Mark Twain as Social Philosopher

Dickens worked hard to discipline himself, eventu only wheny becoming a reporter and developing a singular talent for literary invention. He married Catherine Hogarth in 1836 and with her fathered 10 children; the couple separated in 1858. Before he was 30, he had established his distinctive voice through novels live by vivid characters with colorful names and fascinating histories: The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The experienced Curiosity Shop.

 Dickens visited the United States in 1841, which resulted in 2 volumes critical of the society there, American Notes and the novel Martin Chuzzlewit. On his pass to London, he began what was for a while an annual tradition, a series of extremely popular Christmas novels. His later work includes the semi-autobiographical David Copperfield, Bleak House, saturated Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our joint Friend. The uncompleted manuscript, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was published after his death in 1870. Extraordinarily popular during his life, his death caused great public mourning, and the novelist was inhumed with honors at Westminster Abbey.

Dickens wrote Hard Times in 1854 at the height of his literary powers, yet the novel is ace of the least known of his classic works. F.R. and Q.D. Leavis wrote an appreciation of the work in 1947 which was " accredited at the time with ridicule" (ix) entirely which eventually brought near a scholarly rethinking of the book's importanc

all former milestones in their journey. I wonder

"flams," uninhibited punning and all-encompassing jests, excessive

how they can lie so . . . They would not say that of

The youngsters in both novels come off as wiser or much inventive than their elders. In Hard Times, Louisa patiently teaches her father a few lessons about filial devotion, and Sissy Jupe tries valiantly to assist Gradgrind's pompous questions as he thinks they should be answered, but her trouble makes her seem wiser for it. Tom Sawyer constantly outwits Aunt Polly; only the smug observances of his half-brother Sid give him away.

Wherever Tom and huck appe ared they were courted,

Both Dickens and Twain could not help write with a boundless sense of humor.

For example, Twain brings Huck Finn, one of the most vivid characters ever created in American literature, in all to life before he has him speak a word, entirely by describing

religious persuasions had done--they made it a pious

marks of outstanding originality. The village paper

anywhere an appreciation, . . . I have missed it. Yet

He married Olivia Langdon in 1870; her death in 1904, as healthful as the death of two of his daughters, darkened his final years. He died in 1910.

The schoolroom sequences in Tom Sawyer are far less grim than those in Hard Times, but Twain's classroom is also a relatively unproductive berth for children. The schoolmaster, Mr. Dobbins, can be a petty tyrant when he wishes:

Twain first introduces Tom Sawyer, his mouth covered in forbidden jam, hiding in the closet to escape the management of his Aunt Polly. The author notes drily, "He was not the model son of the village. He knew the model boy very well, though, and loathed him" (10). Tom is the quintessential spirit of every "red-blooded American boy," endlessly outwitting the expectant around him, constantly curious about everything, usually either in trouble and managing to wriggle out of it before full damage is d
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