SOURCE: Folks, Jeffrey J. “Mediterranean Travel Writing: From Etruscan Places to Under the Tuscan Sun.” Papers on Language and Literature 40, no. 1 (winter 2004): 102-12.

In the following essay, Folks compares Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun to other Mediterranean travel writings, notably those of D. H. Lawrence.

To compare Francis Mayes with D. H. Lawrence seems pretty unfair, and I would not inflict the comparison except that I think it reveals something about the way in which western culture has changed for the worse since Lawrence's time, for Mayes's writing is rooted in exactly the sort of “poisonous” materialism that Lawrence detested and that he knew was taking over Europe and America. Published in 1996, Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy was praised in a wide range of reviews. USA Today called it a “beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and...