In this readers' guide, Stuart Hutchinson analyses the most significant writings on Twain's great works. Moving from a discussion of the novels' early reception, the guide explores late 19th and early 20th century criticism by T.S. Eliot, Van Wyck Brooks, Bernard De Voto, Booker T. Washington and Ralph Ellison. In its final section, the book provides students with important material on the contemporary debates on race and gender in the novels, so that new perspectives on Twain's place in American literature may be fully understood.