I was very pleased that some of the critics confirmed my opinion, that the crucial moment in "Huckleberry Finn" is when Huck is all set to betray Jim – because all his moral training tells him that "stealing" property (a slave) is wrong, and that people who do such things go to hell – but Huck decides he can't go through with it, saying, "OK then, I'll just go to hell." (Or words to that effect.)

I know that passage made a big impression on me even at the tender age at which I first read it in a dumbed-down child's edition. I'm still trying to get my mind around the paradox that a person might be doing the right thing while believing it's the wrong thing. Yes, Mark Twain was a profound moral philosopher.