Mark Twain & France: The Making of a New American Identity

Blending cultural history, biography, and literary criticism, this book explores how one of America's greatest icons used the French to help build a new sense of what it is to be “American” in the second half of the nineteenth century.

While critics have generally dismissed Mark Twain’s relationship with France as hostile, Harrington and Jenn see Twain’s use of the French as a foil to help construct his identity as “the representative American.” Examining new materials that detail his Montmatre study, the carte de visite album, and a chronology of his visits to France, the book offers close readings of writings that have been largely ignored, such as The Innocents Adrift manuscript and the unpublished chapters of A Tramp Abroad, combining literary analysis, socio-historical context and biographical research.

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Mark Twain & France: The Making of a New American Identity

Blending cultural history, biography, and literary criticism, this book explores how one of America's greatest icons used the French to help build a new sense of what it is to be “American” in the second half of the nineteenth century.

While critics have generally dismissed Mark Twain’s relationship with France as hostile, Harrington and Jenn see Twain’s use of the French as a foil to help construct his identity as “the representative American.” Examining new materials that detail his Montmatre study, the carte de visite album, and a chronology of his visits to France, the book offers close readings of writings that have been largely ignored, such as The Innocents Adrift manuscript and the unpublished chapters of A Tramp Abroad, combining literary analysis, socio-historical context and biographical research.

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Mark Twain & France: The Making of a New American Identity

Mark Twain & France: The Making of a New American Identity

by Paula Harrington, Ronald Jenn
Mark Twain & France: The Making of a New American Identity

Mark Twain & France: The Making of a New American Identity

by Paula Harrington, Ronald Jenn

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Overview

Blending cultural history, biography, and literary criticism, this book explores how one of America's greatest icons used the French to help build a new sense of what it is to be “American” in the second half of the nineteenth century.

While critics have generally dismissed Mark Twain’s relationship with France as hostile, Harrington and Jenn see Twain’s use of the French as a foil to help construct his identity as “the representative American.” Examining new materials that detail his Montmatre study, the carte de visite album, and a chronology of his visits to France, the book offers close readings of writings that have been largely ignored, such as The Innocents Adrift manuscript and the unpublished chapters of A Tramp Abroad, combining literary analysis, socio-historical context and biographical research.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780826273772
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Publication date: 07/31/2017
Series: Mark Twain and His Circle
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 241
File size: 5 MB

About the Author

Paula Harrington is director of the Farnham Writers’ Center and an assistant professor of writing at Colby College. In 2013, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Paris, doing research that led to her collaboration with Jenn on this book. She lives in Portland, ME.


Ronald Jenn is a professor at Université de Lille, France. He is the author of La Pseudo-traduction, de Cervantès à Mark Twain. He lives in Lille, France.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Timeline of the Clemenses in France: 1867–1895


Introduction

Chapter 1 Accounting for the Creoles: 1835–60

“Ambassador General to the World”

Early French Palimpsests

Twain, Parkman, and France in American History

The World at Hannibal’s Feet

Book-Learning and Early Reporting

New Orleans and Mardi Gras


Chapter 2 Leaving the River: 1861–66

French Encounters in the Sierra Days

Lewd Merchandise and a Hanging

Of Conquerors and Cannibals


Chapter 3 France for the First Time: 1867–69

Nobody’s Secretary

The Fourth of July to Quartorze Juillet

An “Innocent” Remakes His Experience

The Doctor and the Writer

The Making of a Novelist


Chapter 4 Jumping the French: 1870–78

The Last of the Newspapering Days

No Battle Yet!

Paris Was Never Situated This Way

Clawed Back Into a Civilized Language Once More


Chapter 5 Paris From the Inside: 1879

A Tramp in Paris

The Octagon of Montmartre

The American Colony and French Outings

Mark Twain’s French Faces: The Carte de Visite Album

The Unpublished French Chapters of A Tramp Abroad

Marriage v. Mariage: The Unpublished Material “On Courtship and Marriage”

“The French and the Comanches”: Historical Backdrop

An American Corps of Civil Missionaries

The Published French Chapters of A Tramp Abroad


Chapter 6 Less to Prove: 1880–92

“Mark Twain,” Un Fait Accompli

The Long European Tour

“Bon voyajj!”

The Innocents Adrift Versus “Down the Rhone”

Not So Dirty, Lazy, or Immoral After All

From Virgins to the Virgin


Chapter 7 Coming to Terms: 1893–99

A Home Base in France

Mark Twain, French Historian

Writing Joan of Arc—in France

Joan-less in Rouen

Paul Bourget: Bentzon Redux

Last Days in Paris

Back to the Frame: Sieur Louis De Conte

The End of the French Foil


Notes

Bibliography

Index

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