Thursday, November 15, 2018

Mark Twain - Great Scott!

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain names the sinking steamboat the Walter Scott, after... 

From Wikipedia:

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet FRSE (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include IvanhoeRob RoyOld MortalityThe Lady of the LakeWaverleyThe Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor.

In his 1883 Life on the MississippiMark Twain satirized the impact of Scott's writings, declaring (with humorous hyperbole) that Scott "had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the [American Civil] war", that he is "in great measure responsible for the war".[60] He goes on to coin the term "Sir Walter Scott disease", which he blames for the South's lack of advancement. Twain also targeted Scott in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where he names a sinking boat the "Walter Scott" (1884); and, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), the main character repeatedly utters "great Scott" as an oath; by the end of the book, however, he has become absorbed in the world of knights in armor, reflecting Twain's ambivalence on the topic.

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