Gleanings in Europe: France, vol. 2 of 2

About this book

"Gleanings in Europe" by James Fenimore Cooper is a collection of travel letters written in the early 19th century. It offers an American’s keen, often humorous view of European life—especially in Paris—blending encounters with notable figures, portraits of manners, arts, and institutions, and sharp comparisons among French, English, and American habits.

The opening of this travelogue follows the narrator in Paris as he receives an unexpected call from Sir Walter Scott, breakfasts with him, discusses authorship and copyright, and sketches Scott’s character, before observing Parisian salons and the city’s casual “lionizing.” The narrative broadens into reflections on French misconceptions about America (and American misconceptions about France), illustrated by translation blunders and social anecdotes. He tours a grand exhibition at the Louvre, judging France weak in practical tools but unrivaled in luxury arts, and vividly describes Sèvres porcelain, Gobelins tapestry, Savonnerie and Beauvais work, velvet-effect wall papers, the transfer of paintings from wood to canvas, and Charles X’s coronation coach—then urges the United States to invest in a navy and a national gallery to cultivate taste. He contrasts French and English manners and physiques, assesses the French army’s strengths, and wryly notes the politics of the Académie française while praising France’s scientific prowess and musing on astronomy’s humbling scope. The section closes with theatre-going—admiring Mlle. Mars, questioning the morals of a sentimental hit—and a glance at Europe’s fashion for publishing and the stronger, more varied European press.