Beginning a study of Mark Twain's introspective art near the end of his career, with What Is Man? (1906), might seem counterintuitive, but Douglas Anderson makes a good justification for this somewhat eccentric approach: Twain, he points out, had been contemplating these philosophic ideas for several decades, and in his last decade he was looking back. As Douglas states in the opening of The Introspective Art of Mark Twain,

Douglas focusses on Twain's career-long interest in consciousness and what he calls “inward excursions” (x).

His introduction, “Thought Experiments,” provides an insightful reading of What Is Man? with an emphasis on inner consciousness. In the first of his four chapters, “Inside Excursions,” Douglas continues his examination of the later Twain, first his autobiographical dictations and their relation to the psychology of William James, then the Mysterious Stranger manuscripts. The apparent chaos of the autobiography, he argues, is a mirror of the way the mind works, apparently random recollections that actually have an unconscious connection. He analyzes all three Mysterious Stranger manuscripts, with scant mention of What Is Man? for long stretches of explication, although he eventually makes good connections. Chapter 2, “Interest,” continues his analysis of The Mysterious Stranger, with a focus on the word “interest,” a concept he takes from James's psychology. Douglas then shifts to Twain's early career, calling “The Jumping Frog” (1865) “a comic collision involving several species of consciousness” (79). He reads The Innocents Abroad (1869) with a “focus on the keel of consciousness” (82) and Roughing It (1872) with a “focus on the inner rather than the outer attributes of the remarkable individuals that populate Twain's chapters” (111).

His third chapter, “Attention,” another Jamesian psychological concept, continues his examination of Roughing It (again allowing his analysis to straddle chapters, which he does throughout the book), then moves to “Old Times on the Mississippi” (1874), with a good focus on inner consciousness in a work that depends on memory. He analyzes the inner worlds of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), with a perceptive look at the cave as a metaphor for the mind; The Prince and the Pauper (1882); and A Tramp Abroad (1880), its “inward rather than outward movement” (167). Chapter 4, “Shadings,” continues the examination of A Tramp Abroad, followed by Life on the Mississippi (1883) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). He notes the novel's “pervasive mental exercises” (199) and Huck's attention to detail, and argues that “Twain repeatedly insists that the reader pay close attention to the active nature of Huck's mental life” (211). Curiously, he does not examine Huck's crisis of conscience in chapter 31, the most introspective passage in the book and perhaps in all of Twain's work. Similarly, his analysis of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) does not examine the naturalistic passage comparing human life to a row of bricks being toppled, an important connection to the philosophical ideas in What Is Man?. A short conclusion focusses on Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896?), with no further mention of What Is Man?, giving the ending an abrupt, anticlimactic feel.

Anderson makes good use of recent Twain criticism from book-length studies, although he does not cite the many scholarly articles that bear on his topic, both of which are hard to judge since the book lacks a bibliography. The Introspective Art of Mark Twain is a study that promises much and often delivers, but too often does not. Aside from the idiosyncratic and somewhat frustrating organization, there are long sections of analysis and even plot summary of Twain works with tenuous or no ties to the book's thesis. The philosophical ideas in What Is Man? were certainly on Twain's mind for much of his career, and he certainly focussed on the inner workings of consciousness. At times, Douglas Anderson is successful in making that argument, with fine insights scattered throughout the book. One could only wish for fuller attention to the thesis as a unifying device.