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Mark Twain
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI (1883) Reviewed by Patrick Killough I. Reviewed for
www.barnesandnoble.com
Reviewer's RATING: * * * (Three Stars) This Review's TITLE: A Book for People Who Can't Get Too Much Mark Twain Much of Mark Twain's LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI was serialized in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY in 1875. The whole was made a book in 1883, when Twain was 48 years old. Its unifying theme is a nostalgic steamboat trip from north to south and back up again on the Mississippi in the early 1870s. LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is clearly, forcefully and amusingly written. It is also very uneven in quality. If one were to read only one book by Mark Twain/Samuel Langhorne Clemens, this would not be it. This book does not make one want to read more Twain. For unifying structure the author uses the framework of a sentimental river journey by steamboat which he made in the 1870s largely to toss off unrelated comments on many subjects, each with its specialized audience. No, LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is for specialists and for readers who simply can't get enough of the great humorist and satirist. Who should read this book? First, LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is for people who can't read too much Mark Twain. It is autobiographical about his time in pre-Civil War training and practice as a steamboat pilot and gives a reminiscence of growing up in Hannibal, Missouri. Second, the book is for specialists in the ancient and modern history of the mighty Mississippi river itself, 2,000 miles from New Orleans to Saint Paul. It also forcefully brings to life the great age of Mississippi river steam-boating which began in 1811. That period grew in importance through the Civil War and then gradually ceded both passengers and freights to the railroads. In any case this was a longer period than the fabled hey-day of cowboys and trail drives from the 1860s into the 1880s. Scholars of the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) swarm on two brief passages in Chapters 45 and 46 in LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI in which Mark Twain variously blames the bad architecture of the state capitol at Baton Rouge on Sir Walter and even gives him a major hand in causing the American Civil War. Even second-rate Southern writers are said to be second rate because they are poor imitators of Sir Walter Scott! Basically, Mark Twain sees the world moving away from superstition and revealed religion into a time of reason, equality of man, individualism and self-starting skeptical personal creativity. Napoleon is this world's engine. Cervantes in DON QUIXOTE almost ended the learned world's fascination with chivalry. But then came Sir Walter and turned back the clock with IVANHOE. It is hard to know whether Mark Twain was being serious or funny. This is in a few places a five star performance, Twain at his best. But in too many other passages, e.g. in his dry reproduction of statistical charts, it dips to two star quality, not much more exciting than reading a telephone directory. -OOO- Also recommended: Mark Twain, HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Sir Walter Scott, IVANHOE, QUENTIN DURWARD, WOODSTOCK, ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN. Miguel de Cervantes, DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- II. For amazon.com Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) returned to the Mississippi river years after he had left it and gone west during the early days of the American Civil War. In the early 1870s he traveled down to New Orleans and then back up to Saint Louis, reminiscing, meeting characters, tossing off opinions and generally enjoying himself. This experience produced LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. For many readers the greatest bulk of new information in that book are details of river steam-boating in America from 1811 until the Civil War. Mark Twain himself went through a long and demanding apprenticeship to become a riverboat pilot, one of the three highest paying professions in America at the time. He also writes of efforts by pilots to unionize. He lards his text with statistics from newspapers on size of urban populations, tonnage of freight shipped and much other rather ho hum material. Mark Twain's descriptions are lyrical of storms, floods and the river's constant re-creation of its ever shifting banks. He describes characters he meets, a cock fight in New Orleans and many peripherally relevant tales of feuds, duels or anything that comes without much apparent effort to mind. Mark Twain tosses out occasional political, cultural and aesthetic judgments. Thus the 19th Century is enormously exciting and its greatest aromas come from cotton ginning and manufacturing. Andrew Jackson had been a disaster for America. Sir Walter Scott was to blame for Baton Rouge's erecting a castle as its State Capitol. That baronet had also caused the Civil War by making Southerners mad for chivalry and class-dominated social systems. Cervantes and DON QUIXOTE had made the learned laugh at chivalry and kings, preparing the way for the great French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. Walter Scott had had then come along. His IVANHOE singlehandedly re-inflamed Americans' love for now irrelevant supernatural religion, superstitions, damsels in distress, kings and chivalry and made Southerners think that their aristocratic ways were something special. LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI has something for many specialsts but not much for general readers, certainly not for people expecting to find something as good as Mark Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN or PUDD'NHEAD WILSON. -OOO- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- III. Reviewed for www.epinions.com Title of this Review: LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is mainly for a variety of specialists by aohcapablanca, Feb 02 '07 Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is remembered for his two master works, HUCKLEBERRY FINN and PUDDN'HEAD WILSON as well as for such fine novels as TOM SAWYER and A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. Twain's LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is not of as uniformly high a quality as the four books just mentioned. But it has striking chapters and aspects appealing to a variety of readers ranging from Mark Twain scholars through English majors and historians of America and concluding with lovers of the Mississippi River, steam-boating and New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is the story of a down-memory-lane voyage from Saint Louis to New Orleans and back when Twain was in his late 30s. He sketches the geology of the "father of waters," its discovery by French explorers, its century and a half of neglect before intense European colonization really got going and takes a long, loving look at the golden age of Mississippi River steam-boating from 1811 through the Civil War. Twain/Clemens spent much of his young manhood learning to be a competent riverboat pilot. That age ended rather quickly as 13 railroad bridges spanned the mighty flood and quickly robbed riverboats of both passengers and freight. At least a third of LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI moves away from its central themes to such things as recollections of the author's life in Germany, including a mortuary in Munich, depiction of a cock fight in New Orleans, various tales told by gamblers, sailors, Negroes (earlier slaves, recently emancipated) and merchants met during his leisurely river trip. He also tosses off political opinions vilifying Andrew Jackson, praising Napoleon and the French Revolution for putting the axe to the roots of supernatural religion and respect for kings. Twain waxes a bit silly in blaming Sir Walter Scott for the American Civil War and the stylistic excesses of most Southern writers. By contrast, Mark Twain sings the praises of Joel Chandler Harris (UNCLE REMUS) and George Washington Cable (OLD CREOLE DAYS). The book comes alive when Mark Twain depicts sunrises and storms and revisits Hannibal, Missouri where he came of age. But it sinks into torpor by quoting page after page of population and freight tonnage statistics, reproduces newspaper reviews of lawn parties and floods and other unrelated events. All in all, a disappointing book for a non-specialist. For specialists it can be indispensable. Pros: Brings to life a brief period in American history: when steamboats were king. Cons: Much for specialists in Mark Twain. Less for a non-expert general reader. The Bottom Line: Don't miss LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI if you are already a Mark Twain fan, an English major, into ecology or the Mississippi River. Tackle Twain's dislike of Sir Walter Scott. Overall Product Rating: * * * (Three Stars: Average) =-=-=-=- Dallas, Texas 02-02-2007 |