Bali, Java, en rêvant is a travelogue of the author's travels to Bali and Java with her husband. The book is based on two trips to the Indonesian archipelage, undertaken by the author, within a few months. While the author initially describes how the Far East has inspired a number of Western authors, such as Flaubert, Jules Renard, Loti, Victor Segalen, Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville, her own travelogue begins as a rather mechanical report of departure, arrival and the first steps on a pre-planned trail. While Christine Jordis writes that she is not like other tourists (note the tone of disdain), in fact, she is just that, and initially her story differs little from the average Lonely Planet traveller, including visits to all of the most common tourist haunts on Bali. The author offers the reader just about the most banal observations, and although she has a relative who lives in Jakarta (who doesn't, these days?), the Jordis does not visit or meet any remarkable people.

The tourist doesn't have time to listen and barely to have a proper look: they make photos. They frantically replace the organic eye by the mechanic camera, taking photos rather than memories. (p. 92)

However, about a hundred pages into the book, the dreamlike quality, the magic of the islands manifests itself through the historic and biographical narrative blended in with the author's travelogue. Thus, she includes portraits of, for instance. Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet, painters who lived in Indonesia during the 1920 and 1930s. As a French author, Christine Jordis offers an interesting perspective on the history of the Dutch in Indonesia. She describes the court and royalty of the islands, and their culture, as observed in performances of shadow puppet theatre, dance and the gamelan music.

Christine Jordis uses her trip to Bali and Java as a vehicle to attach her readings to create a journey in the imagination, with particular interest for Indonesian aristocracy. Thus, there is a short chapter about Raden Ajeng Kartini's Door duisternis tot licht : gedachten over en voor het Javaansche volk (1911) (English: Letters of a Javanese princess.

However, in some cases Christine Jordis French perspective and lack of wider view is embarrassing, such as in the chapter À la recherche de Rimbaud (pp. 227 - 144). Jordis spends considerable time tracing the steps of the French poet, who is known to have visited Indonesia. Visiting the barracks where Rimbaud was quartered, she asks the Indonesians of any traces or monuments commemorating Rimbaud, Jordis seems to expect at least a commemorative plaque. This whole episode just shows her ignorance. If the author had just spent a little bit of time, she would have known that Rimbaud enrolled as a soldier in the Dutch colonial army. Recruits were paid half of their pay upon embarkation in the Netherlands, and the other half upon arrival in Batavia. Rimbaud made the journey, collected his pay and immediately deserted. Had he been caught he would have had to face a Dutch firing squad as deserter.

Bali, Java, en rêvant does not quite live up to expectation, then, again, contains many interesting materials and stories, while the beauty and interest engendered by the culture and nature of Bali and java are indefatigable. ( )