I've been thinking about why Twain considered this his best book (so I've heard tell). My thoughts center around the differences in povs between teaching literature and writing fiction. When teaching literature, or reading as a teacher of literature, I focus on meaning, and on ways to bring students to understandings of literature, art, and yes, history. I want the literature to mean in the several ways that literature can mean when it enters and changes lives: compassion, passion, good sense, plus a sense of magic and wonder. When I write fiction I don't really give a hoot about meaning, so long as meaning of the story carries no cheap shots. If the work carries symobls, Okay. If not: Oh, dear. But - I care about not offending the material, about craft, about accuracy, artfulness, language, and being canny. Not all writers feel this way, but I'm pretty sure Twain did, and I know that such attitudes are displayed in the work of Capote, Steve Becker, McCullers, Welty, Arnow, LeGuin, James Jones (although his adverbs would drive a saint to drink), Pat Conroy, Hemmingway, among many. In those terms Joan may well be MT's best book. He was clearly satisfied with his research. He maintained artistic control from beginning to end (which was not always the case, as the end of HF demonstrates). He set himself a job of craft that was not easy, even for a writer of great experience. Joan is told in very short chapters. This makes the writing easier, but the conceptual framework harder because of placement - one event does not lead naturally to the next. Joan required a lot of intricate strategy. I kept expecting him to break up as he got closer and closer to burning. I expected him to fall into his occasional habit of hitting the sarcasm button too hard. When one stops to think of how much he had been through by the time he wrote Joan, and how easy it would have been to lose artistic control because of indignation or anger or despair, it is impossible not to admire the book (whether one treasures it or not). Apologies for the length of the post, but, by gosh, it's a lot better book than I remembered. From MT's pov there was good reason to believe it was his best. Jack Cady