William Livingston Alden: unsigned review, Idler
August 1894, vi, 222-3
Puddenhead Wilson, Mark Twain's latest story, is the work of a novelist,
rather than of a 'funny man.' There is plenty of humour in it of the
genuine Mark Twain brand, but it is as a carefully painted picture of life
in a Mississippi town in the days of slavery that its chief merit lies. In
point of construction it is much the best story that Mark Twain has
written, and of men and women in the book at least four are undeniably
creations, and not one of them is overdrawn or caricatured, as are some of
the most popular of the author's lay figures. There is but one false note
in the picture, and that is the introduction of the two alleged Italian
noblemen. These two young men are as little like Italians as they are like
Apaches. When challenged to fight a duel, one of them, having the choice
of weapons, chooses revolvers instead of swords. This incident alone is
sufficient to show how little Italian blood there is in Mark Twain's
Italians. But this is a small blemish, and if Mark Twain, in his future
novels, can maintain the proportion of only two lay figures to four living
characters, he will do better than most novelists. The extracts from
'Puddenhead Wilson's Almanac,' which are prefixed to each chapter of the
book, simply 'pizon us for more,' to use Huck Finn's forcible metaphor.
Let us hope that a complete edition of that unrivalled almanac will be
issued at no distant day.