Cosmopolitan Twain

by Ryan, Ann M.; McCullough, Joseph B.

• ISBN13: 9780826218278
• ISBN10: 082621827X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-26
• Publisher: Univ of Missouri Pr

Summary

"Cosmopolitan Twain takes seriously Mark Twain's life as a citizen of urban landscapes: from the streets of New York City to the palaces of Vienna to the suburban utopia of Hartford. Traditional readings of Mark Twain orient his life and work by distinctly rural markers such as the Mississippi River, the Wild West, and small-town America; yet, as this collodion shows, Twain's sensibilities were equally formal in the urban centers of the world. These essays represent Twain both as a product of urban frontiers and as a prophet of American modernity, situating him squarely within the context of an evolving international and cosmopolitan community." "The volume ends by presenting Elmira, New York, as a complement, and something of a counterpart, to Twain's cosmopolitan life, creating a domestic retreat from the pace and complexity of an increasingly urban, modem America." "Cosmopolitan Twain presents Twain's eventual descent into skepticism and despair not as a departure form his early values but rather as a dark awakening into the new terms of American identity, history, and moral authority. This collection reveals a writer who is decidedly less static than the iconic portrait that dominates popular culture. It offers a corrective to the familiar image of Twain as the nostalgic voice of America's rural past, presenting Twain as a citizen of modernity and a visionary of a global and cosmopolitan future."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. iv
Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction: Mark Twain and the Cosmopolitan Ideal	p. 1
Mark Twain and the Mean (and Magical) Streets of New York	p. 21
Sam Clemens and the Mississippi River Metropolis	p. 64
Mark Twain, San Francisco's Comic Flaneur	p. 93
Taming the Bohemian: Mark Twain in Buffalo	p. 116
Mark Twain's Music Box: Livy, Cosmopolitanism, and the Commodity Aesthetic	p. 140
"Not an Alien but at Home": Mark Twain and London	p. 187
Mark Twain in Vienna: A Diplomat without Pay	p. 211
A Room of His Own: Samuel Clemens, Elmira, and Quarry Farm	p. 233
About the Contributors	p. 255
Index	p. 257
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