Mark Twain

This book introduces Mark Twain through close readings of his seven major works, including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Connecticut Yankee and Pudd’nhead Wilson.

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• Introduces Mark Twain through close readings of his seven major works, including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Connecticut Yankee and Pudd’nhead Wilson.
  
• Investigates the tension between the real-life person, Samuel Clemens, and the fictional person, Mark Twain.
  
• Provides an original reading of Twain’s obsession with performance and popularity.
  
• Analyses the significance of Twain’s books for American culture and identity.
  
• Illustrated with images from first editions of Twain’s works.
  
• A short appendix directs readers to the author’s award-winning website on ‘Mark Twain in his Times’.

“" A concise, yet amazingly rich, informative, well-researched, and readable introduction to Mark Twain's major works, from Innocents Abroad to Pudd'nhead Wilson . In his fresh and helpful interpretations Stephen Railton, developer of the popular website 'Mark Twain in His Times,' provides relevant biographical and historical backgrounds and incorporates a broad spectrum of criticism." Werner Sollors, Harvard University "Stephen Railton offers a highly readable and crisply argued discussion of Samuel Clemens' literary persona Mark Twain as public performance and of the relationship Clemens nurtured and continues to nurture with his readers...A most useful primer in the social and aesthetic impact of Mark Twain's art." Michael J. Kiskis, Elmira College "Even though Mark Twain (as Samuel Clemens) did die, Railton's book by its very existence proves that Mark Twain still lives, in his works, the legacy of his life, nearly ninety-four years after his physical demise. Mark Twain is dead. Long live Mark Twain!" Mark Twain Forum”

"A concise, yet amazingly rich, informative, well-researched, and readable introduction to Mark Twain's major works, from Innocents Abroad to Pudd'nhead Wilson. In his fresh and helpful interpretations Stephen Railton, developer of the popular website ‘Mark Twain in His Times,’ provides relevant biographical and historical backgrounds and incorporates a broad spectrum of criticism." Werner Sollors, Harvard University

"Stephen Railton offers a highly readable and crisply argued discussion of Samuel Clemens' literary persona Mark Twain as public performance and of the relationship Clemens nurtured and continues to nurture with his readers...A most useful primer in the social and aesthetic impact of Mark Twain's art." Michael J. Kiskis, Elmira College

"Even though Mark Twain (as Samuel Clemens) did die, Railton's book by its very existence proves that Mark Twain still lives, in his works, the legacy of his life, nearly ninety-four years after his physical demise. Mark Twain is dead. Long live Mark Twain!" Mark Twain Forum

Stephen Railton is Professor of English at the University of Virginia. His previous books include Fenimore Cooper: A Study of his Imagination (1978) and Authorship and Audience: Literary Performance in the American Renaissance (1991). He is the creator of two major websites on Uncle Tom’s Cabin & American Culture and Mark Twain in His Times.

Emphasizing Mark Twain’s ambitions and achievements as a writer, this introduction features close readings of his seven major works, including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Connecticut Yankee and Pudd’nhead Wilson. It locates these texts in the larger contexts of Samuel Clemens’ life and of late nineteenth-century American culture, investigating what the fictional persona of Mark Twain meant to the real-life person, Samuel Clemens, and what Twain’s books meant to contemporary Americans. The book provides both a general introduction to Twain’s major texts and an original reading of his obsession with performance and personality. It is illustrated with images from early editions of Twain’s works. A short appendix directs readers to the author’s award-winning website, “Mark Twain in his Times,” where they can explore the texts and issues analyzed in the book further.

Emphasizing Mark Twain's ambitions and achievements as a writer, this introduction features close readings of his seven major works, including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Connecticut Yankee and Pudd'nhead Wilson . It locates these texts in the larger contexts of Samuel Clemens' life and of late nineteenth-century American culture, investigating what the fictional persona of Mark Twain meant to the real-life person, Samuel Clemens, and what Twain's books meant to contemporary Americans. The book provides both a general introduction to Twain's major texts and an original reading of his obsession with performance and personality. It is illustrated with images from early editions of Twain's works. A short appendix directs readers to the author's award-winning website, "Mark Twain in his Times," where they can explore the texts and issues analyzed in the book further.

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