À la dure

The first French appearance of this early Mark Twain text, originally published as Roughing It in 1872. A biting satire of American illusions, tracing Clemens’s wanderings through Nevada and California. After training as a Mississippi riverboat pilot — the origin of his pseudonym, from the leadsman’s cry “Mark Twain!” (“mark two fathoms”), signaling sufficient depth to dock — he headed West, accompanying his brother, who had been appointed secretary of state of Nevada. This journey marked a turning point, opening onto a new and fast-changing world. Roughing It recounts his attempts at gold and silver mining, his administrative wanderings through a still-embryonic state, his temporary lodgings in hotel-saloons, his financial failures, his improvised jobs, his travels as far as Utah, and all manner of burlesque adventures up to his arrival on the Pacific coast — episodes that would later feed directly into The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, both translated into French as early as 1886.

An indispensable complement to these two major works.

A fine copy, rare in this state.