Cormac McCarthy and the Ghost of Huck Finn

Mark Twain once wrote, “We are nothing but echoes.” Despite this pronouncement, Twain’s voice continues to reverberate in the 21st century. Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn helped define modern American literature, creating The Huck Finn Tradition in contemporary writing. This volume discusses the intertextual connections between Twain’s iconic novel and eight works by celebrated American author Cormac McCarthy, including Suttree, The Orchard Keeper, Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, No Country for Old Men, and The Road. By chronicling the diverse scholarly comparisons between Twain and McCarthy and exploring the echoes of Twain and Huck Finn in McCarthy’s writing, this study reveals how McCarthy has not only absorbed Twain’s tradition, but transformed it, with consequences that surpass the work of other Twain heirs.

Leslie Harper Worthington is an instructor of English at Gadsden State Community College, where she teaches composition and literature.

Leslie Harper Worthington
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 223
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6641-2
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9066-0
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
Introduction: The Literary Presence of the Literary Past      5

1. Twain in the Territory      25
2. Huck in 100 Years      35
3. Huck in the Wasteland      69
4. Huck in the Territory      121
5. Huck Back on the Bestseller List      149
6. Huck Down the Road      171
7. Huck Everlasting      187

Works Cited      191
Index      203

“recommended”—Choice; “a worthy addition to the critical work on McCarthy”—Journal of American Culture.