The Autobiography of Mark Twain · Chapter
The Reverend Doctor N⸺ Visits General Grant explained
Twain recounts the nation's anxious vigil for the dying General Grant and critiques the Reverend Doctor N⸺, who was summoned to provide spiritual comfort but whose reported accounts of Grant's piety and flowery speeches Twain dismisses as f
What happens
Twain recounts the nation's anxious vigil for the dying General Grant and critiques the Reverend Doctor N⸺, who was summoned to provide spiritual comfort but whose reported accounts of Grant's piety and flowery speeches Twain dismisses as fabrications. Col. Fred Grant confirms that while his father tolerated family prayers, he was not a praying man and never used such ornate language.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Loss
The chapter centers on General Grant's imminent death and the nation's collective grief.
Hypocrisy and Human Nature
Twain exposes the Reverend N⸺'s embellished and self-serving reports of Grant's spiritual state.
Characters to notice
- Mark Twain
Dictates the chapter and offers critical commentary on Reverend N⸺'s reports.
- Ulysses S. Grant
Lying near death; the nation awaits news of his passing; described as a plainspoken, good man who was not a praying man.
- Fred Grant
Col. Fred Grant informs Twain that his father was willing to have family prayers but was not a praying man.
Key passages
“Thrice have I been in the shadow of the Valley of Death and thrice have I come out again.”
Grant supposedly said he had been near death three times and survived each time.
Twain dismisses this as a gaudy, fabricated quote that Grant, a plainspoken man, could never have uttered.