Sounding the Deep: Representing "MT"

Gotta have a fondness for a critical, scholarly work that refers to its author-of-study by his initals. The Mark Twain Archive does a particularly good job of picking up on aspects of "MT"'s works that are of high interest in both the casual and scholarly communities. The section on Representations of Jim, for instance, gathers together illustrations of Jim over the various editions of the book, often providing side-by-sides of two illustrations by the same author. While it might have been nice to see all the illustrations side-by-side, the linear order of the discussion is clear and easy to follow.

The only quibble I have with the design of the archive as a whole is that navigation through some parts (ie, to the bibliography, or back to the home page) is controlled by two or three unlabled pictures at the bottom of the page, which are not necessarily intuitive, particularly for the more casual Twain reader. The more casual organization fit the more casual tone of the piece as a whole, though.

This is an interesting site to get lost in. The historical context for the various works included is fascinating. The layout and lack of certain navigational devices (ie, "breadcrumb" trails, continues tabs or menus) definitely leads to wandering rather than pointed searching. It seems to be an archive to be accessed by someone interested in Twain, perhaps someone researching a specific book or stage production. It has some good information on aspects of Twain's work that would be viewed as unusual today, such as the instructions to subscription sales-people, but that and other parts of the site which are buried several layers deep are sort of prizes for intrepid searchers.

Verdict: well written and witty, with what appears to be good scholarship, but the movement between items can be a bit "jumpy" and doesn't facilitate back-tracking to an earlier branching point for complex meandering. The search function itself is less prominent than one would expect [two layers deep], and it's sometimes difficult to trace quotes to their sources or find the bibliography to certain pages.