I read this over Christmas and it was brilliant. Although an odd choice because Madame Giovanni’s travels take her round most of the warmer climates of the world.
From what I can tell Madame Giovanni was a real person who kept a journal and Mr Dumas edited it into its present form. So Madame Giovanni is a French lady who is married to an Italian merchant. She accompanies him on his travels which start off in Australia and the journal ends with her crossing Mexico on her way back to France. In between there are many adventures and I couldn’t help but admire the bravery of Madame Giovanni and her husband. They see off thieves, storms and fires in San Francisco, but then they also do fun things like eating Welsh rarebit on a boat.
The end of the journal was a bit of a frustration. Whilst she leaves her husband behind in the states to sort things out there she travels back to France via Mexico. On said journey she gets caught up in a civil war and then the journal kind of comes to an abrupt end. And I don’t like not finding out what happens. I couldn’t help but get sucked into this book so I’m disappointed not to be able to find out what happens.
But other than that I would highly recommend reading this. There’s a lot of detail and it’s a great window into a different time and culture.
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