One hundred years after its writing, No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger remains a literary enigma. Mark Twain’s last significant full-length work of fiction and one of his most deeply philosophical works on the nature of truth and the human condition, it was unfinished at his death and has gained a reputation as an experimental text. It is still controversial even half a century after the groundbreaking scholarship of the 1960s, and the larger story of its composition and publication is as unwieldy as it is problematic.

In this first book on No. 44 in thirty years, thirteen especially commissioned essays by some of today’s most accomplished Twain scholars cover an array of topics, from domesticity and transnationalism to race and religion, and reflect a variety of scholarly and theoretical approaches to the work. This far-reaching collection considers the status of No. 44 within Twain’s oeuvre as they offer cogent insights into such broad topics as cross-culturalism, pain and redemption, philosophical paradox, and comparative studies of the “Mysterious Stranger” manuscripts.

All of these essays attest to the importance of this late work in Twain’s canon, whether considering how Twain’s efforts at truth-telling are premeditated and shaped by his own experiences, tracing the biblical and religious influences that resonate in No. 44, or exploring the text’s psychological dimensions. Several address its importance as a culminating work in which Twain’s seemingly disjointed story lines coalesce in meaningful, albeit not always satisfactory, ways. An afterword by Alan Gribben traces the critical history of the “Mysterious Stranger” manuscripts and the contributions of previous critics. A wide-ranging critical introduction and a comprehensive bibliography on the last century of scholarship bracket the contributions.

Close inspection of this multidimensional novel shows how Twain evolved as a self-conscious thinker and humorist—and that he was a more conscious artist throughout his career than has been previously thought. Centenary Reflections deepens our understanding of one of Twain’s most misunderstood texts, confirming that the author of No. 44 was a pursuer of an elusive truth that was often as mysterious a stranger as Twain himself.

About the Editors
Joseph Csicsila is Associate Professor of English at Eastern Michigan University and Associate Editor of the Mark Twain Annual. Chad Rohman is Professor of English at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, and editor of the Mark Twain Circular.

Contents

Part I. Cross-Cultural and Transnational Mappings

“I ain’ no dread being”: The Minstrel Mask as Alter Ego by Sharon D. McCoy

Mark Twain’s Last Cakewalk: Racialized Performance in “No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger” by Henry B. Wonham

“The Chronicle of Young Satan” and “No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger”: A Transnationalist Reading by Peter Messent

Chamisso’s Peter Schlemihl and Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger: German Literature and the Composition of the Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts by Horst Kruse

Part II. Prophecy, Pleasure, Pain, and Redemption

The Prophetic Imagination, the Liberal Self, and the Ending of “No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger” by Harold K. Bush, Jr.

Mark Twain and the Accusing Angel:  “The Chronicle of Young Satan” and Samuel Clemens’s Argument with the Inscrutable by Michael J. Kiskis

Transcendental Hedonism? Sex, Song, Food and Drink in “No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger” and “My Platonic Sweetheart” by Gregg Camfield

 “Silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks”: Multiple Selves, Wordless Communication, and the Psychology of Mark Twain's “No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger” by Randall Knoper

Part III. Structural, Temporal, and Philosophical Paradox

“No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger”: The Final Soliloquy of a “Littery Man” by James S. Leonard

“No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger” as Literary Comedy by David E. E. Sloane

Samuel Clemens, Duality, and Time Travel by David Lionel Smith

Dreams and Metaphors in“No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger” by John Bird

Mark Twain’s Mysterious Strangers and the Motions of the Mind by Bruce Michelson