Mark Twain
6) Roughing it
Although Mark Twain is revered as a master of American fiction, he was also known in his time for possessing a remarkable facility with the essay form. This collection of surprisingly insightful non-fiction and fiction pieces showcases Twain's astounding breadth as a writer. A must-read for fans of Twain's no-nonsense prose.
Tom Sawyer, Detective follows Twain's popular novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer Abroad. In this novel, Tom turns detective, trying to solve a murder. Twain plays with and celebrates the detective novel, wildly popular at the time. This novel, like the others, is told through the first-person narrative of Huck Finn.
Though he is best known as a humorist, famed American author Mark Twain also tried his hand at social satires, to much critical and popular acclaim. In The American Claimant, Twain provides a thematic follow-up to his previous novel, The Prince and the Pauper, with a tale of an American con artist and a British aristocrat who essentially switch places and reveal the unsavory aspects of each lifestyle and social milieu.
Though Mark Twain is best remembered as perhaps the quintessential American humor writer, he was also a keen observer and critic of cultural and social trends. In this vein, he undertook a book-length discussion and analysis of Christian Science and New Thought, both of which enjoyed immense popularity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. The controversial text was originally rejected by Twain's publisher, a gesture
...In this literary smackdown, one giant of American literature thoroughly demolishes the literary output of another. With his trademark plainspoken wit, Mark Twain presents a catalog of everything he hates about the work of James Fenimore Cooper, author of such classics as The Last of the Mohicans. Whether you're Team Twain or Team Fenimore Cooper, you're sure to be entertained by this cutting takedown.
Tom Sawyer Abroad sees Tom, Huck Finn and Jim board a futuristic hot air balloon bound for Africa, in a parody of the popular science fiction/travel adventure stories of the time. In Africa they encounter wild animals and immense man-made wonders. The novel is narrated by Huck Finn.
15) Eve's Diary
Only humor writer extraordinaire Mark Twain could inject so much wit and hilarity into the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man. This short story takes the form of excerpts from Eve's personal journal, providing a unique feminine account of the first human couple that deviates in a few important regards from the "official" version.
In How to Tell a Story and Other Essays, iconic American author Mark Twain discusses his own experience as a writer and his personal style. In various essays in the collection he attacks a contemporary of his, defends a maligned dead woman and defends ordinary citizens against the insults of train conductors.
Known as one of American literature's finest humor writers, Mark Twain took on the travel genre in the series of essays, sketches, and observations collected in The Innocents Abroad. From classic fish-out-of-water shenanigans to keen insight into the differences between American culture and its European and Middle Eastern counterparts, this volume is an engaging and rewarding read.
The only book that Mark Twain ever wrote in collaboration with another author, The Gilded Age is a novel that viciously and hilariously satirizes the greed, materialism, and corruption that characterized much of upper-class America in the nineteenth century. The title term—inspired by a line in Shakespeare's King John—has become synonymous with the excess of the era.
The horse has been championed throughout history as a war machine, a means of transport, an adjunct to farming, a source of popular entertainment, and, finally, as a true friend and companion. So it's no surprise that writers throughout history have featured the horse prominently in their fiction. Here are 25 stories and 5 poems of equine fiction and literature, from Anna Sewell's Black Beauty to classic tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
...When the first volume of Mark Twain's uncensored Autobiography was published in 2010, it was hailed as an essential addition to the shelf of his works and a crucial document for our understanding of the great humorist's life and times. This third and final volume crowns and completes his life's work. Like its companion volumes, it chronicles Twain's inner and outer life through...