scover, under his good-fellowship and apparent
ingenuousness, faults which we should never have expected. He has
in the highest degree that fault of appearing astonished at
nothing--common, we may say, to all savages. He confesses himself
that one of his great pleasures is to horrify the guides by his
indifference and stupidity. He is, too, decidedly envious. . . .
We could willingly pardon him his patriotic self-love, often
wounded by the ignorance of Europeans, above all in what concerns
the New World, if only that national pride were without mixture of
personal vanity; but how comes it that Mark Twain, so severe upon
those poor Turks, finds scarcely anything to criticize in Russia,
where absolutism has nevertheless not ceased to flourish? We need
not seek far for the cause of this indulgence: the Czar received
our ferocious republicans; the Empress, and the Grand Duchess Mary,
spoke to them in English.

"Taking the Pleasure Trip on the Continent altogether, does it
merit the success it enjoys? In spite of the indulgence that we
cannot but show to the judgments of a foreigner; while recollecting
that those amongst us who have visited America have fallen,
doubtless, under the influence of prejudices almost as dangerous as
ignorance, into errors quite as bad--in spite of the wit with which
certain pages sparkle--we must say that this voyage is very far
below the less celebrated excursions of the same author in his own
country."

Three years later, Mme. Blanc returns to the discussion of Mark Twain,
in an essay in the 'Revue des Deux Mondes', entitled 'L'age Dore en
Amerique'--an elaborate review and analysis of The Gilded Age. The
savage charm and real simplicity of Mark Twain are not lacking in
appeal, even to her sophisticated intelligence; and she is inclined to
infer that jovial irony and animal spirits are qualities sufficient to
amuse a young nation of people like the Americans who do not, like the
French, pique themselves upon being blase. According to her judgment,
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner are lacking in the requisite mental
grasp for the "stupendous task of interpreting the great tableau of the
American scene." Nor does she regard their effort at collaboration as a
success from the standpoint of art. The charm of Colonel Sellers wholly
escapes her; she cannot understand the al