ABSTRACT
Bibliotheqt~cs Efzcr,irictmcs, and Editious jouaust, it appears at once anomalous and offensive, and prejudices its readers against it as a book even before they get seriously to work upon it 2s literature. Nor is this the only thing that may be said against it. On examination its best part turns out to be years old-to be, in fact, a reprint of the vigorous and pleasant set of sketches published as 'Old Days on the Mississippi.' They are excellent, as we all know; they are in some ways the author's best work; but they are already ancient history. What is even more to the point, perhaps, they are vastly superior to their present environment. There is plenty of drollery, of American humour, in the new chapters; there is some good writing; not a little of the matter is interesting and novel; but they have none of the freshness and force of their predecessors. In his trials and triumphs as a Mississippi pilot Mr. Clemens had an admirable subject, and handled it with the greatest
gusto imaginable. You feel as you read that what is written is the outcome of years of experience, is a record of memories mellow with age and instinct with the cheerful vitality that comes of retrospection; that the writer has thoroughly enjoyed his work; and that the production of his book has made him sincerely happy. From the new chapters the impression received is very different. Mr. Clemens as a Mississippi tourist is not to be compared with Mr. Clemens as a Mississippi pilot. His experiences seem all brand-new; his impressions arc not rcmarkabl y profotmd; he is rather glib than abundant, rather restless than vivacious, rather forced and ambitious than easy and successful; his humour is too often strained, his narrative has too often the flavour of mere 'copy,' his cleverness has too often a likeness to that of the brilliant bagman. As he appears in 'Old Days on the Mississippi' he is the Mark Twain of Roughi11g It and the Itmoceuts at Home; as he appears in the record of his cruise he is more or less the Mark Twain of the New Pilgrim's Progress, and certain chapters in the Tramp Abroad, and that dreadful book in which he tells the story of his impressions of the continent of Europe. In the one set of works, that is to say, he is fresh, vigorous, irrcsistibl y amusing; in the other, he is mere! y parading his own vulgarity, and talking of things from the point of view of the professional American humourist. The contrast, as they know who are learned in Mark Twain, is discomforting in the extreme.
