A review by macloo
In Morocco by Edith Wharton

3.0

I was fascinated by the first several chapters of this travelogue, in spite of a number of statements and descriptions that reflect Wharton's assumptions that Africans, Arabs, Berbers, etc., are inferior to Europeans and their descendants. In the early chapters she traces her own journey through the country in 1918. I had recently visited most of the same places, so her descriptions really interested me. After her traveler's account, she provides a short version of the history of Morocco, which is not bad except for a few more awful Euro-racist observations about how lovely it is that the French have invaded Morocco and are building things and restoring crumbling madrassas and other landmarks. Wharton's accounts of her visits inside two different "harems" may also suffer from her white-superiority complex, but they provide a glimpse into a way of life that has seldom been described by female writers.