In this book, based on his doctoral dissertation defended at the ELTE University in Budapest and L’Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris, in 2009, Gábor Gelléri focuses on the seemingly known phenomenon of Frenchmen traveling to England, yet, as the author rightly claims, it is a phenomenon that has not been properly analyzed and explained. Opening the way to England for French travelers is widely attributed to Voltaire, and one of the aims of this book is to deconstruct this “Voltairian myth.” Gelléri researches the traveling practices of the French in England. The author presents his study, drawing on several sources, and makes his case in seven chapters and an epilogue.

The introduction shows an overview of the limited scholarly work conducted on this topic until now, and poses the key research question: what was the phenomenon of the voyage for the travelers and for those who did not travel? Gelléri is not interested in the detailed story of the real or the fake journey, but in the motives for embarking on it. The book traces how these motives developed and changed during the two centuries. Therefore, each chapter, following a chronological order, deals with a different goal. Chapter 1 starts the discussion with the Restoration of Stuarts—the moment when French travelers “discovered” England (used in the broader sense). Along with the French who were present at the royal court of Charles II, known for his admiration of French culture, others were mostly scholars and tourists who were visiting the country too. The first were interested in the scientific developments that occurred in the country, while the second were looking for new experiences.

The second chapter focuses on the Huguenot refugees in England, with the author making a clear distinction between Huguenot accounts of their escape from France to England, the scholarly and the philosophical debates in which England was portrayed as an alternative to France, and the travel-related literature and accounts. Gelléri points to the fact that England was often seen as a mirror to French self-definition. For Huguenots, England was, especially after the Glorious Revolution, a safe haven from Catholic persecution. Chapter 3 discusses the Swiss phenomenon, which began in the early eighteenth century, when Swiss young men went to England and wrote about their experiences back home, and acted in some cases as a connecting point between English and French ideas, at times influenced by the Huguenots. The text of Murault is the main object of the discussion. The fourth chapter focuses on the period following the death of Louis XIV—the Regency—when debates about Murault continued, but many new publications about England also appeared in France, paving the road for “philosophical” trips, inspired by Voltaire. Voltaire, Montesqieu, and their connection with England is discussed in chapter 5. The next chapter, entitled “Anglophoebia-Anglomania,” examines travel practices to England from the 1730s, based on positive and negative perspectives in the novels of R.-M. Lesuire, Mme de Riccoboni, and others. The last chapter explores the expansion of travel to England from the mid-eighteenth century to the French Revolution, a period when, according to Gelléri, the motives for such travel became more and more complex and intertwined, particularly because during this period, England and France were engaged in three military conflicts. The epilogue has an ambitious goal in attempting to establish possible links between travel to England and the French Revolution. The conclusion expands the scope of research into the nineteenth century by demonstrating that the interest in England diminished only during the turbulent years of the Revolution.

In conclusion, the author has produced a remarkably detailed and well-researched study, which reaches its goal of filling in the historiographic gap on travel to England, in a clearly structured way. Some inconsistencies in names—for example, when referring to some of the well-known Huguenots, such as when Pierre Jurieu is called “Pierre-Armand” and Henri Basnage de Beauval is referred to as “Bauval”—do not undermine the overall importance of the discussion. As Gelléri notes himself, there is much more to be done on this topic in order to have a complete picture, which makes this book even more important for those interested in early modern travel, society, and culture.