The Quarrel Books

"Mark Twain's Quarrel With Heaven" is a short tome containing an introductory eponymous essay by Ray Broadus Browne, three pieces by Twain himself: "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven", "The Late Reverend Sam Jones's Reception in Heaven", and "Mental Telegraphy?"; supplemented with an anonymous anecdote that Browne postulates Twain knew and was influenced by, "Old Abe's 'Slap' at Chicago"; and finally a short alternate passage from the first story. I'd recommend reading the Twain before reading Browne's commentary--while it does provide some interesting historical/biographical perspective, all that you really need to know is that Twain worked on "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" for about thirty years and published a portion of it toward the end of his life but considered it unfinished, and that Browne has collected all the fragments along with that published part and included the whole. It doesn't make a satisfactory story, linearly; but what one is really after is Twain's wisdom and humour, not his plotlines. And for this, Stormfield is pretty good--it's not Twain's best work, but his vision of heaven is an interesting and provocative one.

Twain stipulates a single heaven for all deceased beings the universe over, and although Satan is mentioned, it is implied that everyone, regardless of moral fibre, ends up in heaven. The Earth section of heaven is relatively insignificant, and the Christian part of the Earth section even less significant. Twain loved to poke fun at the Euro/Amero-centric world view, and this work is no exception. Twain even points out that in the American and English parts of Heaven, the number of non-English speaking souls inhabiting it far outnumber the English speaking ones. I don't want to give away Twain's best ideas, but one in particular is worth mentioning--even after death, there is suffering, because happiness cannot be appreciated without it's opposite, it is not a thing in and of itself. For all it's narrative flaws, "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" is worth reading for the ideas, and it's a quick read. "The Late Reverend Sam Jones's Reception in Heaven" is an even shorter story, and much funnier. It's not at all an exploration of the afterlife, but instead a parody of an actual Southern evangelist of Twain's time. Without knowing anything of the individual, the type is quite familiar. Twain's wife forbade him publishing the story during his lifetime, but it's hardly the work of an inflammatory rabble-rouser. The shortest of Twain's pieces included here is a two-page musing on Mental Telegraphy, what we'd call telepathy. It's nothing special, and included only because it mentions the two other pieces in a bit of not-very-shocking coincidence.

Browne's introduction tells us something of Twain's beliefs--he was raised by a Christian mother and an Atheistic father, and by the time he began working on Captain Stormfield he was clearly disappointed with Christianity, not only as practiced by his contemporaries, but in its very conception. But "Mark Twain's Quarrel With Heaven" as a title seems too strong for the sentiment displayed in the writing here. Certainly there is no real antipathy for Christians presented in Captain Stormfield--what is conveyed is instead a reconception of heaven, inclusive of but not limited to the Christian ideal. Christ himself is not even mentioned, either negatively or positively, except when Stormfield identifies himself as coming from the world that the Savior saved--and the response is that those worlds are many. Twain does have some fun with the paraphenalia of heaven--wings, haloes, heavenly choirs and harps--but it's by no means an attack on Christianity as the title implies. "The Late Reverend Sam Jones's Reception in Heaven" is more pointed and satiric than Captain Stormfield, and it's satire is pointed not toward Christian beliefs in general but toward a 'holier-than-thou" attitude held by certain individuals. Nonetheless, Browne's introduction is worth reading, but do save it until last, or Twain's witticisms and cleverness will be partially spoiled.