Mark Twain and France: The Making of a New American Identity by Paula Harrington, Ronald Jenn (review)

As to the long relationship Mark Twain had with France, it’s complicated. It is also well worth exploring. Paula Harrington and Ronald Jenn in their wonderfully readable and informative book Mark Twain and France: The Making of a New American Identity offer readers curious about the long-term and often passionate feelings he had for French culture the opportunity to explore the complexity of France as an idea in the boisterous and often provocative mind of Mark Twain.

Even casual followers of Mark Twain are certainly aware of the presence of numerous and varied references to France that punctuate a wide range of his published works. Moreover, in his personal correspondence and public comments, France seems to earn his attention in a manner and persistence that begs the implied question that the book so aptly addresses: what is France to Twain? In an appropriately symmetrical collaboration, Harrington and Jenn explore this line of inquiry, and the resulting text bears out their intuition, demonstrating that France represents a significant portion of Twain’s imagination that holds up well to scrutiny. France runs through Twain’s life and work much in the same way as the Mississippi River—not as broad or deep—but as a steady touchstone or point of reference that serves most often as a foil against which Twain defines American culture itself.

After setting up their case for the enduring and profound importance of France and French culture to Twain’s work in the introduction, Harrington and Jenn embark on a convincing chronological discussion, moving from references to France in Twain’s early adulthood and culminating in his Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896). The opening two chapters, “Accounting for the Creoles: 1835–60” and “Leaving the River: 1861–66,” set up a strong cultural context for Twain’s growing awareness of French history and culture, as it fermented in his imagination during the formative years of his youth and as he further developed his notions in young adulthood. Of particular note is the engagement Twain had with the works of Francis Parkman, which are rife with stereotypical portrayals of the French and steady subordination of French contributions to American culture. With Parkman as a cornerstone, Twain, as Harrington and Jenn put it, was able to “articulate and validate biases absorbed through the Anglo culture of his youth” (26). In these early years, Twain begins to establish his pattern of “omitting a positive French connection but emphasizing a negative one” (49). Harrington and Jenn demonstrate how this pattern is not simply the tedious repetition of bias, but rather a concerted and useful way for Twain to build an American identity as superior by contrast. They deftly work through several helpful examples of his earlier work in illustration.

Following the discussion of the preparatory years for Twain’s attitudes toward French culture, Harrington and Jenn tackle the most productive years of Twain’s life, wherein he draws on the inferences and implications of French culture to help assert American cultural identity in sharp contrast. Although he has accepted broad-based cultural assumptions of Anglo culture toward the French, it is only when he travels to France that Twain is able to fully employ his ideas in a range of literary and cultural interactions with France firsthand. Chapter 3, “France for the First Time: 1867–69,” addresses perhaps the most crucial segment of intense interaction with French culture for Twain and his readers, deriving from his experiences on the Quaker City “Pleasure Excursion” and the letters produced during the tour, culminating in the publication of The Innocents Abroad (1869), Twain’s best-selling book in his lifetime and arguably the best travel book penned by an American in the nineteenth century. Harrington and Jenn follow the already well-established pattern of drawing on Twain’s words and life experiences to argue for the significance of his manipulation...