Morris: Irving's Fiction in France 



7 



work of Irving and Paulding, he does not find ^Very amusing". He 

 speaks in rather contemptuous terms of the exaggerated importance 

 which the authors attach to everything American, and he claims 

 that the publication resembles English magazines in its lack of 

 ''decency and good taste". He asserts, in fact, that its sole value 

 consists in its pictures of manners in America at that time. The 

 History of New York he does not find "very amusing" either. He 

 says it is a work somewhat like those of Rabelais ''but for a thousand 

 reasons less amusing". While he cannot say that it is a good book, 

 he admits that the character of the author is "rather cleverly drawn", 

 that Knickerbocker himself shows a "certain amount of originality". 

 The descriptions, in Bracehridge Hall, of private life in England in 

 his opinion are too flattering. Of the book as a whole, the most 

 favorable comment he makes is that it is "sometimes amusing, some- 

 times tiresome". On the other hand, he speaks well of the Tales of a 

 Traveler, calling attention in particular to the simplicity of construc- 

 tion by which the stories are characterized. The Sketch-book elicits 

 his unbounded admiration. "One may say," he writes, "that nothing 

 more piquant and original has appeared since the days of Sterne. . . 

 They breathe the most wholesome morality and are written in the 

 happiest and purest style." While hesitating to single out any par- 

 ticular sketch as superior to the others, because, as he says, they are 

 all "finished works of art which must all be read", he nevertheless 

 mentions as showing most distinction, "Stratford-on-Avon", "The 

 Country Church", and "The Widow and Her Son". 



The praise bestowed on Irving by the Revue encyclopedique is 

 likewise heavily alloyed. For, altho it regards Irving as one of the 

 two "transcendent geniuses of the United States" (the other being 

 Cooper), it nevertheless says of him that he was a man who "made 

 the most of a little mind and a little talent".^ 



A. Fontaney. In 1832 the leading periodical of France, the 

 Revue des Deux Mondes, published its first article on an American 

 writer of fiction. This writer was Washington Irving. The article, 

 written by A. Fontaney,*^ was only in part critical — it contained 

 copious extracts from the Alhamhra, which had just been published 

 and had not as yet been translated into French. Like his fellow- 

 critics of the Globe and the Revue encyclopedique, M. Fontaney is far 

 from bestowing upon Irving undiluted praise. While admitting that 

 several of the tales show "grace and delicacy", that the author is 

 "both amiable and witty", and that he seems to understand Spain 



5 Revue encyclopedique, XLIX (1831), 625. 



6 Revue des Deux Mondes, June 1, 1832. 



