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From:
Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 3 Feb 2017 17:55:11 +0000
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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 to full-length "books" (novels and nonfiction focusing on one main subject/theme) are considered his best works?
The list I'm thinking of would include the following, in chronological order:
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), travel
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, etc.), or at least as to popularity (appreciation by the water-imbibing public)
 - B. Clay Shannon

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