Why did Mark Twain hate the French? ("The Jumping Frog")

[aaron stark]

Well, I think the title says it all. I'm currently doing a presentation on Twain's re-translation of the French version of "The Jumping Frog", written by Thérèse Bentzon. Bentzon wanted to prove to the French readers that Twain's story wasn't as funny as the Americans thought it was. Bentzon came up with a fairly good translation, but didn't manage to transfer the comical aspect to her own French edition, mainly because dialect was absent in her text, unlike in Twain's. The result was a colorless text, almost as dry as dust, though fairly well-translated as it comes to grammar and vocabulary. Twain decided to take it one step further and 're-translated' the French version into a new English version to show the people how bad this translation exactly was. Doing this is one thing, but Twain chose to translate the text word by word, which resulted in an unreadable text, to say without hyperbole. This brought about passages like the following:

"I no saw not that that frog had nothing of better than each frog" and "It there was one time here an individual known under the name of Jim Smiley ; it was in the winter of 49, possibly well at the spring of ’50, I no me recollect exactly.”

What noticed me in the foreword of the book is that he doesn't like the French at all, which is clear in many comments he makes about them. Then I started wondering, why in God's name does he hate the French? I also came across dozens of quotes in which his hate for the French manifests itself very clearly: "France has usually been governed by prostitutes.", "There is nothing lower than the human race except the French." and "French are the connecting link between man & the monkey."

I hope you guys can help me out!

[WyattGwyon]

Well, I think the title says it all. I'm currently doing a presentation on Twain's re-translation of the French version of "The Jumping Frog", written by Thérèse Bentzon. Bentzon wanted to prove to the French readers that Twain's story wasn't as funny as the Americans thought it was. Bentzon came up with a fairly good translation, but didn't manage to transfer the comical aspect to her own French edition, mainly because dialect was absent in her text, unlike in Twain's. The result was a colorless text, almost as dry as dust, though fairly well-translated as it comes to grammar and vocabulary. Twain decided to take it one step further and 're-translated' the French version into a new English version to show the people how bad this translation exactly was. Doing this is one thing, but Twain chose to translate the text word by word, which resulted in an unreadable text, to say without hyperbole. This brought about passages like the following:

"I no saw not that that frog had nothing of better than each frog" and "It there was one time here an individual known under the name of Jim Smiley ; it was in the winter of 49, possibly well at the spring of ’50, I no me recollect exactly.”

What noticed me in the foreword of the book is that he doesn't like the French at all, which is clear in many comments he makes about them. Then I started wondering, why in God's name does he hate the French? I also came across dozens of quotes in which his hate for the French manifests itself very clearly: "France has usually been governed by prostitutes.", "There is nothing lower than the human race except the French." and "French are the connecting link between man & the monkey."

I hope you guys can help me out!

Have you read the one about the German language? Or his critique of James Fenimore Cooper? Or of God? As for the retranslation: Perhaps it was meant to demonstrate that translations destroying the rhythm and tone of the original text are likely to ruin whatever effect, humorous or otherwise, that text might have had. I can't imagine why he might have wanted to make that point.

As for the gratuitous abuse of the French, who knows?; But I wouldn't necessarily assume he actually hated the French. Perhaps he was just pandering to the prejudices of his audience? Or having a little rude sport? Or maybe he really did hate them. Just curious: Did he cite any prostitutes by name?

[ennison]

It 's a Yankee thung. Hemingway said once (probably not that originally) words to the effect that men often hate those to whom they owe a favour and of course The First American Civil War would have gone against the "patriots" had the Frog Fleet not helped. It's demeaning to be freed by the intervention of others! Hence hatred of cheese eating surrender monkeys etc. The French don't help themselves by being so determinedly independent and (wow) having their own deterrent. If only they cringed a little more!

[PeterL]

Twain was a misnathrope; he didn't lo=like any gorup, nation, or whatever. See also Jonathan Swift's letter to Alexander Pope from1727 :I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor Such-a-one, and Judge Such-a-one: so with physicians—I will not speak of my own trade—soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, but do not tell, and so I shall go on till I have done with them." http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smart...ters/chap2.htm

There are other notable misanthropes in literature, but no one stated it as well as Swift.

I have never seen Twaiin's translation of the Celebrated..., but it looks funny. I really don't think that he hated the French any more than any other noation, and probably less than he hated the Germans. I wonder what, if anything, he thought of the Turks.

[cafolini]

I think there is a big difference between hate and hatred. The former is a natural parameter of discussion while the latter is a deadend which does not permit discussion of any kind.

[mortalterror]

Who doesn't?

[ennison]

Who doesn't? Joke I know but in Abbeville of the graves the well-kept military cemetery reminds me why I don't.

[kelby_lake]

Everyone's a little bit racist, as they sing in Avenue Q.

[jcervin]

Well, I think the title says it all. I'm currently doing a presentation on Twain's re-translation of the French version of "The Jumping Frog", written by Thérèse Bentzon. Bentzon wanted to prove to the French readers that Twain's story wasn't as funny as the Americans thought it was. Bentzon came up with a fairly good translation, but didn't manage to transfer the comical aspect to her own French edition, mainly because dialect was absent in her text, unlike in Twain's. The result was a colorless text, almost as dry as dust, though fairly well-translated as it comes to grammar and vocabulary. Twain decided to take it one step further and 're-translated' the French version into a new English version to show the people how bad this translation exactly was. Doing this is one thing, but Twain chose to translate the text word by word, which resulted in an unreadable text, to say without hyperbole. This brought about passages like the following:

"I no saw not that that frog had nothing of better than each frog" and "It there was one time here an individual known under the name of Jim Smiley ; it was in the winter of 49, possibly well at the spring of ’50, I no me recollect exactly.”

What noticed me in the foreword of the book is that he doesn't like the French at all, which is clear in many comments he makes about them. Then I started wondering, why in God's name does he hate the French? I also came across dozens of quotes in which his hate for the French manifests itself very clearly: "France has usually been governed by prostitutes.", "There is nothing lower than the human race except the French." and "French are the connecting link between man & the monkey."

I hope you guys can help me out!

It might be better to ask whether, not why, Mark Twain hated the French. I have my doubts.

Who knows what a top-flight humorist like Mark Twain really thinks? Twain also has expressed hateful remarks about Americans, Southerners, and the British for example. Did he hate them less than the French? Humorists are opportunists when expressing themselves; they will say anything.

If he hated the French, it probably was part of a love/hate relationship. Complex people often are prey to inner division.

In any case, Twain appears to have taken an uncommon interest in France, the French, and the French language. He went out of his way to learn French as an adult, he makes reference to them in many of his writings, and his best book, in his own estimation was “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.”

What can be asserted with confidence is that he was not indifferent towards the French.

[cafolini]

It might be better to ask whether, not why, Mark Twain hated the French. I have my doubts.

Who knows what a top-flight humorist like Mark Twain really thinks? Twain also has expressed hateful remarks about Americans, Southerners, and the British for example. Did he hate them less than the French? Humorists are opportunists when expressing themselves; they will say anything.

If he hated the French, it probably was part of a love/hate relationship. Complex people often are prey to inner division.

In any case, Twain appears to have taken an uncommon interest in France, the French, and the French language. He went out of his way to learn French as an adult, he makes reference to them in many of his writings, and his best book, in his own estimation was “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.”

What can be asserted with confidence is that he was not indifferent towards the French.

First you have to realize that Twain hated anything which while existing was not actual. Thus he investigated Shakespeare and found it not be actual in England. Then he looked at Joan of Arc and it was not actual as fake Pierre Gauchon. Then you have to realize that Southern American Culture had French roots.

[Nick Capozzoli]

It seems to me that there is a complex love-hate relationship between English (American and UK) writers and the French. Thom Gunn wrote a nice epigrammatic poem that I'll quote from memory (probably getting it wrong, but I capture the gist):

Edgar Poe writes a lucid prose
Just and rhetorical, without exertion;
It loses all lucidity, God knows,
in the single poorly rendered English version.

"Poe" is written with two dots above the "e" indicating it is to be read, "Frenchified," as a two-syllable name.

[WICKES]

It seems to me that there is a complex love-hate relationship between English (American and UK) writers and the French. .

I think the hate is mostly one way tbh. The French bitterly resent the dominance of the English language and feel that their ('superior') language and culture has been both swamped and undervalued, something they blame the USA for. I don't think the French particularly hate the British (though they do when the British side with America against Europe) or Australians or Canadians, but they certainly hate the Americans, whom they regard as crude, vulgar materialists with too much power and influence. Some French politician once said "The USA is the only nation to have gone straight from barbarism to modernity without civilization in between" (then again that's what many Europeans secretly believe- Evelyn Waugh wrote that "we're all American as adolescents; we die French"). Americans, so far as I can see, couldn't care less.

[Emil Miller]

Personally I prefer French to English which is mid-way between the stolidity of German and the expressiveness of French. Looking at my bookcase, there are many more French novels than English and, where they are in English, a good many of them are by American writers.

[cafolini]

This is a thread discussing Mark Twain, fellow dickheads. Has little to do with the English vs the French.
Carol Burnett just won the Mark Twain Humor prize. Well deserved.

[hellsapoppin]

"There is nothing lower than the human race except the French."

"In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language."

"I have no special regard for Satan; but, I can at least claim that I have no prejudice against him. It may even be that I lean a little his way, on account of his not having a fair show. All religions issue bibles against him, and say the most injurious things about him, but we never hear his side. We have none but the evidence for the prosecution, and yet we have rendered the verdict. To my mind, this is irregular. It is un-English, it is un-American; it is French."

"France is miserable because it is filled with Frenchmen, and Frenchmen are miserable because they live in France."

"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country."

"France has usually been governed by prostitutes."




Obviously it is all satire. This is especially evident in The Innocents Abroad and the story of the French duellists:






Satire in The Great French Duel by Mark Twain


Satire is defined as irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity. Twain spends most of his satirical energy attacking the French culture.
He starts with the French Duel. When the word "duel" comes to the mind of an American, we think of bloodshed and the definite casualty of at least one person. Twain tells us that the only danger in fighting a French duel is in the fact that they are held in the open air and "the combatants are nearly sure to catch cold." He goes on to talk about how M. Paul de Cassagnac, the most famous of French duelists, had been told by his physician that "if he goes on dueling for fifteen or twenty years more - unless he forms the habit of fighting in a comfortable room where the damps and drafts cannot intrude - he will eventually endanger his life." The idea that someone could duel for twenty years and never be threatened by anything else but a cold is absurd to us, but Twain uses this idea to poke fun at the French.
Next Twain speaks of the idea of a "French calm." In the story, a French calm is describe to be very different from an English calm. We think of calm as being very relaxed and tranquil. Twain describes Gambetta quite the contrary when he says, "He was moving swiftly back and forth among the debris of his furniture, now and then staving chance fragments of it across the room with his foot, grinding a constant grist of curses through his set teeth, and halting every little while to deposit another handful of his hair on the pile which he had been building of it on the table."
Later in the story, Twain is trying to negotiate the weapons and distance between combatants that will be involved in the duel. He makes the sarcastic suggestion or using brickbats at three quarters of a mile. Not only did the Frenchman take his joke seriously, he came back to him and said that "his principle was charmed with the idea of brickbats at three quarters of a mile, but must decline on account of the danger to disinterested parties passing between."
In reading this story, I kept getting the mental image of a childish Twain jumping up and down yelling, "Sissy, sissy, sissy!"
Satire was a very common happening in this story and Twain uses it flawlessly.


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