L'usage du monde

In 1953, a young man of 24, the son of a good Calvinist family, left Geneva and his university, where he took courses in Sanskrit and medieval history, then law, aboard his Fiat Topolino. Nicolas Bouvier had already made some short trips and long stays in Burgundy, Finland, Algeria, Spain, and then in Yugoslavia, Italy, and Greece. This time, he travels further afield: Turkey, Iran, Kabul, and then the border with India. He is accompanied by his friend, Thierry Vernet, who documents the expedition in drawings and prints. These six months of traveling through Anatolia, Iran, and Afghanistan give birth to one of the greatest masterpieces of travel literature, L'Usage du monde, republished here.