Travel Writing on the Western Front: Masefield, Blunden, Sassoon, and Bagnold

Abstract

In the 1917 Michelin Guide to the Marne Battle-fields (1914), a photograph of a single grave is set opposite a painting from Senlis town hall on the facing page.1 The grave belongs to Monsieur Odent, Mayor of Senlis who was executed in August 1914 by the occupying German army along with six other hostages in reprisal for resistance by the retreating French army. The painting shows the execution of hostages in 1418 by the besieging Armagnacs: “Six centuries have elapsed, but it will be seen that, towards hostages, the Germans still retain the mental attitude of the Middle Ages.”2 The Guide converts the war, even as it is being fought, into a national history which can be accessed through the familiar vehicle of the European tour, by readers as much as travelers. The travel handbook with its reassuring itinerary of sights, monuments, paintings, châteaux, cathedrals, parks, and topographical features holds out the promise that this history is to be found in the territorial and cultural landscape of the nation, inherent in specific places and objects. Indeed, the Guide defines the significance of the war to the nation, precisely through the cultural richness of France, including places of interest “either from an archaeological or an artistic point of view … even though the war has passed it by, that the tourist may realize that it was to preserve this heritage of history and beauty intact, that so many of our heroes have fallen.”3