Bob-- You put forth an interesting argument, but I wonder where those of us who were fortunate enough to have come into Twain unscathed (without teachers to tell us what it all meant) might be now if we'd come upon Brooks' silly theory while our brains were still soft and green. I used his criticism as the basis for a paper in high school, contending that to consider SLC inferior because of how and what he wrote was essentially saying ALL American literature that didn't meet "high"—British—standards was less valuable, was utter nonsense. But these sorts of heady tussles are what make the forum so much fun, and why it exists in the first place. Kathy O'Connell Hartford Advocate