The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain

The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain offers new and thought-provoking essays on an author of enduring preeminence in the American canon. 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.

"The book fulfills its promise, and is the best introduction to Mark Twain scholarship in the '90s. It would be a useful text for study in a graduate seminar or advanced undergraduate class." Western American Literature"I like this book! I mean, I really do!. It's got so much going for it. It's concise, thoughtfully laid out, intelligently planned....This book belongs in college and university libraries, so students can read it and so professors can read it and then put it on reserve and require students to read at least parts of it. Though its coverage of its subject is broad enough to preclude its entire use in any course but one focusing exclusively on Mark Twain, the essays included represent enough variety on individual subject areas and viewpoints to make it useful reading for any student beginning to research a paper on any aspect of Mark Twain's career in any kind of American Literature, American Studies, Major American Authors, etc., course." Mark Twain Forum"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

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-250) and index.

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.