Kirjahaku

Combining biography, literary history, and gender studies, Mark Twain and Male Friendship examines three profoundly influential and vastly different friendships in the life of the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. With accessible prose informed by extensive research, the study begins by exploring the relationship between Mark Twain and his pastor Joseph Twichell, highlighting the latter's role as mentor and spiritual advisor as a way to explore the great author's conflicted religious beliefs. Messent then shifts gears to consider fellow author and sometime rival William Dean Howells who serves as a prism through which to spotlight the literary marketplace of 19th-century America and reveal Twain's competitive streak. A third unlikely friendship between Twain and Standard Oil robber baron H.H. Rogers illuminates Twain's attitude toward business and explores how Rogers and his wife served as a surrogate family for the novelist after the death of his own wife. Throughout, Messent uses the existing work on male friendship and gender roles as a springboard to place these friendships in terms of changing conceptions of masculinity and of men's roles both in marriage and in the larger social networks of their time. He also considers the friendships against a larger ideological backdrop in which the status of these four men-as socially privileged white males-very much conditioned both the form of the friendships and the way they functioned. Ultimately, Messent's study provides a unique perspective on one of America's greatest novelists while at the same time giving us a distinctive cultural history of male friendship in nineteenth-century America.

Biographies of America's greatest humorist abound, but none have charted the overall influence of the key male friendships that profoundly informed his life and work. Combining biography, literary history, and gender studies, Mark Twain and Male Friendship presents a welcome new perspective as it examines three vastly different friendships and the stamp they left on Samuel Clemens's life. With accessible prose informed by impressive research, the study provides an illuminating history of the friendships it explores, and the personal and cultural dynamic of the relationships. In the case of Twain and his pastor, Joseph Twichell, emphasis is put on the latter's role as mentor and spiritual advisor and on Twain's own waning sense of religious belonging. Messent then shifts gears to consider Twain's friendship with fellow author and collaborator William Dean Howells. Fascinating in its own right, this relationship also serves as a prism through which to view the literary marketplace of nineteenth-century America. A third, seemingly unlikely friendship between Twain and Standard Oil executive H.H. Rogers focuses on Twain's attitude toward business and shows how Rogers and his wife served as a surrogate family for the novelist after the death of his own wife. As he charts these relationships, Messent uses existing work on male friendship, gender roles, and cultural change as a framework in which to situate altered conceptions of masculinity and of men's roles, not just in marriage but in the larger social networks of their time. In sum, Mark Twain and Male Friendship i s not only a valuable new resource on the great novelist but also a lively cultural history of male friendship in nineteenth-century America.

This book provides an overview of Mark Twain's work and a close critical analysis of the forms and themes of his major texts. The author uses recent cultural and literary theory to re-examine Twain's travel writing and fiction, writing in a jargon-free and accessible manner. He focuses on Twain's humour and his attitudes to such subjects as boyhood, nationality, race relations, technology, and capitalist expansion, and shows how his work reflects anxieties both about changes in the social and industrial order in post Civil-War America and the status of the individual within it.

The Crime Fiction Handbook presents a comprehensive introduction to the origins, development, and cultural significance of the crime fiction genre, focusing mainly on American British, and Scandinavian texts. Provides an accessible and well-written introduction to the genre of crime fictionMoves with ease between a general overview of the genre and useful theoretical approachesIncludes a close analysis of the key texts in the crime fiction traditionIdentifies what makes crime fiction of such cultural importance and illuminates the social and political anxieties at its heart.Shows the similarities and differences between British, American, and Scandinavian crime fiction traditions

Mark Twain is a central figure in nineteenth-century American literature, and his novels are among the best-known and most often studied texts in the field. This clear and incisive Introduction provides a biography of the author and situates his works in the historical and cultural context of his times. Peter Messent gives accessible but penetrating readings of the best-known writings including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He pays particular attention to the way Twain's humour works and how it underpins his prose style. The final chapter provides up-to-date analysis of the recent critical reception of Twain's writing, and summarises the contentious and important debates about his literary and cultural position. The guide to further reading will help those who wish to extend their research and critical work on the author. This book will be of outstanding value to anyone coming to Twain for the first time.

Mark Twain is a central figure in nineteenth-century American literature, and his novels are among the best-known and most often studied texts in the field. This clear and incisive Introduction provides a biography of the author and situates his works in the historical and cultural context of his times. Peter Messent gives accessible but penetrating readings of the best-known writings including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He pays particular attention to the way Twain's humour works and how it underpins his prose style. The final chapter provides up-to-date analysis of the recent critical reception of Twain's writing, and summarises the contentious and important debates about his literary and cultural position. The guide to further reading will help those who wish to extend their research and critical work on the author. This book will be of outstanding value to anyone coming to Twain for the first time.

Eight perennially popular novels appear regularly on American Literature courses. In this new edition of his acclaimed book, the author applies important theoretical approaches, including Genette, Barthes, Bakhtin and Reader Response criticism, to these key novels. Ideal for students new to narrative theory, this second edition is thoroughly updated in the light of recent developments in the field. Featured novels: Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady, Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn, Edith Wharton: The House of Mirth, Willa Cather: A Lost Lady, F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises; William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God.