Mark Twain: A Short Introduction

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.

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.