Actually, Tartarin from Tarascon is a likable guy, perhaps a bit rough around the edges, somewhat boastful, and a bit heavyset too (no wonder with all that mountain gear!). But fundamentally, he's just a little cautious and naive, and his main goal for the trip to the Swiss Alps is to defend his title as P.C.A., President of the Alpine Club of Tarascon, which has been claimed by a jealous rival, with a daring ascent of the Jungfrau or Mont Blanc. Voilà! This sets the stage for a humorously authentic mountain tourism novel, unlike any that existed before "Tartarin sur les Alpes." Not even Mark Twain's wonderfully biting travelogue "The Innocents Abroad" goes as high into the mountains as Alphonse Daudet does with his hero. And what he experiences at the Guggihütte on the Jungfrau and in the glacier labyrinth is...