Twain’s Interest in Religion & the Divine Right of Kings

This chapter situates Twain’s interest in religion, in general, and the question of the divine right of kings, in particular, within his work as a whole. The opening section locates Twain’s life-long interest in religion within his career-long study of those histories concerned with Europe’s intellectual, moral, and political transition from medieval feudalism to modern nations. Twain places the divine right of kings at the heart of this transition. And he gives this claim of divine right kingship his first serious political treatment in his Connecticut Yankee. Sections two through four focus on the questions and themes raised by that novel’s preface and body. That treatment of Connecticut Yankee helps us appreciate the expressly political approach to divine right taken in Personal Recollections. In its wake we note that Joan, its beautiful, noble, and talented heroine, appears liberated from an instrumental approach to the satisfaction of our erotic longings that characterizes the Arthurians and “the Yankee” and that she appears to do so in a way that is scrutable to those who follow her.