A captivating new book envisages conversations between Twain and his European philosopher counterparts Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. </p><p> <span class="bold"></span>In their interdisciplinary study, &#x201C;The Jester and the Sages,&#x201D; three scholars take an exciting approach to explaining the literary, philosophical and moral identity of arguably contemporary Americana&#x2019;s father. </p><p> Academics Forrest G. Robinson, Gabriel Noah Brahm Jr. and Catherine Carlstroem aspire to &#x201C;highlight the many and significant ways in which the American humorist&#x2019;s leading questions, ideas, and assumptions overlap with those of his much more solemn and systematic continental contemporaries.&#x201D; </p><p> <span class="bold"></span>Robinson and company challenge themselves to &#x201C;look past superficial differences in genre and style to the deeper, often unanticipated intellectual affinities among our four writers.&#x201D; They accomplish this, to a considerable degree. </p><p> <span class="bold"></span>In their three core sections, the authors present cohesive comparisons of Twain and each of the three philosophers. As they accessibly juxtapose the trio against Twain, readers will indulge in references to their favorite adventures and memoirs, from &#x201C;Huckleberry Finn&#x201D; <span class="italic"></span>to &#x201C;Life on the Mississippi.&#x201D; </p><p>According to the authors, the sweeping belief unifying Twain and the philosophers was their conviction that humans are the makers of their own destinies, creating the &#x201C;institutions, beliefs and selves&#x201D; that define humanity. At the same time, they are largely pessimistic in their assessment of &#x201C;American culture&#x2019;s failure to fully acknowledge the graveness, outrage, and pessimism&#x201D; of what Twain deems &#x201C;the damned human race.&#x201D;</p><p>Among the three comparisons, here are perhaps the most striking findings: </p><p>Twain and Nietzsche both vigorously rebelled against the moral and religious conventions of their age. As such, they both consistently articulated, in narrative or theory, &#x201C;corresponding impatience with Christian civilization and its irrational tyranny of conscience.&#x201D; For them, the madness of the universe could be most attributed to the hegemony of Christianity. They craved freedom from the period&#x2019;s ubiquitous religious orthodoxy. </p><p>Displaying the most visible biographical parallels, Twain and Freud experienced the &#x201C;formative influence of childhood, multiple personalities, dreams, and the uncanny, above all else, with the unconscious.&#x201D; Both grew up amid economic peril and made close connections with their mothers. They also shared a &#x201C;lifelong fascination with the mysteries of the human mind,&#x201D; one that led both to form doubts about the viability of democracy. In his work, Twain would sympathize with Freud&#x2019;s &#x201C;Civilization and Its Discontents,&#x201D; in which barbarism prevails over social progress. </p><p>While Twain and Marx responded to politics in vastly different forms, they were ideologically similar. Both condemned industrial capitalism and the consequent exploitation of the working class at the hands of an affluent few. But Twain was unable to create one &#x201C;grand theory&#x201D; to correct the nation&#x2019;s ills, including her failure to incite Southern reform of slavery. &#x201C;All these problems vied for his condemnation, but unlike Marx, he could create &#x2026; no master schema to incorporate, explain and remedy them.&#x201D;</p><p>Twain&#x2019;s ability to veer along the line of the unthinkable without being vilified &#x2014; especially in his denunciation of the church &#x2014; is remarkable. &#x201C;Mark Twain&#x2019;s folk wisdom as an observer of human nature and societies has long been recognized &#x2026; yet emphasis on his folksiness has served to obscure their foundations in and contributions to fields including sociology, psychology, philosophy, politics and economics,&#x201D; the authors conclude. </p><p>While their study is not yet comprehensive, these scholars deserve credit for their fresh analysis of Twain, an author they prove to be a maestro of more than merely literature.