nothing really new in there, if you've read your classics, but still plenty to enjoy, some good references for more reading. Hibbert, quoi...

[Andrew Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as an introduction to the idea of the Grand Tour. Having encountered it so often in books and writings about, and from, the Georgian period, it was time to become better informed.

What I enjoyed were the quotes and stories, the details of how 'tourists' experienced their travels.

[Christina Dudley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Christopher Hibbert histories, having read his "biographies" of London and Rome. I didn't read all of this one, because I was just gleaning certain parts of it for research, but like the other books it was entertaining, well-researched and well-illustrated.

[Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but somewhat dry. Not Hibbert's most engaging work.

[Heddy Panik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well researched. An interesting read.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of what young British men, of the upper class, did and where they went on the Grand Tour, and what they thought of everything.