Monatsarchive: Dezember 2017

The Gilded Age – Mark Twain

Ladies and gentlemen, there are many American writers today who in their way are great, and many, many more during this man’s life have come and gone—but Samuel L. Clemens, the delight of our fathers and our grandfathers, who. with his same brilliant wit and humor was wilting of the Mississippi River and its first steamboat in the “Gilded Age” of the old South before the war, appears with us tonight as young in spirit, as humorous and as handsome as he ever was, and our only hope is that like Tennyson’s Brook and the application of steam to navigation by Robert Fulton he will “roll on and on forever.”

The Gilded Age

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Mark Twain’s Letters – Mark Twain

Like his other writings, Mark Twain’s letters attest that he was not the greatest of all humorists, but that he did have an amazing gift of depicting the average American, and what is more, that he could do it sympathetically and from the inside of the house, not ironically through the window as Thackeray depicted the absurdities of his contemporaries. The letters show, also, what a storybook life he led. Born obscurely in a western town without advantages, half-educated as a typesetter for a country newspaper, a runaway, a soldier “riding a small yellow mule” to the aid of the Confederacy, a runaway again, a mining prospector familiar with mountain gambling-saloons, a news reporter, … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

What is Man? And other essays – Mark Twain

Twain, embraces some of the latter day thoughts of the great humorist, some shorter and lighter sketches, together with the radical paper from which the book takes its name, never before given public circulation. Among the essays included in the collection are: “The Death of Jean,” “The Memorable Assassination,” “A Scrap of Curious History,” “A Simplified Alphabet,” and “Taming the Bicycle.” In “The Bee” (published for the first time) there are some deliciously funny paragraphs; such as: “Bee scientists always speak of the bee as she. It is because all the important bees are of that sex. In the hive there is one married bee called the queen; she has fifty-thousand … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Mysterious Stranger (and other stories) – Mark Twain

Three Austrian boys, in 1590, meet a mysterious stranger, who calls himself an angel, yet is named Satan. He is a fascinating companion, performing miracles that charm the boys, but they soon find out that he has no Moral Sense. In fact, he scorns Moral Sense, as the thing that gives the Human Race its finishing touch of ubnoxiousness. The lives of the villagers arc turned from their predestined paths by his casual interference. He is willing to do a person a good turn, since it costs him nothing, but in several cases his kindness consists in bringing about the early death of his beneficiaries. And such acts he justifies. In … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Mark Twain’s Speeches – Mark Twain

This book reveals Mark Twain in a new and interesting phase. Mark Twain was first of all a lecturer, almost before he began to write. Conceived and composed to be spoken, these speeches are even more simple and direct than his written works. These speeches are all humorous in their style and method. They show one remarkable thing about Mark Twain’s work, whether spoken or writteu — he never repeated himself. It naturally follows that these lectures cover almost every conceivable subject, from weather and women to politics and fishing. The speeches of Mark Twain, in point of time, cover a little more than half his life. Many of them were delivered at important … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...