Search results for ""Author Mark Twain""

The two narratives published together in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins are overflowing with spectacular events. Twain shows us conjoined twins, babies exchanged in the cradle, acts of cross-dressing and racial masquerade, duels, a lynching, and a murder mystery. Pudd’nhead Wilson tells the story of babies, one of mixed race and the other white, exchanged in their cradles, while Those Extraordinary Twins is a farcical tale of conjoined twins. Although the stories were long viewed as flawed narratives, their very incongruities offer a fascinating portrait of key issues—race, disability, and immigration—facing the United States in the final decades of the nineteenth century.Hsuan Hsu’s introduction traces the history of literary critics’ response to these works, from the confusion of Twain’s contemporaries to the keen interest of current scholars. Extensive historical appendices provide contemporary materials on race discourse, legal contexts, and the composition and initial reception of the texts.

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This book publishes, for the first time in full, the two most revealing of Mark Twain's private writings. Here he turns his mind to the daily life he shared with his wife Livy, their three daughters, a great many servants, and an imposing array of pets. These first-hand accounts display this gifted and loving family in the period of its flourishing. Mark Twain began to write "A Family Sketch" in response to the early death of his eldest daughter, Susy, but the manuscript grew under his hands to become an exuberant account of the entire household. His record of the childrens' sayings - "Small Foolishnesses" - is next, followed by the related manuscript "At the Farm." Also included are selections from Livy's 1885 diary and an authoritative edition of Susy's biography of her father, written when she was a teenager. Newly edited from the original manuscripts, this anthology is a unique record of a fascinating family.

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This title includes the authoritative texts for eleven pieces written between 1868 and 1902. It publishes, for the first time, the complete text of 'Villagers of 1840-3,' Mark Twain's astounding feat of memory. It features a biographical directory and notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in Missouri. Throughout his career, Mark Twain frequently turned for inspiration to memories of his youth in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri. What has come to be known as the Matter of Hannibal inspired two of his most famous books, "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn", and provided the basis for the eleven pieces reprinted here. Most of these selections (eight of them fiction and three of them autobiographical) were never completed, and all were left unpublished. Written between 1868 and 1902, they include a diverse assortment of adventures, satires, and reminiscences in which the characters of his own childhood and of his best-loved fiction, particularly "Huck Finn" and "Tom Sawyer", come alive again. The autobiographical recollections culminate in an astounding feat of memory titled "Villagers of 1840-3" in which the author, writing for himself alone at the age of sixty-one, recalls with humor and pathos the characters of some one hundred and fifty people from his childhood. Accompanied by notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in Missouri, the selections in this volume offer a revealing view of Mark Twain's varied and repeated attempts to give literary expression to the Matter of Hannibal.

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Adventures with Tom Sawyer made Huck rich – but his Pap is a violent drunk and the broad Mississippi is the road to liberty. Huck’s raft can carry him and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, to safety. When they lose their way one foggy night, though, they are headed downriver into dangerous territory. How can one small boy pilot his way through a land of mortal feuds, lynch mobs and tricksters? When life and freedom are at risk, how can Huck figure out the difference between wrong and right?

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This classic novel of childhood is set in fictional St. Petersburg, a town based on Mark Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Twain’s recounting of Tom Sawyer’s many escapades is by turns nostalgic, satiric, wise, and hilarious. While this novel is often considered mainly as the precursor to Twain’s great work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it is abundantly worth considering for its own deft and loving transformation of autobiography into fiction.In addition to the full text of the novel based on the first American edition, complete with a selection of the original illustrations by True Williams, this Broadview edition provides a wide range of appendices that place the novel in the context of 1840s rural America as well as 1870s literary America. These include materials on the composition and marketing of Tom Sawyer, selections from other “boy books” of the period, and historical documents relating to temperance, children’s literature, and schools.

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Little treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader. One of the most beloved and influential books in American literature, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a comic yet incisive portrait of 19th century America. Told from the perspective of Huck Finn, a good-hearted if wayward thirteen-year-old, it vividly recounts his adventures as he escapes his abusive home and embarks on a journey down the Mississippi River along with Jim, a runaway slave. Through the eyes of Huck, and particularly his relationship with Jim, Twain confronts the hypocrisy of a society that clings to slavery and entrenched racial prejudice while claiming to be the land of the free. The FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library.

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You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", but that ain't no matter. So begins, in characteristic fashion, one of the greatest American novels. Narrated by a poor, illiterate white boy living in America's deep South before the Civil War, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of Huck's escape from his brutal father and the relationship that grows between him and Jim, the slave who is fleeing from an even more brutal oppression. As they journey down the Mississippi their adventures address some of the most profound human conundrums: the prejudices of class, age, and colour are pitted against the qualities of hope, courage, and moral character. Enormously influential in the development of American literature, Huckleberry Finn remains a controversial novel at the centre of impassioned critical debate. This edition discusses all the current issues and the evolution of Mark Twain's penetrating genius. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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"The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story." David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

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A fascinating picture of the American frontier emerges from Twain's fictionalized recollections of his experiences prospecting for gold, speculating in timber, and writing for a succession of small Western newspapers during the 1860s.

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Twain's playful exuberance and remarkable storytelling gifts are on full display as he regales readers with his real-life adventures, some of them so outrageous they cannot be true - or can they? As Richard Russo says in his fascinating introduction, Twain was an 'inspired, indeed, unparalleled, bullshitter' who himself cheerfully relates how as a cub reporter out West he had elevated a routine Indian attack on a wagon full of immigrants to a battle that 'to this day has no parallel in history' - once he knew he could get away with it.There is drama as well as comedy in his account of life on the Mississippi, and great sadness too when his younger brother Henry is killed in a steamboat explosion - all the more poignant for the restraint with which he describes it. In The Innocents Abroad Twain the gleeful iconoclast is a passenger on a cruise ship to Europe and the Holy Land, poking fun at European snobbery and pretension and refusing to be overawed by all that History - but fully prepared to aim his satirical barbs at his fellow-tourists and indeed, squarely at himself. He also proves to be a deeply compassionate writer, as fierce in his condemnation of injustice as he is skilful in mining the humour of human folly. He brought to literature a new, distinctly American voice - and he harboured as rich and fertile a blend of contradictions as the dynamic nation he came to embody and define.

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Huckleberry Finn had a tough life with his drunk father until an adventure with Tom Sawyer changed everything. But when Huck's dad returns and kidnaps him, he must escpe down the Mississippi river with runaway slave, Jim. They encounter trouble at every turn, from floods and gunfights to armed bandits and the long arm of the law. Through it all the friends stick together - but can Huck and Tom free Jim from slavery once and for all?With an inspirational introduction by bestselling author, Darren Shan.

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Huckleberry Finn had a tough life with his drunk father until an adventure with Tom Sawyer changed everything. But when Huck's dad returns and kidnaps him, he must escpe down the Mississippi river with runaway slave, Jim. They encounter trouble at every turn, from floods and gunfights to armed bandits and the long arm of the law. Through it all the friends stick together - but can Huck and Tom free Jim from slavery once and for all?With an inspirational introduction by Darren Shan, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the twenty wonderful classic stories being relaunched in Puffin Classics in March 2015.The book includes a behind-the-scenes journey, including an author profile, a guide to who's who, activities and more..The Puffin Classics relaunch includes:A Little PrincessAlice's Adventures in WonderlandAlice's Adventures Through the Looking GlassAnne of Green Gables seriesBlack BeautyHans Andersen's Fairy TalesHeidiJourney to the Centre of the EarthLittle Women seriesPeter PanTales of the Greek HeroesThe Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Adventures of King ArthurThe Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Call of the WildThe Jungle BookThe OdysseyThe Secret GardenThe Wind in the WillowsThe Wizard of OzTreasure Island

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The "most honest town" in America is tempted by a mysterious stranger in this graphic novel adaptation of Mark Twain's short story.Bankrupt and alone in Europe after a series of bad business deals, Mark Twain has lost his faith in humanity. It is under these conditions he puts pen to paper with the question: Is something incorruptible if it has not been tested? Welcome to Hadleyburg, a small American town that calls itself the “Most Honest in America.” One day, a stranger arrives, telling the townsfolk he wants to reward the person who helped him when he was down on his luck. He presents one of the townsfolk with a bag and a letter that explains its contents - $40,000 to the stranger’s mysterious benefactor, if only they can prove themselves by reciting the words that turned his life around! But the stranger has ulterior motives! Having once been wronged by the people of Hadleyburg, he has returned to put their “honesty” to the test. Will the people of the town give in to their greed? Will their virtue stand? Adapted from Mark Twain’s short story of the same name originally published in Harper’s Monthly in 1899.

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Follows Tom, Huck, and Jim as they travel across the Atlantic in a balloon, then down the Mississippi to help solve a mysterious crime.

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In the summer of 1855, when the nineteen-year-old Sam Clements traveled from Saint Louis to Hannibal, Paris, and Florida, Missouri, and then to Keokuk, Iowa, he carried with him a notebook in which he entered French lessons, phrenological information, miscellaneous observations, and reminders about errands to be performed. This first notebook thus took the random form which would characterize most of those to follow. About the text: In order to avoid editorial misrepresentation and to preserve the texture of autograph documents, the entries are presented in their original, often unfinished, form with most of Clemens' irregularities, inconsistencies, errors, and cancellations unchanged. Clemens' cancellations are included in the text enclosed in angle brackets, thus ; editorially-supplied conjectural readings are in square brackets, thus [word]; hyphens within square brackets stand for unreadable letters, thus [--]; and editorial remarks are italicized and enclosed in square brackets, thus [blank page}- A slash separates alternative readings which Clemens left unresolved, thus word/word. The separation of entries is indicated on the printed page by extra space between lines; when the end of a manuscript entry coincides with the end of a page of the printed text, the symbol [#] follows the entry. A full discussion of textual procedures accompanies the tables of emendation and details of inscription in the Textual Apparatus at the end of each volume; specific textual problems are explained in headnotes or footnotes when unusual situations warrant.

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Mark Twain's brilliant 19th-century novel has long been recognised as one of the finest examples of American literature. Rich in authentic dialect, folksy humour and sharp social commentary, Twain's classic tale follows Huckleberry Finn and Jim the runaway slave on an exciting journey down the Mississippi. Each beautiful book is unabridged and features extraordinary art, a ribbon marker and the highest quality paper. A series of insightful questions appear at the end of each volume to encourage discussion and a deeper understanding of these enduring works.

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In a very small town, on the banks of the Mississippi, with his aunt Polly, his cousin Mary, and his half-brother Sid, lives the naughtiest, wildest, unruliest… good boy in America: Tom Sawyer.

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When Connecticut mechanic and foreman Hank Morgan is knocked unconscious, he wakes not to the familiar scenes of nineteenth-century America but to the bewildering sights and sounds of sixth-century Camelot. Although confused at first and quickly imprisoned, he soon realises that his knowledge of the future can transform his fate. Correctly predicting a solar eclipse from inside his prison cell, Morgan terrifies the people of England into releasing him and swiftly establishes himself as the most powerful magician in the land, stronger than Merlin and greatly admired by Arthur himself. But the Connecticut Yankee wishes for more than simply a place at the Round Table. Soon, he begins a far greater struggle: to bring American democratic ideals to Old England. Complex and fascinating, A Connecticut Yankee is a darkly comic consideration of the nature of human nature and society.

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'Don't scold me, Livy - let me pay my due homage to your worth; let me honor you above all women; let me love you with a love that knows no doubt, no question - for you are my world, my life, my pride, my all of earth that is worth the having'. These are the words of Samuel Clemens in love. Playful and reverential, jubilant and despondent, they are filled with tributes to his fiancee Olivia Langdon and with promises faithfully kept during a thirty-four-year marriage. The 188 superbly edited letters gathered here show Samuel Clemens having few idle moments in 1869. When he was not relentlessly 'banged about from town to town' on the lecture circuit or busily revising "The Innocents Abroad", the book that would make his reputation, he was writing impassioned letters to Olivia. These letters, the longest he ever wrote, make up the bulk of his correspondence for the year and are filled with his acute wit and dazzling language. This latest volume of "Mark Twain's Letters" captures Clemens on the verge of becoming the celebrity and family man he craved to be. This volume has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and by a major donation to the Friends of The Bancroft Library from the Pareto Fund.

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The year 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain's death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain's works, UC Press published "Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1", the first of a projected three-volume edition of the complete, uncensored autobiography. The book became an immediate bestseller and was hailed as the capstone of the life's work of America's favorite author. This Reader's Edition, a portable paperback in larger type, republishes the text of the hardcover "Autobiography" in a form that is convenient for the general reader, without the editorial explanatory notes. It includes a brief introduction describing the evolution of Mark Twain's ideas about writing his autobiography, as well as a chronology of his life, brief family biographies, and an excerpt from the forthcoming "Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2" - a controversial but characteristically humorous attack on Christian doctrine.

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'You ought to see Livy & me, now-a-days - you never saw such a serenely satisfied couple of doves in all your life. I spent Jan 1, 2, 3 & 5 there & left at 8 last night. With my vile temper & variable moods, it seems an incomprehensible miracle that we two have been right together in the same house half the time for a year & a half, & yet have never had a cross word, or a lover's 'tiff,' or a pouting spell, or a misunderstanding, or the faintest shadow of a jealous suspicion. Now isn't that absolutely wonderful? Could I have had such an experience with any other girl on earth? I am perfectly certain I could not...We are to be married on Feb. 2d'. So begins Volume 4 of the letters, with Samuel Clemens anticipating his wedding to Olivia L. Langdon. The 338 letters in this volume document the first two years of a loving marriage that would last more than thirty years. They recount, in Clemens' own inimitable voice, a tumultuous time: a growing international fame, the birth of a sickly first child, and the near-fatal illness of his wife. At the beginning of 1870, fresh from the success of "The Innocents Abroad", Clemens is on 'the long agony' of a lecture tour and planning to settle in Buffalo as editor of the "Express". By the end of 1871, he has moved to Hartford and is again on tour, anticipating the publication of "Roughing It" and the birth of his second child. The intervening letters show Clemens bursting with literary ideas, business schemes, and inventions, and they show him erupting with frustration, anger, and grief, but more often with dazzling humor and surprising self-revelation. In addition to "Roughing It", Clemens wrote some enduringly popular short pieces during this period, but he saved some of his best writing for private letters, many of which are published here for the first time.

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This Norton Critical Edition remains the only edition available that is based on completely re-edited texts, accounting for all versions that Twain might have written or influenced. All substantive variants in the two separate "first editions," one printed in Britain and the other in the United States, have been reconciled in this collated edition, with all rejected variants tabulated. Dozens of additional illustrations accompany the text, and all textual variants, accepted or rejected, are included. "Criticism" includes twenty-three reviews and interpretive essays, eight of them new to the Second Edition, including those by Andrew Jay Hoffman, Myra Jehlen, and John Carlos Rowe. A Selected Bibliography is also included.

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Prince Edward inadvertently switches places with Tom Canty, a pauper. While both boys are interested in experiencing life in the other's shoes, they are dismayed by the realities of their new lives. Written before The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was finished, this tale contains the elements of social criticism that were later to dominate Twain's writings

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Mark Twain’s Hawaii: A Humorous Romp through Paradise, combines Twain’s own writings on Hawaii with personal reminiscences by others who met him at that time, and traces Twain’s journey through the region just as he experienced it in 1866. The heavily illustrated book highlights Twain’s humor, travel in the 19th century, history, social commentary, and the exotic locale. Mark Twain’s wit and wisdom is timeless—his observations on Hawaii, some of which formed part of the classic Roughing It are collected here in an authoritative and entertaining volume for Twain fans and Hawaii enthusiasts.

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"A Connecticut Yankee" is Mark Twain's most ambitious work, a tour de force with a science-fiction plot told in the racy slang of a Hartford workingman, sparkling with literary hijinks as well as social and political satire. Mark Twain characterized his novel as "one vast sardonic laugh at the trivialities, the servilities of our poor human race". The Yankee, suddenly transported from his native nineteenth-century America to the sleepy sixth-century Britain of King Arthur and the Round Table, vows brashly to "boss the whole country inside of three weeks". And so he does. Emerging as "The Boss", he embarks on an ambitious plan to modernize Camelot - with unexpected results.

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When A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court was published in 1889, Mark Twain was undergoing a series of personal and professional crises. Thus what began as a literary burlesque of British chivalry and culture grew into a disturbing satire of modern technology and social thought. The story of Hank Morgan, a nineteenth-century American who is accidentally returned to sixth-century England, is a powerful analysis of such issues as monarchy versus democracy and free will versus determinism, but it is also one of Twain's finest comic novels, still fresh and funny after more than 100 years. In his introduction, M. Thomas Inge shows how A Connecticut Yankee develops from comedy to tragedy and so into a novel that remains a major literary and cultural text for new generations of readers. This edition reproduces a number of the original drawings by Dan Beard, of whom Twain said `he not only illustrates the text but he illustrates my thoughts'. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn," Ernest Hemingway once declared. First published in 1885, the book has delighted millions of readers, while simultaneously riling contemporary sensibilities, and is still banned in many schools and libraries. Now, Michael Patrick Hearn, author of the best-selling The Annotated Wizard of Oz, thoroughly reexamines the 116-year heritage of that archetypal American boy, Huck Finn, and follows his adventures along every bend of the mighty Mississippi River. Hearn's copious annotations draw on primary sources including the original manuscript, Twain's revisions and letters, and period accounts. Reproducing the original E. W. Kemble illustrations from the first edition, as well as countless archival photographs and drawings, some of them previously unpublished, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn is a book no family's library can do without; it may well prove to be the classic edition of the great American novel.

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