In The Vine Country

by Edith Œnone Somerville, Violet Florence Martin, Frederick Henry Townsend (Illustrator)

A sumptuous time piece of the Medoc country.

Mistresses of ironic wit and precise observation, Somerville and Ross are at their most genial in this account of a tour through the Medoc county at the end of the 19th century.

Genres: Travel, France

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Edith Anna Œnone Somerville (1858 - 1949) was an Irish novelist who habitually signed herself as "E. Œ. Somerville". She wrote in collaboration with her cousin Violet Martin aka "Martin Ross" under the pseudonym "Somerville and Ross". Her 'Irish RM' books were made into a TV series in 1983



See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_S...

Reviews

[Jane]

I have been to the south of France, for the grape harvest, with two Anglo-Irish Victorian lady writers, and I loved it.

Œnone Somerville and her cousin "Martin Ross" (actually Violet Martin - of Ross House) wrote novels, short stories and travelogues together as "Somerville and Ross". I remember an adaptation of 'The Experiences of an Irish R. M.' being very popular when I was a child, I've noted that Virago reissued 'Through Connemara in a Duchess Cart', I remember seeing 'The Real Charlotte in some very good company on a list of forgotten classics, and I know that Lisa rates them very highly.

But that's about all I know. Except that they share a biographer with Margaret Kennedy, and that has to be another positive thing.

I'll find out more one day, and I'm sure there's a great deal of interest to be learned, but for now I just want to enjoy their excellent company.

Early in their writing career the cousins were commissioned by a weekly publication -The Lady's Pictorial" - to travel to the vineyards of the Médoc," to write a series of articles about their experiences. Some time later, those articles were collected and published as 'In the Vine Country.'

There is much to be enjoyed here: accounts of travel by train and by boat; observations of people, places and so many things that the ladies see long the way; time spent at vineyards, where they saw the harvest and the treading of the grapes; visits to chateaux, where they were most impressed by the great barrels that lay maturing.

Along the way they sketched, and they were very proud of their Kodak wherever they went. The sketches illustrate and illuminate the text; what happened to the photographs I don't know. Well I know that some were lost when they forgot to remove the lens cap, and only realised when they believed it lost and went to put something else in its place to protect the delicate lens.

There are lots of things like that; the kind of little things you would remember from a holiday. And this is a book that feels rather like hearing about somebody's holiday. One of the lovely things is that the teller knows exactly how much to tell; enough to keep things interesting but not so much as to lose the attention of a listener without a particular interest in what is being said.

(I have to say 'the teller' because there is no indication of who the first person narrator is, or of whether it the pair took turns. Maybe I'll find out, because I shall definitely be reading more of their work, and more about them.)

That the tale of this adventure was so very well and so very engagingly told speaks volumes for Somerville and Ross's careful observation and genuine interest. It can't have been usual for two 19th century ladies to travel to the continent unescorted, but they managed things nicely, smoothing their path with acceptance and understanding, and with good humour laced with a lovely sense of the ironic.

That reminds me to say the the writing style made me think of the Provincial Lady. It was smoother and calmer though; as she might of written had she had all the time in the world to make such a trip herself.

It was a lovely trip, and I hope to be spending more time with my two new friends.

I think maybe it should be 'Connemara in a Duchess Cart' next; because I'm delighted that Reading Ireland Month .led to our introduction.

[Sarah]

Somerville and Ross, two Victorian ladies, embark on a tour of the Medoc wine region. They meet the workers as they harvest the grape crops and are viewed with amusement by the locals. Sketches add charm throughout the book. They are embarrassed by unsuccessful attempts at speaking French and include witty observations on their travels. They have an obvious naivety which adds humour to a light, enjoyable read.

[Mary Durrant]

A gem of a book.
Somerville and Ross tour the Medoc , they visit the harvests, the locals find them so amusing as they don't always choose the right word!
Very witty with lovely illustrations.
An entertaining read!

[Victoria Jackson]

Very humorous wry observations. They go to the Bordeaux area to write about wine production - Edwardian times, visit Chateaux Latour and others, stilted conversation in French with French aristocratic manners. Also stay in very humble barn where "we looked at eachother conscious of an effect of failure in the morning's toilet; the tinfoil looking-glass had slurred over defects that we now saw with a quickened perception". On the train to Paris with a repast of grapes and croissants, half a bottle of Grand St Lambert, continued through stages of bovril, tea and gingerbread biscuits. The water for the tea was proving a difficulty.
hot coffee was a luxury and

[Beth Bonini]

I found this lovely modern imprint of In the Vine Country (1893) in Daunt Bookshop as I was hunting down books set in France. I did read it in France, mostly in short bursts when I was lunching by myself - but it is suited for that kind of reading, because it is really just a collection of vignettes. It is a travelogue that can be picked up and put down; with no plot to speak of, to remember or forget, but rather a character sketch of a time and place and its people. It’s a book that I would describe as “charming,” mostly because of the humour of the narrative voice and the illustrations which are sprinkled liberally throughout. It is an “innocents abroad” kind of book, even though the authors (Edith Somerville, and her cousin Martin Ross) were prolific writers and certainly esteemed enough to be hired by the late 19th magazine The Lady’s Pictorial to write a long piece on the Medoc region of France. From the beginning, though, they make it clear that they are authorities on neither France nor its wine and that they are coming to the subject as fresh as, undoubtedly, the majority of their readers.

The gibes of our friends were many and untiring, and were the harder to bear that we felt a secret scepticism as to our fitness for this large and yet delicate mission - what did we know of Chateau Lafite or Mounton Rothschild, except that a glass and a half of the former had once compelled my second cousin to untimely slumber at dessert?

The self-deprecating tone is consistent throughout, and the attitude is mostly that they “just about get away with it,” not because of their own elan and expertise, but because of the generosity and lack of sophistication of most of the French people they come into contact with during their tour of Bordeaux and its environs. Accompanied by a large amount of luggage and their own kettle, they experience a variety of hospitality. Of course there are wine vignettes, too, but what I remember chiefly are their descriptions of making tea - and whether they are aided or hindered in that goal. I wonder, as I reflect on my impressions (a month after reading the book), how much of the content and point-of-view of the piece was tailored for their presumably middle-class British “lady” readers and how much of it was just natural to the authors themselves.

[Daniela Sorgente]

The authors, who are two Irish cousins, describe their journey in the Bordeaux wine region (first in the Medoc then in Libourne) at the end of the 19th century, in October, at the time of the grape harvest. They visit vineyards and companies (even that of the famous Mouton-Rothschild, before it was famous) but I wouldn't say their impressions are positive. Much emphasis is placed on small adventures and misadventures, the continuous escape from garlic-rich foods, the disgust for the grapes stamped with feet and their "revulsion" when they are offered to taste the must thus produced, the relief when they are hosted in a house where they find "English management and comforts".
In short, I found them very unadventurous, not very open to understanding and appreciating the culture of the visited places, which seems to me to be a necessary condition for writing a good travel book. It may be that the two cousins ​​are better novelists than travel writers and perhaps I will give them another chance as I also have their novels The Silver Fox and An Irish Cousin in my to-be-read books.
On this trip, the two cousins ​​brought along an early model Kodak camera. They don't tell us what happens to the photos taken, but the book is accompanied by numerous black and white drawings made by one of the two authors

[Hermione Ireland]

Just so funny. And so evocative. How lovely to be able to visit a place now quite distant in history with such brilliant guides.