The first thing you need to know about A Considerable Town is that it is not a travel or guide book. The first time Fisher visited Marseille the year was 1929. She is back again...only it's 1976 (yes, you read that right). A Considerable Town was published in the same year but is full of observations of a city Fisher has obviously fallen in love with. Reading this in 2016, sixty years later, felt a little dated and left me wondering how much, or little, Marseille had changed in all that time. Fisher noted changes between her 1929 and 1976 visits.
The other thing you need to know about A Considerable Town is that Fisher takes you on a journey that is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Her observations of people, places and events bring Marseille alive so much so that she accomplishes the opposite of a tour/guide book. Instead of preparing the reader to visit the region, she makes the reader feel as though he or she has already been there. ( )

4th printing. Blue & cream antique map of Marseille endpapers. M. F. K. Fisher Celebrates Marseille. Its glory and wickedness, past and present; its life, its legends, its mystery. ( )