The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain

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.

• Mark Twain is a popular, well-known American writer • Currency of topics discussed - e.g. racism

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.