“Night after Night and Day after Day”: Mark Twain and the Natural World

Abstract:Although Mark Twain was not himself an environmentalist, he was deeply sensitive to the interdependence of humankind and the natural world, to the conditions, often difficult, under which we inhabit the natural world, and to its ultimate indifference to our desires—issues that continue to preoccupy ecocritics, whether they are inclined toward philosophy or public policy. This article argues that the Mississippi River is touchstone for the natural world in Twain’s work and that Life on the Mississippi, a record of his return to the river in the aftermath of the great flood of 1882, demonstrates the power of a natural world both beautiful and indecipherable in Twain’s imagination.