First published in 1873, The Gilded Age is both a biting satire and a revealing portrait of post-Civil War America-an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peacetime optimism. With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, attack the greed, lust, and naivete of their own time in a work which endures as a valuable social document and one of America's most important satirical novels.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the...

This broad-ranging companion brings together respected American and European critics and a number of up-and-coming scholars to provide an overview of Twain, his background, his writings, and his place in American literary history.

• One of the most broad-ranging volumes to appear on Mark Twain in recent years
• Brings together respected Twain critics and a number of younger scholars in the field to provide an overview of this central figure in American literature
• Places special emphasis on the ways in which Twain's works remain both relevant and important for a...

This book is the first systematic, comprehensive gathering of the reviews (primarily in the United States and Britain) of Mark Twain's books published up until 1917. The reviews collected here give the reader an unfiltered sense of how Twain's books and his reputation looked to his audience at the time. In addition, by devoting attention to each of Twain's books, this volume moves away from the current, distorting emphasis on a small number of publications and thus provides a broader perspective on Twain's career.

These essays on Huckleberry Finn will enrich our understanding of the novel's topical impact.