The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Martin
Zehr.

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BOOK REVIEW

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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
By Martin Zehr

Copyright (c) 2008 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.

_Mark Twain and Human Nature_. By Tom Quirk. University of Missouri Press,
2007, cloth, pp. xvi + 289. $39.95. ISBN 0-7414-4410-0.

Every persistent reader of Mark Twain has had the experience of believing
they have a fix on the man, only to be corrected in this regard as his
infinitely complex and continuously evolving nature eludes and attracts us.
The task of tackling the subject of Mark Twain and his views on human
nature is daunting, one not suited for the faint-hearted or the impatient
temperament. Tom Quirk's _Mark Twain and Human Nature_ is testimony to the
fact that Quirk is well-suited to the task.

Tom Quirk is a seasoned veteran of Mark Twain studies, someone who is not
only thoroughly versed in the primary works of Mark Twain and the critical
literature of the last century, but also understands the contemporary
history of the man and the world in which he traveled. Defining a basic
conception of human nature is, at best, an elusive proposition. In his
introduction Quirk provides explicit guidelines for such a
concept--guidelines which are grounded in genetics, biology, physiology,
psychology and morality.

Quirk analyzes Mark Twain's well-known pronouncements regarding the
importance of habit, training, the desire for social approval and humor in
the context of the social scientists whose work attracted Twain's
attention, e.g.--the historian William E. H. Lecky,
philosopher-psychologist William James and Charles Darwin, as well as
Twain's own life experience. Quirk also explicitly links Twain's
observations regarding human nature to later social scientists. In his
discussion of _Following the Equator_, for example, he shows that the
"self-imposed moral restraint" resulting from European colonialism instills
in the victim what philosopher Kenneth Burke would later term "trained
incapacity." The empirical studies of "learned helplessness" conducted by
the psychologist Martin Seligman in the last quarter century provide a firm
scientific basis for Twain's typically insightful observations.

Quirk also discusses influences of little-known researchers such as Adolphe
Quetelet, the Belgian scientist and statistician whose observations
regarding institutions, habits, and education likely influenced Twain's own
evolving notions of determinism. These ideas are evident in many of Twain's
later writings, such as "Corn-Pone Opinions" and "What Is Man?" Twain's
views of determinism were also informed, if not influenced, by others such
as Herbert Spencer as well as lesser-known figures like historian Henry
Thomas Buckle. Buckle's emphasis on observable sources for progress in
civilization was at least consistent with what Quirk views as "the high
tide of Twain's social optimism" (p. 170) in the late 1880s, illustrated by
the hopeful social engineering of Hank Morgan in _A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's Court_.

Quirk notes that Twain's lifelong interest in human nature did not have a
consistently beneficial impact on his writing. He observes, for example,
that "Twain's longstanding desire to inspect and comment on the human race
also pushed him toward generalized, which is to say less particularized,
dramatic fictions" (p. 145).

Quirk follows a chronological perspective, dividing Twain's developing
perspectives on human nature into six distinct eras coinciding with
recognizable historical landmarks. The first chapter covers the period
1852-69, during which the callow Hannibal youth makes his first notebook
entries, to his emergence as a national celebrity with the publication of
_The Innocents Abroad_. Each step in Mark Twain's metaphorical travels,
observing his fellow members of humanity directly and reading what he could
get his hands on that passed for scholarly work on the subject is
documented by Quirk with the evidence of Twain's notebooks, his probable
readings, his whereabouts, and influences to which he was likely exposed.
For example, Mark Twain's knowledge of the popular practice of phrenology
"may have helped to wean him of a Calvinistic view of the human condition"
(p. 29). Quirk also cites evidence that Twain may well have been exposed to
the tempering influence of Missouri voices rejecting notions of "eternal
damnation" and promoting a more liberal, generous attitude toward the human
condition. The early interest in phrenology, and, especially, its later,
satirical rejection, as Quirk notes, underscores Clemens's lifelong
interest and openness, not only to new ideas, or schemes, but openness to
quick, scornful rejection at a point when Clemens reclassifies them as
uninformed scams.

The chronological perspective in _Mark Twain and Human Nature_ includes
detailed analysis of the evolving nature of Twain's views as expressed in
all his major writings, including essays, travelogues and fiction. Quirk's
discussion of the moral struggle Huck undergoes while weighing Jim's fate
in Chapter 31 of _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ illustrates Twain's own
dichotomous thinking regarding the view of conscience as "intuitionist"
versus "utilitarian" in accord with his reading of W. E. H. Lecky's
_History of European Morals from Augustine to Charlemagne_ (1869). The
struggle of the sound heart and the deformed conscience culminating in
Huck's declaration, "All right, then, I'll go to hell" in a sense mirrors
Twain's own intellectual contest, between the competing ideas of conscience
as the product of an intuitive moral sense and an instrument derived from
outside social directives in service of obtaining individual happiness. In
Huck's case, of course, his status as an outsider, as yet not entirely
indoctrinated by the St. Petersburg version of morality, allows the innate
sense of right action, as it were, to triumph, if only temporarily, as
Quirk observes, until the outside conventions, represented by the
appearance of Tom Sawyer, reassert themselves, resulting in the moral
"evasion" of the final chapters.

Mark Twain's shorter writings are analyzed in like manner, including
significant early works such as "A True Story," "The Facts Concerning the
Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut" and an 1885 speech "The Character
of Man." Recurring themes relevant to Twain's evolving views of human
nature, including the importance of training, outside influences, the
ubiquitous need for the approval of others, and a gradually pervasive and
pessimistic determinism are integral elements of these works, often
occurring in conjunction with the humor and wit which serve the function of
rendering an ultimately disappointing human experience more palatable. In
each case, Quirk provides the reader with a sense of the contemporary
social, historical and cultural influences which, in conjunction with
Twain's current life circumstances and readings, likely informed his views
on particular aspects of nature to be detected in his writing.

Quirk is reluctant to categorize Mark Twain's various musings on human
nature under one unifying philosophy, e.g., determinism, although,
certainly, the weight of later writings such as "What Is Man?" and "The Man
That Corrupted Hadleyburg" lean heavily in this direction. Twain's
sometimes bleak determinism, based as it was on his own "corn pone"
analysis and his absorption of the lessons of Darwinism, Herbert Spencer,
and the scientific revolution of the late nineteenth-century, was seemingly
reinforced by the sufferings he personally endured from the deaths of his
brother Henry to the loss of his beloved wife Livy and the death of his
daughter Jean.

Quirk's discussion of the later work _Eve's Diary_ indicates that, even
during the last decade of his life, Twain recognized the necessity,
underscored by Livy's death, of experiencing a sense of community, an
affirmation that man is, indeed, "unavoidably social," "entangled in a web
of social relations" and "pleased by the other's happiness, fearful for his
or her well-being, distressed by the other's displeasure" (p. 281).

In his introduction, the author states "human nature was one of the central
preoccupations of Mark Twain's life, and, as such, his thinking on the
subject deserved as open and charitable a hearing as I felt capable of
giving it" (p.19). We might also append the adjective "thorough," although
this will certainly be obvious to the reader. The detail and richness of
the text would, at first glance, seem to place the work beyond the grasp of
potential readers who have not immersed themselves in Twain's works for
half a lifetime. However, the book is written in such a manner that the
average reader can easily profit from its analysis. As an example, someone
familiar with the mob's confrontation with Colonel Sherburn in _Huckleberry
Finn_ would likely find Quirk's discussion of this familiar incident (pp.
141-45) illuminating. Here Quirk underscores Twain's lifelong fascination
with the subject of the average man being a coward. This pronouncement is
given by Colonel Sherburn himself in Chapter 22 of _Huckleberry Finn_ when
Sherburn declares, "The average man's a coward." Quirk provides a listing
of contemporary sources from Twain's reading which either led to or
reinforced his own conclusions regarding the average man. In like manner,
Twain's preoccupations with other facets of human nature are rendered
accessible to both the Twain scholar and the average reader.

Quirk's book is scrupulously documented and consistently evidence-based.
Footnoted discussions provide readers with collateral sources. _Mark Twain
and Human Nature_ is not a retrospective speculative analysis based on a
fitting of Twain to the Procrustean bed of psychoanalysis. Tom Quirk has
also spared the reader from sensational and unsubstantiated explanations
for Mark Twain's writings and behavior. He has written the benchmark work
on this subject by which any future attempts will be measured.

_____

ABOUT THE REVIEWER: Martin Zehr of Kansas City, Missouri is a clinical
psychologist in private practice. He has presented papers on Mark Twain at
the Modern Language Association and International Mark Twain Studies
Conferences.  He is also the recipient of a Quarry Farm Fellowship. Zehr
advises that he is a great admirer of Tom Quirk's works and that _Mark
Twain and Human Nature_ is "the best Twain-related book I've read in ten
years, and nearly every page of the review copy has my penciled comments
filling the margins, and finally, I can hardly wait till I have the time in
the unforeseeable future to read it again."