| Summary: | With views ranging from neo-Jacobitism to fascism, Herbert Vivian was one of the most controversial political figures in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain. He was also a prolific travel writer, authoring seven books between 1897 and 1936. This article considers Vivian's travel narratives about Serbia, Servia: The Poor Man's Paradise (1897) and The Servian Tragedy (1904), and argues that his legitimist disenchantment with the country following the 1903 murder of King Alexander Obrenović and installation of Peter Karadjordjević as monarch was responsible for his ideological drift towards fascism in the interwar period. It also addresses an issue of general scholarly relevance: the persistence of the balkanism thesis in studies of travel writing about the Balkans. Using Vivian as a case study, it argues that personal and political concerns were more significant in shaping patterns of perception than recurrent cultural prejudices.
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