In this Book
- Mark Twain as Critic
- Book
- 2019
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Funder: Mellon/NEH / Hopkins Open Publishing: Encore Editions
- Program:
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
summary
Originally published in 1967. Mark Twain's literary criticism is a significant branch of his writing that is relatively less explored and appreciated than his other writing. Sydney Krause analyzes the full range of Twain's criticism, much of which has lain neglected in notebooks, letters, marginalia, and autobiographical dictations. This body of work demonstrates that, in addition to being an acute critic given to close reading, Twain thought enough of his criticism to present much of it in an enveloping literary form. In his early criticism Twain used the mask of an ignorant fool (or Muggins), while in his later criticism he used the mask of a world-weary malcontent (or Grumbler). The resulting cross fire from extremes of innocence and experience proved effective against a wide range of literary targets. The Muggins dealt mainly with theater, journalism, oratory, and popular poetry; the grumbler with such writers as Goldsmith, Cooper, Scott, and Hare. Much of this criticism was an outgrowth of Twain's romanticism and therefore has importance for the history of American realism. Mark Twain's criticism was not wholly depreciatory, however. He liked Macaulay, Howells, Howe, Zola, and Wilbrandt, for example, because he found in some of their works the realization of history as an immediate presence. The evidence presented in this book challenges the view that Twain was not a serious student of the craft of writing; he possessed the combination of sensitivity and judgment that all great critics have.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
Download Full EPUB
- Half Title
- p. i
- Frontispiece
- p. ii
- Title Page
- p. iii
- Dedication
- pp. v-vi
- Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-viii
- Abbreviations
- pp. xi-xii
- Introduction
- pp. 1-18
- 1. Mark Twain and the Critical Fool
- pp. 21-27
- 6. The Grumbling Mark Twain
- pp. 99-107
- PART III: Twain’s Appreciative Criticism: From History into Life
- 11. Macaulay: Living History by Antitheses
- pp. 227-245
- 12. Howells and the Poetics of Appreciation
- pp. 246-259
- 13. Howe and Zola: The Opposing Truth
- pp. 260-283
- 14. Wilbrandt: The Tragic Conquest of Evil
- pp. 284-295
- Bibliography
- pp. 296-302
Additional Information
ISBN
9781421434582
Related ISBN(s)
9780801803482, 9781421434568, 9781421434575
MARC Record
OCLC
1128828291
Pages
322
Launched on MUSE
2019-11-26
Language
English
Open Access
Yes
Creative Commons
CC-BY-NC-ND