I am posting this review on behalf of Michael O'Connor who wrote it.

Barb

~~~~~

BOOK REVIEW:   Fulton, Joe B. _Mark Twain in the Margins: The Quarry Farm
Marginalia and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_.  Studies in
American Literary Realism & Naturalism Series.  Tuscaloosa and London: The
University of Alabama Press, 2000. Pp. 205. Notes, bibliography, index.
$34.95. ISBN 0-8173-1033-9.

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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Michael O'Conner <[log in to unmask]>
Millikin University.

Copyright © 2001 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.

In the last few decades a number of books on Mark Twain have been published
with mixed audiences in mind, written for scholars and lay
persons alike.
Not so with Joe Fulton's _Mark Twain in the Margins_.  This is a book
written for Twain scholars by a Twain scholar.  Its specialized subject
matter concerns the primary evidence of Twain's own marginalia found in the
resource books the author used during his composing processes while
thinking and writing during his spent summers at the Quarry Farm near
Elmira, New York.  In this book, Fulton presents the marginalia in four
large appendixes as a resource for future Twain scholarship.
These
appendixes take up nearly half of the book.  He also analyzes this
previously unavailable evidence in five concise and focused chapters,
concentrating on Twain's novel _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's
Court_.

Fulton begins his first chapter with a defense of Twain's composing process
as set against those scholars who have always considered Twain to be only
an unconscious, psychological and experiential writer.  Rather, Fulton
believes that Twain was both an experiential writer and a ca
reful craftsman
and researcher, as demonstrated through the author's manuscript revisions
and, importantly, through his existing marginalia. Defending Twain from
being pidgeonholed and defined too narrowly by definitions of either
Howellsian or Jamesian realism, Fulton makes a case that Twain wrote with a
purposeful aesthetic of his own brand of literary realism in mind. Fulton
also quickly refutes recent claims, from the likes of Levine, Meindle and
Stern, among others, that literary realism is no l
onger worthy of serious
study. The rest of Chapter One ruminates between discussions of Twain's
aesthetics and realism's importance, all through the lens of Twain's
composing processes during the creation of _A Connecticut Yankee_.  Fulton
defendsTwain against his own self-deprecating words, phrases taken up and
emblazoned time and again by literary critics as valid analyses of Twain's
own methods of writing.  Fulton's primary forms of evidence, that Twain did
not simply write from "personal experien
ce" and "unconscious motivation,"
are the author's extensive use of outside sources, mostly histories, in
planning and composing his fiction.  He builds a working definition of
Twainian literary realism as defined by a "compass of fact," or "uncovering
the truths of human character by studying the history of humankind" (14).
The essence of this argument identifies Twain's fictional verisimilitude as
projected from and outlined by known and recorded historical reality.  This
leads naturally into the u
ses and importance of the marginalia from the
researched historical texts Twain consulted in creating his novels.  A
personal note on the opening chapter:  The myriad, and sometimes clashing,
discussions from the parlor of assembled scholars that Fulton has invited
into this chapter might at times seem a bit overwhelming.  I would have
liked to hear, perhaps, a bit more of Fulton's voice rising above the
polyglot of critical voices present.

Each of Fulton's remaining chapters concern the marginalia
 found in a
particular book or set of volumes that directly influenced _A Connecticut
Yankee_ and reflect the historical foundations of Twain's fiction.  Chapter
Two treats W.E.H. Lecky's _History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit
of Rationalism_; Chapter Three Macaulay's _History of England from the
Accession of James II_; Chapter Four Lecky's _A History of England in the
Eighteenth Century_; and Chapter Five, Carlyle's _The French Revolution_.

Fulton demonstrates that Twain's comments and m
arkings in _The Spirit of
Rationalism_ illuminate Twain's fascination with and condemnation of
humanity's acceptance and belief in "witches, magic and the supernatural"
(32).  By using Lecky's book to develop an understanding of the culture and
beliefs of an age and a people, Twain is provided with a sort of template
for the truth, or a "means of achieving fictional verisimilitude," allowing
Hank Morgan to follow a "compass of fact" (33).  This chapter also contains
interesting comparisons between th
e Scotch, who are being subjected to the
stresses of advanced civilization in Lecky's book, and the Iroquois and
other natives of America that Twain knew.  It focuses mostly, however, on
the sins of the unified Church for "failing to use its great power for
equally great ends" (38). These arguments set the stage for Twain's attacks
against the Church throughout his novel.

In his third chapter, and in fact all his chapters, Fulton attempts to
pinpoint the precise period in which Twain's marginalia w
ere penned, thus
affecting our understanding of the composition of _A Connecticut Yankee_.
Marginalia placed in Macauley's _History of England in 1887_, according to
Fulton, offer a fuller understanding of Twain's preoccupation with social
class structure in his novel and also offers two possible models after whom
Hank Morgan's character was structured, King James II and the Master of
Stair. Fulton also offers insights on the influences that Macauley's style
had upon Twain's own novel structure, tele
scoping "all history into a very
short period of time" (61).

Chapter Four returns to Lecky, this time treating the Twain marginalia in
_History of England in the Eighteenth Century_.  This is by far Fulton's
best and strongest chapter, where the marginalia he has uncovered is put to
the best interpretive use.  Dating the marginalia at 1888, Fulton
demonstrates how the specific passages from Lecky, that Twain found
important, point to revisions and redirections in completing the _Yankee_
text.  Ful
ton focuses on Lecky's theme of change that Twain found in the
book.  As such, Fulton discards the notions that the novel concerns any
debate between either criticisms of English society or critiques of
American society.  Instead, he argues we should be reading a novel that
"involves the concepts of change, progress and historicity" (65).
According to Fulton, Twain uses _History of England_ to come to the
realization that social progress cannot be significantly accelerated
without bloodshed, somethin
g Twain had hoped for early in his novel through
Hank's ministrations.  Fulton's thesis for the chapter can be summarized as
such.  "From his intensive study of history Twain realized that substantive
change required that the men of old ideas die off" (68).  The rest of the
chapter goes on to reinforce the idea that the two major institution that
Hank had to battle were composed of these "old men of ideas," the Church
and the aristocracy, all leading to the inevitable Battle of the Sandbelt.
In fact,
 Fulton argues that after absorbing Lecky's histories completely,
Twain was convinced that in the end there was little, if any, difference
between supposed civilized behavior and uncivilized behavior.  Hank, in the
end, shows himself to be a "man of old ideas" too.

The fifth chapter examines Twain's commentary on Carlyle's _The French
Revolution_.  Here, Fulton turns to Twain's rereading of Carlyle during the
summer of 1888 as inspiration for a number of specific incidents occurring
within _A Conne
cticut Yankee_, including Hank's Battle of the Sandbelt.  We
find direct references in Carlyle to particular Yankee mob scenes,
depictions of slavery, and the near hanging of Arthur.  Most importantly,
Fulton concludes that Twain's novel was a response to Carlyle's "Bucket of
Blood" description of the French Revolution (95).  In fact, apparently
Carlyle leads Twain to a deterministic understanding of history as chaos,
as acted out in the conclusion of _A Connecticut Yankee_.

Fulton concludes his bo
ok with a touching biographical perspective on the
importance of Twain's visits to the Cranes' Quarry Farm, and how those
visits ended with Theodore Crane's stroke in September of 1888.  Finally, I
will be the first to admit that such chapter summaries as these do little
justice to the richness and complexity of Fulton's overall arguments.  I
have oversummarized and skipped many of the interesting and intricate
debates presented here.  Two observations:   I have concerns for those who
may attempt to
use this book who are not already fairly well versed in
_Connecticut Yankee_ scholarship. The author assumes this knowledge of his
readers, so little space is devoted to summaries or extended references of
earlier criticism.  For example, quick references to Baetzhold's chronology
and Carter's dichotomy of the hard and soft critics are expected to be
understood.  Also, I was a bit disappointed that this study did not unveil
more that has not already been discussed in existing criticism.  But that
is
not Fulton's point nor purpose here.  These chapters do reinforce, with
specific new outside evidence, much of what we already know about the
genetic composition of the novel.  Obviously, for present and future
_Connecticut Yankee_ scholars this will be an indispensable book.  There
are plenty of marginalia warehoused in the appendixes that remain to be
analyzed and treated.  With this volume, Fulton has provided a store of
potential future scholarship and he has certainly raised the bar in our
overa
ll understanding and appreciation of Twain's creative processes and
the ongoing debate on the importance and place of American literary
realism.

Contents:

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements Method of Transcription
List of Abbreviations

1.  Following the "Compass of Fact": Rethinking Mark Twain's Composing Process

2.  Twain's "Cloud of Witnesses": The 1885 and 1887 Marginalia in Lecky's
_Spirit of Rationalism_

3. Macaulay's "Stately Sentences": Twain's 1885 and 1887 Marginalia in _The

History of England_

4. "The Men of Old Ideas Must Die Off": Mark Twain and Lecky's _England in
the Eighteenth Century_

5. Thomas Carlyle's "Bucket of Blood": Twain's Rereading of _The French
Revolution_

Conclusion
Appendixes
Notes
Bibliography
Index