in its character, and of defining those signal qualities, traits,
characteristics--individual, literary, social, racial, national--which
compassed his world-wide fame. For if it be true that the judgment of
foreign nations is virtually the judgment of posterity, then is Mark
Twain already a classic.

Upon the continent of Europe, Mark Twain first received notable
recognition in France at the hands of that brilliant woman, Mme. Blanc
(Th. Bentzon), who devoted so much of her energies to the popularization
of American literature in Europe. That one of her series of essays upon
the American humorists which dealt with Mark Twain appeared in the
'Revue des Deux Mondes' in 1872; in it appeared her admirable
translation of 'The Jumping Frog'. There is no cause for surprise that
a scholarly Frenchwoman, reared on classic models and confined by rigid
canons of art, should stand aghast at this boisterous, barbaric,
irreverent jester from the wilds of America. When it is remembered that
Mark Twain began his career as one of the sage-brush writers and gave
free play to his passion for horseplay, his desire to "lay a mine" for
the other fellow, and his defiance of the traditional and the classic,
it is not to be wondered at that Mme. Blanc, while honouring him with
recognition in the most authoritative literary journal in the world,
could not conceal an expression of amazement over his enthusiastic
acceptance in English-speaking countries.

"Mark Twain's 'Jumping Frog' should be mentioned in the first place
as one of his most popular little stories--almost a type of the
rest. It is, nevertheless, rather difficult for us to understand,
while reading this story, the 'roars of laughter' that it excited
in Australia and in India, in New York and in London; the numerous
editions of it which appeared; the epithet of 'inimitable' that the