Retracing Julius Caesar’s path through France
And learning from his chest-thumping dishonesty
HEMINGWAY, ORWELL, Joyce, Turgenev: many great foreign writers have found inspiration in France. But for lasting influence, one scribe stands above them all. He travelled around France for nine years, observing the local customs and recounting what he saw in lean and muscular prose. He also killed, by his own estimate, a million of the natives, conquered their territory and imposed on it a civilisation that has lasted, in one form or another, more than 2,000 years.
This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline “He came, he saw, he lied”
Christmas Specials December 18th 2021
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From the December 18th 2021 edition
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