Writing "Huckleberry Finn": Mark Twain's Creative Process

292 Pages·1991·14.228 MB·English

by  Victor Doyno

Writing Huck Finn
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Writing Huck Finn
Mark Twain's Creative Process
Victor A. Doyno
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 1991 by the University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First paperback printing 1993
Mark Twain's previously unpublished words quoted here are © 1991 by Edward J. Willi and
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company as Trustees of the Mark Twain Foundation, which
reserves all reproduction or dramatization rights in every medium. Quotation is made with the
permission of the University of California Press and Dr. Robert H. Hirst, General Editor of
the Mark Twain Project. Each quotation is identified by an asterisk (*).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publtcation Data
Doyno, Victor, 1937—
Writing Huck Finn : Mark Twain's creative process / Victor A. Doyno.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8122-3087-6 (cloth)
ISBN o-8i22-i448-x (pbk)
i. Twain, Mark, 1835—1910. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 2. Creation (Literary,
artistic, etc.) I. Title.
PSi3O5.D69 1991
813'.54—dc2o 91-25114
CIP
This book is dedicated to my wife's family and my family, including those
Bohemian, Irish, English, and Italian emigrants who became immi-
grants. Accordingly, this book also honors the complex processes which make
our children individualized Americans.
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
INTRODUCTORY
1. Taking Our Bearings
7
STYLISTICS
2. Precisely the Right Tone of Voice 39
3. Characterization 53
4. Humor 68
5. Description and Imagery 80
6. Plot 94
THEMATICS
7. The Conflict Between Nobility and Individualism ill
8. Christianity in Conflict with Morality 130
9. Literacy, Copyright, and Books 174
viii Contents
THE QUESTION OF UNITY
10. Repetition, Cycles, and Structure 223
Appendix
257
Bibliography of Works Consulted 26?
Index 271
List of Illustrations
1. Mark Twain in his Quarry Farm study, 1874 2
2. Posed family tableau, 1884-1885 3
3. Four views of Twain, 1884 4
4. MS p. 351 5
5. MS p. 352 6
6. MS p. 500 36
7. MS p. 233 37
8. MS p. 329 38
9. MS p. 210 106
10. MS p. 487 107
11. Thomas Nast's cartoon: Twain's efforts to secure Canadian
copyright for The Prince and the Pauper 108
12. Twain at Quarry Farm, 1904 109