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’.

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.