SOURCE: Simpson, Lewis P. “Mark Twain: The Pathos of Regeneration.” In The Man of Letters in New England and the South: Essays on the History of the Literary Vocation in America, pp. 150-66. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.

In the following essay, Simpson comments on the contemporary, politicized interpretation of Mark Twain as the novelist of a regenerate America.

“What are the Great United States for, sir,” pursued the General, “if not for the regeneration of man? But it is nat'ral in you to make such an enquerry, for you come from England and you do not know my country.”

Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit

“The angels are wholly pure and sinless, for they do not know right from wrong, and all the actions of such are blameless.”

Mark Twain, “That Day in Eden”

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