細節
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph manuscript of Chapter 53 of The Gilded Age. N.p. [c. 1873]. 22 pages, 8vo, written on rectos only of 22 sheets lined paper (possibly removed from a small notebook?), minor fingersoiling, red morocco gilt box, lined with silk.
The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (Hartford, 1873) was a collaborative attempt by Twain and Charles Dudley Warner to write a "contemporary" novel. "With their main plots staked out, Clemens and Warner began working like tunnel crews boring from opposite sides of the mountain...In general, as he [Twain] liked to say, he contributed the fact and Warner the fiction" (Kaplan, Life, p. 160) (A portion of Warner's manuscript of Chapter 15, from the Doheny Collection, Part IV, was sold on 17 October 1988, lot 1199.) The present manuscript had originally been headed by Twain "Chapter 51," but his numbering has been crossed through and renumbered "53" in purple ink, undoubtedly by Warner, who has also supplied new pagination (1215 to 1236) at the top of each page. The text shows a number of revisions and word substitutions, some new passages added interlinearly and deletions (some running to an entire paragraph), all by Twain.
In the first edition, the chapter occupies pp. 476 to 483. It concerns the long-winded Senator Dilworthy's conflict with a character named Noble (originally named Nubbles, which name has been deleted by Twain wherever it appears), and Dilworthy's cynical attempts to appear to good effect in the eyes of his constituents: "He appeared in church; he took a leading part in prayer meetings; he met & encouraged the temperance societies; he graced the sewing circles of the ladies with his presence, & even took a needle now & then made a stitch or two upon a calico shirt for some poor Bible-less pagan of the South Seas..." The comic high point of Twain's chapter is Dilworthy's visit to the village of Cattleville, where "...a United States Senator was a sort of God in the understanding of these people who had never seen any creature mightier than a county judge."
Provenance: Estelle Doheny, bookplate (sale, Part V, Christie's New York, 21 February 1989, lot 1778).
The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (Hartford, 1873) was a collaborative attempt by Twain and Charles Dudley Warner to write a "contemporary" novel. "With their main plots staked out, Clemens and Warner began working like tunnel crews boring from opposite sides of the mountain...In general, as he [Twain] liked to say, he contributed the fact and Warner the fiction" (Kaplan, Life, p. 160) (A portion of Warner's manuscript of Chapter 15, from the Doheny Collection, Part IV, was sold on 17 October 1988, lot 1199.) The present manuscript had originally been headed by Twain "Chapter 51," but his numbering has been crossed through and renumbered "53" in purple ink, undoubtedly by Warner, who has also supplied new pagination (1215 to 1236) at the top of each page. The text shows a number of revisions and word substitutions, some new passages added interlinearly and deletions (some running to an entire paragraph), all by Twain.
In the first edition, the chapter occupies pp. 476 to 483. It concerns the long-winded Senator Dilworthy's conflict with a character named Noble (originally named Nubbles, which name has been deleted by Twain wherever it appears), and Dilworthy's cynical attempts to appear to good effect in the eyes of his constituents: "He appeared in church; he took a leading part in prayer meetings; he met & encouraged the temperance societies; he graced the sewing circles of the ladies with his presence, & even took a needle now & then made a stitch or two upon a calico shirt for some poor Bible-less pagan of the South Seas..." The comic high point of Twain's chapter is Dilworthy's visit to the village of Cattleville, where "...a United States Senator was a sort of God in the understanding of these people who had never seen any creature mightier than a county judge."
Provenance: Estelle Doheny, bookplate (sale, Part V, Christie's New York, 21 February 1989, lot 1778).