December 11 Wednesday – The Hartford Times was first out of the chute with a review of CY on page 5.

There is fun enough — and fun of the robust and extravagant sort for which the author is known to feel an occasional partiality — in this curious and decidedly original book to satisfy those who in his works seek for that, first, last, and every time; yet its most humorous touches are not those which are likely to be seen and seized by that much-abused individual, the average reader. And underlying all, the work seems, strange as it may sound, to have a sober and genuine purpose. It shows up a good many long established if not actually reverenced wrongs, in a way as fierce and dashing as Sir Gawain or Sir Galahad in his armor, when, mounted and charging with spear at rest, he “means business” in going for his adversary. The author assails Kings and Knights, Church and State, and the laws enacted to favor the wealthy classes [Budd, Contemporary 283].

Right there with the Times was the Utica (N.Y.) Herald, p.3, “Literary Matters”:

Mark Twain has in his new book fairly earned the title of the “Cervantes of the Nineteenth Century.” Only for the whimsical Castilian knight of La Mancha, he has given us a live Yankee of an inquiring turn of mind, who pokes into the chinks of English aristocracy to see wherein the titled clay differs from ordinary mud, and under the guise of a romantic tale about another age, gives us a keen and witty satire on the present English nobility. Mark being a thoro’ democrat socially, and a good deal of a Bohemian mentally, has approached the fields of knightly romance without that flutter of the heart which a school girl or a partially enlightened devotee of chivalry might experience. Yet he too is chivalrous, and our Yankee visitor is never intentionally rude, if inclined to be merry. Edward Bellamy has given us a view of the world some centuries ahead; why shouldn’t Mark Twain give us a view of it some centuries behind? The humor is clean and hearty, and the book is not without its instructive side. The volume is a square 8vo. of 500 pages, illustrated with 250 drawings by Dan Beard, and is sold only by subscription at $3 to $5, according to the style of binding [Budd, Contemporary 285].

Joseph Banister wrote from N.Y. objecting to Sam’s remarks quoted in the N.Y. Times. He claimed Sam “charge[d] the British newspapers and publishers with cowardice and the British people with hypocrisy” [MTP].

Daniel Whitford for Alexander & Green wrote to Sam — more about getting in touch with Senator John P. Jones; Whitford wrote this day to Gen. John J. McCook, Secretary of the Senate, to ask Jones’ whereabouts [MTP].