Hello, I'm a French student  who studies  English at University.  I've just
finished a dissertation for my MA;  it includes  a comparison between Mark
Twain, The Gilded Age   and Walt Whitman (about 90 Ko), "Democratic
Vistas", with  some  comments  concerning  Carlyle's  influences on these
two authors.

This study  was meant  as a historical approach of the Reconstruction era
in the USA,  therefore I did not focus too much on  the stylistic
characteristics of Twain and Whitman.  However, if  my work  can provide
anybody with a starting-point or be of any help, it would be great! Let me
know!

I  would be very thankful if  anyone could share some information with me
concerning Huckleberry Finn- it is part of my syllabus this year.  We are
asked to study to what extent this novel  is akin to  a Bildungsroman.
Another  aspect of the program  deals with Paul Auster's The Invention of
Solitude, another with William Blake's Songs of Experience, and
Shakespeare's Hamlet.   Any help  or comment on either of these topics will
be become, your personal impressions  as native speakers  or scholars will
be mostly appreciated. I have already read some  really interesting
comments on HF, which related to the picaresque in the novel  and a
criticism onWas Huck Black and on Jane Smiley's book. If you have further
information, please let me know.
Thanks a lot.

Nathalie Le Guelte.
Louis LE GUELTE
Laboratoire de Socioecologie,  Conservation et Developpement
43 bd du 11 novembre 1918
69622 VILLEURBANNE CEDEX