The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain

These essays examine Twain from a wide variety of critical perspectives, and include timely reflections by major critics on the hotly debated dynamics of race and slavery perceptible throughout his writing.

Forrest G. Robinson (Edited by)

9780521445931, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 May 1995

284 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.395 kg

"Almost every year sees the publication of a half dozen new books and dozens of articles about him, so one may fairly ask what remains to be said about Mark Twain that has not been said before. The answer, as this fine collection of vigorous essays demonstrates, is a great deal." Kent Rasmussen, Magill Book Reviews

The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain offers new and thought provoking essays on an author of enduring pre-eminence in the American canon. The book is a collaborative project, assembled by scholars who have played crucial roles in the recent explosion of Twain criticism. Accessible enough to interest both experienced specialists and students new to Twain criticism, the essays examine Twain from a wide variety of critical perspectives, and include timely reflections by major critics on the hotly debated dynamics of race and slavery perceptible throughout his writing. The volume includes a chronology of Twain's life and a list of suggestions for further reading, to provide the students or general reader with sources for background as well as additional information.

Preface
Chronology of Mark Twain's life
1. Mark Twain as an American icon Louis J. Budd
2. The innocent at large: Mark Twain's travel writing Forrest G. Robinson
3. Mark Twain and women Shelley Fisher Fishkin
4. Mark Twain's civil war: humor's reconstructive writing Neil Schmitz
5. Banned in Concord: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and classic American literature Myra Jehlen
6. Black critics and Mark Twain D. L. Smith
7. Mr Clemens and Jim Crow: Twain race and blackface Eric Lott
8. Speech acts and social action: Mark Twain and the politics of literary performance Evan Carton
9. How the boss played the game: Twain's critique of imperialism in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court John Carlos Rowe
10. Mark Twain's travels in the racial occult: Following the Equator and the dream tales Susan Gillman
11. Mark Twain's theology: the Gods of a Brevet presterian Stanley Brodwin
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]