Good Evening Everyone,

One of my former thesis readers is of course a college professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

He has asked me to submit this question to all of you:

"Does anyone know how well Twain had read Dickens, especially The Pickwick Papers?  Can anyone recommend good scholarship on the topic?
Further, if he did so, does he discuss it anywhere?  It's got some remarkable overlap with Huck Finn and I'm including both books in a treatment of the picaresque novel 
I'm writing.”

Whatever insights you can give, I will gratefully pass them onto my professor who will also be most appreciative of your thoughts.

Thank you and enjoy the waning days of August!
John

John R. Pascal, M.B.A., M.A.
Teacher of 9th Grade English Honors, 11th Grade English, & The Writings of Mark Twain
Seton Hall Preparatory School
Contributing Author to Mark Twain and Youth, available at Amazon and Bloomsbury Academic Publishing by the links below:

https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Twain-Youth-Studies-Writings/dp/1474225381/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471631434&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+twain+and+youth <https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Twain-Youth-Studies-Writings/dp/1474225381/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471631434&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+twain+and+youth>

http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mark-twain-and-youth-9781474225380/ <http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mark-twain-and-youth-9781474225380/>

Book Signing at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Livingston Mall on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 9 AM to 10 PM.  A portion of the proceeds from the book sales along with all other products in the store go back to Seton Hall Prep as well as the four Mark Twain Centers in the USA!  Come and support the Prep as well as getting great insight on Mark Twain and Youth!


Review--
“The very theme of youth is a crucial one in Twain ... the list of authors who have agreed to write for this collection provides a kind of who's who of the very best critics working in Twain Studies at the present moment. This is a book which I would eagerly anticipate reading, as would any scholar with an interest in Twain.” ―Peter Messent, Emeritus Professor of American and Canadian Studies, Nottingham University, UK