Among German critics he
was regarded as second only to Dickens in drastic comic situation and
depth of feeling. Robinson Crusoe was held to exhibit a limited power
of imagination in comparison with the ingenuity and inventiveness of Tom
Sawyer. At times the German critics confessed their inability to
discover the dividing line between astounding actuality and fantastic
exaggeration. The descriptions of the barbaric state of Western America
possessed an indescribable fascination for the sedate Europeans. At
times Mark Twain's bloody jests froze the laughter on their lips; and
his "revolver-humour" made their hair stand on end. Though realizing
that the scenes and events described in 'Tom Sawyer', 'Huckleberry
Finn', 'Roughing It', and 'Life on the Mississippi' could not have been
duplicated in Europe, the German critics revelled in them none the less
that "such adventures were possible only in America--perhaps only in the
fancy of an American!" "Mark Twain's greatest strength," says Von
Thaler, "lies in the little sketches, the literary snap-shots.
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