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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 3 Feb 2017 13:42:56 -0500
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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Re: Is there a general consensus as to Twain's best full-length works?
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Alan Kitty <[log in to unmask]>
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To: Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]>
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It's just a start, but how about ranking by era, age, gender, religious and political tendencies, region, nationality and dietary habits of critic? And for Heaven's sake, don't leave out earnings from Sales.  Without those, most of those titles might not exist, and only a few descendants would have heard of our Mark. But perhaps "NO" will suffice after all. 

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> On Feb 3, 2017, at 12:55 PM, Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> I know the short answer to this is "No," but I'm hoping for a more nuanced =
> answer or two; is there a consensus about which Twain works, when limited t=
> o=C2=A0full-length "books" (novels and nonfiction focusing on one main subj=
> ect/theme) are considered his best works?
> The list I'm thinking of would include the following, in chronological orde=
> r:
> The Innocents Abroad (1869), travel
> Roughing It (1872), travel
> The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873)
> The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
> A Tramp Abroad (1880), travel
> The Prince and the Pauper (1881)
> Life on the Mississippi (1883), travel
> Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
> A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)
> The American Claimant (1892)
> Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)
> Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894)
> Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896)
> Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896)
> Following the Equator (sometimes titled "More Tramps Abroad") (1897), trave=
> l
> I would personally place them in this ranking:
> Roughing It
> The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
> The Innocents Abroad
> The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
> Life on the Mississippi
> A Tramp Abroad
> Following the Equator
> A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
> The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
> The Prince and the Pauper
> The American Claimant
> Pudd'nhead Wilson
> Tom Sawyer Abroad
> Tom Sawyer, Detective
> Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
> ...but wonder if there is a consensus as to ranking (by critics/scholars, e=
> tc.), or at least as to popularity (appreciation by the water-imbibing publ=
> ic)
> =C2=A0- B. Clay Shannon

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