Mark Twain as a literary comedian

Backgrounds

Literary comedy

Artemus Ward as pioneer funnyman

The social ethics of a comedian

Mark Twain : the development of a literary comedian

Toward the novel

Humor and social criticism : The gilded age and The prince and the pauper

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : the literary comedian within the novel

A Connecticut Yankee : a culmination of American literary comedy

The American claimant and Pudd'nhead Wilson

Conclusion.