ABSTRACT
Brittany proved a popular destination for British Victorian travellers. The association between the Breton people and primitivism is not confined to their appearance, however. Indeed, several British travellers made use of animal imagery in their responses to the region and its inhabitants, an element in this writing that has been largely overlooked. This neglect is due perhaps to the following facts: their works were published at a time hardly regarded as prestigious in the history of travel (too late to belong to the tradition of the Grand Tour, too early to interest the student of mass tourism); they related to a peripheral and not very exotic part of Europe; and. finally, even within France, narratives of the regions failed to excite particular curiosity amongst critics. Animals manifest themselves with amazing predictability whenever the Self is threatened by a sudden invasion of Otherness, and the appearance of an animal figure invariably signals danger.
