Heretical Fictions

Challenging the prevailing belief that Mark Twains position on religion hovered somewhere between skepticism and outright heresy, Lawrence Berkove and Joseph Csicsila marshal biographical details of Twains life alongside close readings of his work to explore the religious faith of Americas most beloved writer and humorist. They conclude not only that religion was an important factor in Twains life but also that the popular conception of Twain as agnostic, atheist, or apostate is simply wrong. `Heretical Fictions is the first full-length study to assess the importance of Twains heretical Calvinism as the foundation of his major works, bringing to light important thematic ties that connect the authors early work to his high period and from there to his late work. Berkove and Csicsila set forth the main elements of Twains countertheological interpretation of Calvinism and analyse in detail the way it shapes five of his major books`Roughing It, `The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, `Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, `A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and `No. 44, The Mysterious Strangeras well as some of his major short stories. The result is a groundbreaking and unconventional portrait of a seminal figure in American letters.