e river. These chapters are bold and brilliant; and they picture for us forever a period and a set of conditions, singularly interesting and splendidly varied, that otherwise would have had to forego all adequate record.” 6 This work is the story of Mark Twain’s journey down the Mississippi River during the early 1880’s. It is somewhat of an autobiographical travelogue. It tells us a great deal about Mark Twain and his background and attitudes. In addition, it tells us a great deal about the Mississippi River Valley. It is a narrative in which are mixed a great many personal recollections and anecdotes that tell us something about Mark Twain and the Mississippi. Twain’s eye for detail, and his basic sympathy with the river’s ways and its people show up in this work. The work is full of concrete detail and specific information about the river’s changes and the character of the towns and villages that interrupt its shores. Other sides of Mark Twain’s talent are discovered to us. His tendency to write social criticism, often colored by his rationalistic bend and his prejudices is given a place to develop here. For example, the venomous references to Sir Walter Scott and other romantic novelists are made wherever some seamy side of Southern life is exposed. Mark Twain has no sympathy for the sentimentalized, phony medieval architecture of Southern cities, or for the senseless admiration of people who are born into the upper crust. His respect for individual initiative and for democracy is too great for that. He doesn’t respect the “old days” or the “old ways” simply because they are “old.” They must prove that they are better than the new ways before they gain his acceptance. (The trouble with this attitude is that one is often going off after half-baked ideas and fads. Twain himself lost a lot of money this way.) The second half of the book, is...
