Echoing Pete Messent, if I may presume, I think the transnational Twain is an area of crucial development. I've been excited by what I've read and heard. And for what my opinion is worth, I think much of the very strong work I've seen and heard about recently challenges the "accepted" vision of Twain as a keeper of boyhood and American nostalgia--all of which seem to me about re-assessing Twain in the context of the eras in which he lived: 1. Twain as cosmopolitan, looking at the impact of the city (American and international) on Twain, including the complex intersections of class and race in various urban environments--and how that complicates our views of his Missouri novels. I think race will always be a central debate, but the new approaches to Twain allow us to see class and how it interacts with race more clearly, allows us to step back a little. 2. Twain and domesticity, looking at the impact of family and home on his writing (both in his bio and the literary tradition of domesticity). 3. Twain in the context of the philosophical, religious and cultural trends of the era. 4. Twain in the classroom--what teachers can do with all of the new material, how they can use it To me, all of this work holds excitement and some danger. The challenge is in avoiding "presentism"--the desire to see our own opinions echoed in the past. But that's always the challenge, isn't it? To "bite the bullet," as Louis Budd has said, and see what is there, rather than what we want to be there. In my humble opinion, these avenues (and I know that there is so much other fine work I'm not aware of!!!) offer strong possibilities for future study and interest. Sharon McCoy