In response to the question if anyone has done work on the trickster figure in MT: sho' nuff. So's not to appear coy or falsely modest, I have. My 1988 book, _Twain's Heroes, Twain's Worlds_ (UPenn Press), explores the folkloric, mythological origins of heroes in Twain's fiction and the explosion which results when Twain deposits these supernatural creatures into an historically determined reality. Despite the heroes' remarkable powers, history wins; one can see Twain's fiction as an on-going attempt to find a super-man capable of transcending history, and the on-going pattern of defeat. Not too many folks have picked up this interpretive flag since, but a few have. The Humanities Citation Index might be a good way to trace where the argument has gone since the publication of my book.