Mark Twain

Curl up with a collection of stories from the pen of one of the masters of American fiction and humor writing. This carefully curated volume of Twain's short stories represents a cross-section of some the author's finest work, including the title piece, which follows a stranger's plot to corrupt a purportedly honest community.

A little known short story by Mark Twain, The Stolen White Elephant, deserves much more notoriety than it has received. It is truly a satirical jewel propped full with Clements' wit, humor and genius. It is a detective spoof that far outdistances the fabled tales of the great Sherlock Holmes and may well have been the inspiration for Colombo. Mark Twain demonstrates his canny ability to make the unbelievable, logical and the incongruous and absurd rational and reasonable.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual-he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture. The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story-that is to say, thirty or forty years ago. Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.

Mark Twain's Speeches have delighted audiences for over one hundred years. Filled with wit and wry observation, these speeches are enjoyable to read and excellent examples of the way to entertain and persuade a crowd.

Like most boys, Tom Sawyer would rather play hooky than go to school. But Tom's lively imagination and thirst for adventure lead him into the most extraordinary situations, from a search for buried treasure to the accidental witness of a murder in a graveyard. All of his exploits -- tricking his pals into whitewashing a fence, sharing his medicine with the family cat, disrupting a church service with a pinching insect -- are flavored with the humor for which his creator, Mark Twain, is justly famed. In writing this great American classic, Twain drew upon his own memories of life in a small Missouri town before the Civil War. Since the book's 1876 publication, generations of readers of all ages have laughed at Tom's hijinks and taken him into their hearts, along with Huckleberry Finn, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly, and other memorable characters. This new Dover Evergreen Classics edition offers a fresh introduction to the lovable scamp and the enduring joys of his escapades.

Aus dem Buch: "Es ist zwar etwas Gutes f r die Unterhaltung des Publikums zu schreiben, aber etwas noch weit H heres und Edleres ist es, wenn man zur Belehrung, zum Nutzen, zum wahren Wohl seiner Mitmenschen schreibt - und das ist der einzige Zweck der folgenden Abhandlung. Wenn es mir gel nge, dadurch auch nur einem Leidenden wieder zur Gesundheit zu verhelfen, das Feuer der Hoffnung und Freude in seinem matten Blick aufs neue zu entz nden und seinem erstorbenen Herzen den raschen, fr hlichen Pulsschlag vergangener Tage zur ckzugeben, so w re mir alle M he reichlich vergolten und jene heilige Wonne w rde meine Seele durchstr men, welche der Christ f hlt, wenn er eine gute, selbstlose That vollbracht hat." Mark Twain (1835-1910) ist vor allem als Autor der B cher ber die Abenteuer von Tom Sawyer und Huckleberry Finn bekannt. Er war ein Vertreter des Literatur-Genres "amerikanischer Realismus" und ist besonders wegen seiner humoristischen, von Lokalkolorit und genauen Beobachtungen sozialen Verhaltens gepr gten Erz hlungen sowie aufgrund seiner scharfz ngigen Kritik an der amerikanischen Gesellschaft ber hmt.