-------------- Original message from Steve Hoffman <[log in to unmask]>: -------------- 

A late response to Steve Hoffman's remarks re: the "evasion" chapters of AHF.  The great flaw of these latter chapters, to me at least, is that they require more than a passing familiarity of the historical events of the years during which Twain wrote the novel (1876-83).  The first is the election of Rutherford Hayes in 1876, thanks to the shenanigans of Florida electors and a deal in the House of Representatives to withdraw Federal troops from the southern states in return for his election over Sam Tilden, the popular vote winner.  This marks the official end of Reconstruction, and the hastening of the Jim Crow era, which Twain witnessed, first-hand, to his great dismay, during the trip he took down the Mississippi in conjunction with the writing of Life on the Mississippi.   The "re-enslavement" of Jim, after the implicit promise of his freedom and in the context of his technical "free" status, is, I think, Twain's comment on what he sees happening before his eyes in his own country.  For a more eloquent expression of this hypothesis, read Toni Morrison's introductory remarks in the Oxford edition of AHF, the 1996 edition edited by Shelley Fishkin.  Morrison, in my opinion, hits the nail on the head regarding this point, without which the ending of AHF may seem like so much "surplusage."
martin zehr
kansas city, missouri 
> What would any Mark Twain book be without its flaws? 
> 
> He was such a great writer but since he wasn't schooled in "how to write 
> the perfect 19th century novel" he almost never did. He was bursting 
> with ideas and tended to put 'em all down on paper. Many of his books 
> are uneven in tone, for example -- with some parts played for farce, 
> some for tragedy. 
> 
> Sentence for sentence, I personally think he is as great a utilizer of 
> the English language as anyone I have ever encountered, dead or living. 
> But his novels typically aren't flawless. 
> 
> Heck, AHF -- considered by so many his greatest work -- is arguably 
> flawed by all those lame chapters at the end when Tom Sawyer enters 
> stage center and turns Jim's freedom into one of his games. Most 
> readers find those sections quite a literary let-down. 
> 
> I honestly think one that one thing that attracts so many of us to 
> Twain's works is that they are not perfect literary "works" but are 
> living and breathing with the humanity of the author -- so often, one 
> quite literally gets the feeling of being in Mark Twain's company when 
> reading his works -- and somehow to me the flaws are part of that 
> ongoing conversation. 
> 
> When you mention the Bing Crosby movie, by the way, this makes me 
> contemplate what an excellent movie could be made of Conn Yankee 
> nowadays -- by one of today's directors specializing in dark, ironic, 
> post-modern film-making -- in contrast to the upbeat song-filled 1949 
> Hollywood version! 
> 
> -Steve Hoffman 
> Takoma Park MD 
> 
> 
> 
> David Davis wrote: 
> > It is a terrific work, although I seem to remember (what I perceived as) 
> > flaws. Grabbed a PDF from Google Books Search, re-reading starting 
> > yesterday. 
> > 
> > I wonder what Clara made of the Bing Crosby version? ;-) 
> > 
> > DDD 
> > 
> > -----Original Message----- 
> > From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of L T 
> > Oggel/FS/VCU 
> > Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 1:24 PM 
> > To: [log in to unmask] 
> > Subject: Conn Yankee 
> > 
> > Here's a piece from yesterday's Wash. Post that's perfectly timed for 
> > our 
> > recent/on-going discussion on Conn Yankee: 
> > 
> > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR200909 
> > 0403802.html?referrer=emailarticle 
> > 
> > Henry Nash Smith's book on CYankee, Mark Twain's Fable of Progress, left 
> > a 
> > strong impression on me when I first read it, and it still does seem to 
> > hit the nail on the head. Smith's book, one of (few) literary studies 
> > that endures, might be old but it's not out of date, like the Twain book 
> > 
> > it examines. Smith's book is sub-titled, Political and Economic Ideas 
> > in 
> > A Connecticut Yankee. 
> > 
> > Terry Oggel 
> > 
> > 
> >