MARK TWAIN’S SENTENCES. Daniel Karlin has a review of five recent books about Mark Twain in the TLS (October 19, 2018). Mark Twain doesn’t come out very well. Karlin says: “He has limitations that would sink most writers: not only is he ignorant about so much (and full of his ignorance)…but he seems incapable of distinguishing between what in him was incomparable and immortal, and what was shallow, conventional and offensive. The best of Twain can’t be matched; the worst stinks; and they are served on the same plate.”
There is much discussion in this issue of Twain’s place in the canon. I would begin defending Twain by taking note of Twain’s ability to write great sentences. Karlin happens to provide an example of a great sentence when he quotes a passage from “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” on the issue of whether a straddle-bug can have an inner life (!).
Here is the sentence: “If he even see a straddle-bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to—to wherever he was going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road.”
As I said, a great sentence.