Mark Twain & France

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book offers close readings of writings that have been largely ignored, such as The Innocents Adrift manuscript and the unpublished chapters of A Tramp Abroad, combining literary analysis, socio-historical context and biographical research.