This Jane Austen question is somewhat complicated, like so many other things about Twain. 

As Barbara Schmidt indicated, my 1980 book summarized the ideas that I and others have advanced about his expressions of vitriol whenever this classic author was praised. Copies of my 1980 work have become increasingly difficult to locate, but the first volume of a revised and expanded edition that I recently finished should be available later this year or early next year.

Alan Gribben 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 16, 2017, at 1:35 PM, "Barbara Schmidt" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Some of the best discussion on this topic that I've seen is in Alan
> Gribben's _Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction_.  There seems to be no
> defining answer but a number of intriguing theories.
> 
> Barb