Linda Morris's _Gender Play in Mark Twain_ demonstrates the merits of applying a gender studies perspective to the interpretation of Twain's writing, a significant departure from the traditional approaches that have dominated the study of America's most well-known writer. She persuasively argues that Mark Twain's "approach to gender is much more playful and experimental than most critics allow" and that he "subverted Victorian notions of fixed gender roles and essentialist constructions."
In my review of this book for the Mark Twain Forum, I praised its a rich mix of theoretical angles and carefully considered historical context. Morris's study is a model of critical scholarship, distinguished for its "fine analytical intelligence" and "lucid prose." "In this highly engaging book, Morris reveals the ways in which theory can discover meaning rather than obscure it. This latest contribution to Twain studies shows the merits of its approach and demonstrates the ways in which Twain's writing continues to be relevant to new critical paradigms."
Larry Howe
Roosevelt University