I'm not in academia, but I can't resist commenting on this thread. Having read everything by and about Twain that I could find, I often wonder if some of the critics have read his books and essays & letters. [I also wonder if some of them got some of the jokes, but that is another topic.] Of course Twain was cynical! He was both highly intelligent and an idealist. (See Huck, Joan, the entire body of his work.) A cynic is almost by definition an idealist who is not wearing blinders. (And humor is a standard defense strategy in such a case.) It didn't require any family deaths or business failures to make him a cynic. In spite of all of Twain's accurate observations about the damned human race, he was, I think, right up to the end, hurt and disappointed when he received fresh proof of human evil. Someone whose cynicism is not based on idealism doesn't bother to rage against injustice - he just pockets his share of the proceeds. Now I'll sit back and wait for the flames. Peggy A Dolan