马克吐温
- A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
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Mark Twain
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- A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
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Mark Twain
- Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
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Mark Twain
- Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
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Mark Twain
- An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.
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Mark Twain
- Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.
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Mark Twain
- Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
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Mark Twain
- By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean.
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Mark Twain
- Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
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Mark Twain
- Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
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Mark Twain
- Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
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Mark Twain
- Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
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Mark Twain
- Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
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Mark Twain
- Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.
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Mark Twain
- Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.
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Mark Twain
- Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
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Mark Twain
- Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
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Mark Twain
- Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.
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Mark Twain
- Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
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Mark Twain
- Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.
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Mark Twain
- Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
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Mark Twain
- I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
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Mark Twain
- I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.
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Mark Twain
- I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
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Mark Twain
- I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't.
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Mark Twain
- I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.
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Mark Twain
- I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
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Mark Twain
- I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.
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Mark Twain
- I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.
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Mark Twain
- I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don't know.
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Mark Twain
- If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
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Mark Twain
- If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
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Mark Twain
- In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.
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Mark Twain
- In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.
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Mark Twain
- In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.
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Mark Twain
- It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
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Mark Twain
- It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.
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Mark Twain
- It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
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Mark Twain
- It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
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Mark Twain
- It is easier to stay out than get out.
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Mark Twain
- It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
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Mark Twain
- It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.
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Mark Twain
- Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it.
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Mark Twain
- Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
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Mark Twain
- Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.
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Mark Twain
- Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
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Mark Twain
- Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
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Mark Twain
- My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
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Mark Twain
- Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
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Mark Twain
- Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.
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Mark Twain
- Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
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Mark Twain
- Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
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Mark Twain
- The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.
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Mark Twain
- The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
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Mark Twain
- The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
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Mark Twain
- The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
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Mark Twain
- The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.
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Mark Twain
- The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
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Mark Twain
- The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.
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Mark Twain
- The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.
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Mark Twain
- There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry.
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Mark Twain
- There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
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Mark Twain
- Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.
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Mark Twain
- Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.
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Mark Twain
- Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
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Mark Twain
- Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.
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Mark Twain
- We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read.
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Mark Twain
- When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.
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Mark Twain
- When in doubt, tell the truth.
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Mark Twain
- When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself.
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Mark Twain
- When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
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Mark Twain
- When you cannot get a compliment any other way pay yourself one.
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Mark Twain
- Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.
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Mark Twain
- I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.
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Mark Twain, "Is Shakespeare Dead?"
- He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.
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Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Chapter 2
- Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.
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Mark Twain, "The Lowest Animal"
- A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
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Mark Twain, (attributed)
- Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
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Mark Twain, A Connecticult Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
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Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.
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Mark Twain, Advice to Youth
- A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.
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Mark Twain, Following the Equator
- The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession, what there is of it.
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Mark Twain, Following the Equator
- By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.
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Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)
- It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
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Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)
- It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you.
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Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)
- Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.
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Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)
- There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
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Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)
- The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
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Mark Twain, in Christian Science
- All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
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Mark Twain, Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887
戒烟是件很容易的事儿，我都戒过好几十次了。
—— 马克·吐温
格言 / 真理, Nov 6, Tag: 马克·吐温 塞谬尔·朗赫恩·克莱门斯 烦恼 家庭 希望
希望好像一个家庭，没有它，你会觉得生活乏味；有了它，你又觉得天天为它辛劳，是一种烦恼。
—— 马克·吐温
娱乐 / 反语, Aug 11, Tag: 马克·吐温 塞谬尔·朗赫恩·克莱门斯
世界上有许多幽默的事情，其中之一就是白种人的一种想法：他们认为自己不像其他野蛮人那么野蛮。
—— 马克·吐温,《赤道环游记》
格言 / 真理, Aug 11, Tag: 敌人 战争 塞谬尔·朗赫恩·克莱门斯 马克·吐温
战争的目的是杀伤敌人，而不是消耗弹药。
—— 马克·吐温,《赤道环游记》
显然近些年美国发动战争就是为了消耗弹药。
人类是唯一会脸红的动物，或是唯一该脸红的动物。
—— 马克·吐温
马克吐温的写作风格
Mark Twain - A Brief Assessment
As one of America's first and foremost realists a humorists, Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens usually wrote about his own personal experiences and and things he knew about from firsthand experience. His life spanned the two Americas, the frontier America that produced so much of national mythology and the emerging urban, industrial giant of the 20th century. At the heart of Twain's achievement is his creation of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, who embody the mythic America, midway between the wilderness and the model state.
The Gilded Age, came in 1873. It was one of the first novels, which tried to describe the new morality (or immorality) of post-Civil War America. One of the new elements of this novel is that it creates a picture of the entire nation, rather than of just one region. Although it has a number of Twain's typically humorous characters, the real theme is America's loss of its old idealism. The book describes how a group of young people is morally destroyed by the dream of becoming rich.
Twain, the third of five children, was born on Novel 1835, in the village of Florida, Missouri, and grew up in t river town of Hannibal, that mixture of idyll and nigh and around which Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn live i adventure-filled summers. Hannibal was dusty and quit large forests nearby which Twain knew as a child and uses in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)w kidnaps Huck and hides out in the great forest. The sit which passed daily were the fascination of the town am the subject matter of Twain's Life on the Mississippi (1?town of Hannibal is immortalized as St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Twain's father was an ambitious and respected mildly successful country lawyer and storekeeper. He v ever, a highly intelligent man who was a stern disci? Twain's mother, a southern belle in her youth, had ; ley Warner,
In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon. They finished their Hartford mansion and moved into it in 1871. Their infant son Langdon died in 1872, the year Susy, their first daughter, was born. Her sisters, Clara and Jean, followed in 1874 and 1880. Twain's most productive years as a novelist came in this period, when his daughters were young and he was prospering. His The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was a story about "bad boys? a popular theme in American literature. The two young heroes, Tom and Huck Finn, are "bad" only because they fight against the stupidity of the adult world. In the end they win. Twain creates a highly realistic background for the story. We get to know the village very well with its many colorful characters, its graveyards and the house in which a ghost is supposed to exist. Although there are many similarities between Tom and Huck, there are also important differences. Twain studies the psychology of his characters carefully. Tom is very romantic. His view of life comes from books about knights in the Middle Ages. A whistle from Huck outside Tom's window calls him out for a night of adventures. Afterwards, Tom can always return to his Aunt Polly's house. Huck has no real home. By the end of the novel, We can see Tom growing up. Soon, he will also be a part of the adult world. Huck, however, is a real outsider.
Some critics complain that Twain wrote well only when he was writing about young people. They say that his psychology was really only child psychology. This may be true. But in his greatest novel. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain gives the national heart. Most agree , however, that it’s from even deeper currents. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is Twain's best book because, for whatever reasons, he brought together in it, with the highest degree of artistic balance, those most fundamental dualities running through his work and life from start to finish.
In his later novels, Twain seems less hopeful about democracy. In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), the hero is the boss of a factory. He is hit on the head and wakes up in sixth-century England. Because he is a nineteenth-century inventor, he begins to modernize this world, and because he knows so much, he becomes a kind of dictator, called "the Boss". In many ways, Twain seems to be praising both the technology and the leadership of the bosses of American business during the "Gilded Age". Like Twain Twain's hero, these bosses thought they knew more than the ordinary people of society.
By 1890, Twain's financial fortunes were crumbling, mostly owing to bad investment in a publishing firm and in the Paige typesetter. In 1891,Twain closed the Hartford mansion, sold the furniture, and went to Europe to economize. While he was lecturing in Europe, his daughter Susy died, and his wife, Livy, shortly afterward suffered a nervous collapse from which she never recovered. Twain blamed him for bringing on his beloved family the circumstances that led to both tragedies. Twain's pessimism grew deeper and deeper. His abiding skepticism about human natrue deepened to cynicism and found expression in those dark stories of his last years, "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" and "The Mysterious Stranger". In the former, Twain describes a town that had been famous for its honesty". In the end, everybody in town has lied in order to get a big bag of gold. In the latter, published in 1916 after Twain's death, an angel visits three boys in an English village in the Middle Ages. He becomes their friend and shows them evil of mankind. After destroying their innocent happiness, he finally announces that he is Satan. Twain saw human nature as a kind of machine; "I see no great difference between a man and a watch, except that a man is conscious and a watch is not. "Human evil comes from something being wrong with that machine. Throughout all of Twain's writing, we see the conflict between the ideals of Americans and their desire for money. But Twain never tried to solve the conflict. He is like a newspaperman who reports what he sees. His humor was often rather childish. This may bespeak why the critic P. Abel said: "Twain was ably and an old man, but never was he a man. "
His literature explored questions of freedom, independence, and identity. In a steady evolution, lie moved from the confidence and self-reliance of the brash westerner to the questioning and contradictory stance of the agnostic, until he could write in his notebook in the last years of the century, "The human race consists of the damned and the ought-to-be-damned." It could be argued that, almost single-handedly, he liberated American fiction from the rigid conventions of the mid nineteenth century-its stilted dialogue, its stereotyped characters, its didactic impulse, its optimistic impetus. At the same time, lie lowered 'American literature to the plane of the mass audience and elevated it to a distinct, in digamous height which no one else has reached.
One of the great writers of American literature, Twain is admired for capturing typical American experiences in a language which is realistic and charming. Howells was one of Twain's early admirers, and he wrote the following on Twain's style: "So far as I know, Mr. Clemens is the first writer to use in extended writing the fashion we all use in thinking, and to set down the thing that comes into his mind without fear or favor of the thing that went before or the thing that may be about to follow." Most of the critical attention has been given to Huck Finn, Clemens' greatest achievement. This book concerns itself with a number of themes, among them the quest for freedom, the transition from adolescence into adulthood, alienation and initiation, criticism of pre-Civil War southern life. A remarkable achievement of the book is Clemens' use of American humor, folklore, slang, and dialects. There is critical debate, however, concerning the ending of the book - some call it weak and ineffective, others feel it is appropriate and effective.
马克吐温的影响
马克.吐温是19世纪美国现实主义文学主要奠基人之一，在现实主义小说理论和小说语言风格方面，为美国文学的发展做出了卓越贡献。
他提倡创作具有乡土气息的文学作品，主张作家从自己所熟悉的地区开始，运用人民的语言，描写人民的生活，刻画他们的性格和灵魂。他认为，倘然作家都遵循这一原则进行创作，美国人民和美国生活的全貌便会如实地展现在世人面前；也只有这样，才会写出“伟大的美国小说”。
马克.吐温的风格开创了美国小说语言口语化的先河，对后世作家产生了巨大影响。马克.吐温一生著述丰富。他还写过一些同情中国移民、反对帝国主义侵略中国的作品。马克.吐温早年的作品情调幽默,文笔轻捷,充满了对上升时期的美国生活的憧憬;中期以后,色调逐渐暗淡低沉,对美国的社会现实表现出不满和失望;晚年则随着资产阶级民主理想的破灭以及个人生活悲剧德影响,作品了明显地表现出悲观与绝望的情绪,颇有命定论的倾向。
马克·吐温简介
人物姓名:马克·吐温
作家
作家。塞缪尔·朗赫思·克莱门斯的笔名。1835年11月31日生在密苏里州佛罗里达镇，长在密西西比河上的小城汉尼拔。父亲是个不得意的乡村律师和店主，在他12岁时去世。他曾学习排字。1851年在他的哥哥欧莱思开办的报馆中充当排字工人，并开始学习写作幽默小品。1853年后在中西部和东部作排字工人。1856年去新奥尔良，想转道去巴西，在乘船沿密西西比河南下时遇见老舵手贺拉斯·毕克斯比，拜他为师，18个月出师后在密西西比河上做舵手，直至内战爆发，水路交通断绝。在战争中曾一度参加南军。1861年欧莱思被林肯总统派去西部内华达领地政府任秘书，他随同前往，试图在经营木材业与矿业中发财致富，均未成功，便转而以写文章为生。1862年在内华达弗吉尼亚城一家报馆工作。1863年开始使用“马克·吐温”的笔名。1864年，在旧金山结识幽默作家阿·沃德和小说家布·哈特，得到他们的鼓励和帮助，提高了写作的本领。1865年在纽约一家杂志发表幽默故事《卡拉韦拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》，使他全国闻名。此后经常为报刊撰写幽默文章。1866年去夏威夷岛采访，1867年作为记者乘“桂格城”号轮船随一批旅游者去欧洲和巴勒斯坦旅行。他写的报道后来辑成《傻子国外旅行记》(1869)。
1870年马克·吐温与纽约州一个资本家的女儿奥莉薇娅·兰登结婚。婚后居住在布法罗，自己编辑发行《快报》，一年后因、赔钱过多而出让。1872年出版《艰苦岁月》一书，反映了他在西部新开发地区的生活经历，其中记载了一些奇闻轶事，特别是富有美国西部特色的幽默故事。1873年他同查·沃纳合写的《镀金时代》，是他第一部长篇小说。
1871年马克·吐温举家移居东部康涅狄格州哈特福德，这时他已成为有名的作家和幽默演说家。此后的幼年是他创作的丰收年代。1875年马克·吐温应豪威尔斯之约，为《大西洋月刊》撰文。他以早年在密西西比河上做舵手的生活为题材，写了7篇文章，后汇集成书，名为《密西西比河的往事》。8年后，他回到家乡，把这本书扩充成为《密西西比河上》(1883)。
1876年，长篇小说《汤姆·索耶历险记》出版。它虽然是以密西西比河上某小镇为背景的少年读物，但为任何年龄的读者所喜爱。书中写淘气的汤姆和他的伙伴哈克贝里·费恩以及汤姆的女友贝姬·撒切尔的许多故事，不少是作者的亲身经历，有许多合乎孩子心理的有趣情节。
马克·吐温的另一部重要的小说《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》于1876年开始执笔，1884年出版。这部小说得到批评家的高度评价，深受国内外读者的欢迎，同时也不断遭到查禁。
马克·吐温于1889年出版《亚瑟王朝廷上的康涅狄格州美国人》，它和《王子与贫儿》(1881)都是以英国为背景讽刺封建制度和宗教的长篇小说。1894年，马克·吐温写了《傻瓜威尔逊》，塑造了一个富有斗争性的女黑奴罗克西的形象。在这前后，他的家庭遭到不幸：两个女儿一病一死，妻子的健康也恶化；他投资制造自动排字机失败而破产。为了偿还债务，他外出旅行演讲，访问了夏威夷、新西兰、澳大利亚、印度和南美等地。1897年写成《赤道旅行记》，其中讽刺并谴责帝国主义对殖民地人民的压迫，反对帝国主义成为他此后创作的中心思想。1896年出版《贞德传》，它描写15世纪法国民族女英雄贞德的一生。1898年马克·吐温还清全部债务。1900年10月，在离开美国旅居欧洲几近十年之后，他和全家回到美国，受到热烈欢迎，成为文艺界的领袖。1900年以后发表的许多时论作品，锋芒仍未削减。
1904年，妻子在意大利逝世。马克。吐温进入了事业的最后阶段。他早期作品如《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》中已有表现的对“人类”(实为对有产阶级)的悲观情绪，此时成了他一些作品的主调。中篇小说《败坏了哈德莱堡的人》(1900)，散文《人是怎么回事?》(1906)，故事《神秘的来客》(1916)等都有反映。晚年最重要的著作是他口授、由他的秘书笔录的《自传》。他于1910年4月21日去世。
Mark Twain's Humor
Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910), was an American writer, journalist and humorist, who won a worldwide audience for his stories of the youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain once said, "To believe yourself to be brave is to be brave; it is the only essential thing." It was an important date for American literary history. Read about the other days in Mark Twain's life...Autobiography of Mark Twain
Mark Twain (Samuel lemens) has been likened to Walt Whitman as one of the most quintessentially American writers this country has produced. While this book does not contain Mark Twain's complete autobiography, the stories do leave us with more of a flavor for the man and the legend. Banned Classics
Books are still being banned every day, but do you know which of the great classics have been banned? Here's a list of ten...Books About Huckleberry Finn
Originally published in 1884, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the journey of a young boy down the Mississippi River. Huck encounters thieves, murders, and various adventures. The book has also encountered censorship...Books About Mark Twain's Letters
Mark Twain was one of the most famous American writers, famous for his wit and wisdom, made evident in novels like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," as well as his travel writings, essays, and letters. With these books, you'll read more of the letters from Mark Twain. Advertisement Books About Mark Twain's Wit and Humor
Mark Twain is known for his wit and humor. His wit, humor, and wisdom helped his lectures to be well received; and these characteristics have continued to make Mark Twain a widely beloved writer after all these years. Find books related to the wit and humor of Mark Twain. Books about Mark Twain
Mark Twain (1835-1910), pseudonym for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is considered one of the greatest American writers. He's famous for "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1885), "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876), etc. Collected Works - Mark Twain
“Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home barely in season to help Jim, the small colored boy, saw next-day's wood and split the kindlings before supper -- at least he was there in time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the work. Tom's younger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already through with his part of the work (picking up chips), for he was a quiet boy, and had no adventurous, trouble- some ways.” Ch. 1
Protagonist Tom Sawyer is introduced together with his friends Joe Harper and Huck Finn, young boys growing up in the antebellum South. While the novel was initially met with lukewarm enthusiasm, its characters would soon transcend the bounds of their pages and become internationally beloved characters, inspiring numerous other author’s works and characters and adaptations to the stage, television, and film. The second novel in his Tom Sawyer adventure series, Huckleberry Finn (1885), was met with outright controversy in Twain’s time but is now considered one of the first great American novels. A backdrop of colourful depictions of Southern society and places along the way, Huck Finn, the son of an abusive alcoholic father and Jim, Miss Watson’s slave, decide to flee on a raft down the Mississippi river to the free states. Their river raft journey has become an oft-used metaphor of idealistic freedom from oppression, broken family life, racial discrimination, and social injustice. Ernest Hemingway wrote “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”
“We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it warn't often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next..” Ch. 12
Missouri was one of the fifteen slave states when the American Civil War broke out, so Twain grew up amongst the racism, lynch mobs, hangings, and general inhumane oppression of African Americans. He and some friends joined the Confederate side and formed a militia group, the ‘Marion Rangers’, though it disbanded after a few weeks, described in “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed” (1885). His article “The War Prayer” (1923) “in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause” is Twain’s condemnation of hypocritical patriotic and religious motivations for war. It was not published until after his death because of his family’s fear of public outrage, to which it is said Twain quipped “none but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.” Though he never renounced his Presbyterianism, he wrote other irreligious pieces, some included in his collection of short stories Letters From Earth (1962);
“Man is a marvelous curiosity. When he is at his very, very best he is a sort of low grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm.”
Mark Twain grew to despise the injustice of slavery and any form of senseless violence. He was opposed to vivisection and acted as Vice-President of the American Anti-Imperialist League for nine years. Through his works he illuminates the absurdity of humankind, ironically still at times labeled a racist. Though sometimes caustic “Of all the creatures that were made he [man] is the most detestable,” as a gifted public speaker he was a much sought after lecturer “information appears to stew out of me naturally, like the precious ottar of roses out of the otter.” —from his Preface to Roughing It (1872). He is the source of numerous and oft-quoted witticisms and quips including “Whenever I feel the urge to exercise I lie down until it goes away”; “If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes”; “Familiarity breeds contempt — and children”; “The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes” ; and “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Twain is a master in crafting humorous verse with sardonic wit, and though with biting criticism at times he disarms with his renderings of colloquial speech and unpretentious language. Through the authentic depiction of his times he caused much controversy and many of his works have been suppressed, censored or banned, but even into the Twenty-First Century his works are read the world over by young and old alike. A prolific lecturer and writer even into his seventy-fourth year, he published more than thirty books, hundreds of essays, speeches, articles, reviews, and short stories, many still in print today.
A coming-of-age story or novel is memorable because the character undergoes adventures and/or inner turmoil in his/her growth and development as a human being. Some characters come to grips with the reality of cruelty in the world--with war, violence, death, racism, and hatred--while others deal with family, friends, or community issues. Dangerous Intimacy: Mark Twain's Final Years
"Dangerous Intimacy" is the title of Karen Lystra's new biography about Mark Twain's final years. The title seems to suggest a torrid love affair, or other romantic misadventures; and the content of the book follows through with that assumption, though not in the way one would expect. Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
(1835-1910) American writer. Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Missouri on November 30, 1835. Read more about Twain's life and works. Mark Twain Collections
The works of Mark Twain (1835-1910) have been collected in many different combinations (with short stories, speeches, novels, and more). These collections allow you to enjoy some of his greatest works in one volume. Take a look...Mark Twain Gifts
Find T-shirts, bags, magnets, buttons, and more--all related to Mark Twain. Mark Twain Inspirations
If you're wondering about some of the inspirations of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), here's what he had to say about it! Mark Twain Quiz
Mark Twain is one of America's greatest writers, famous for his wit and wisdom. What are some of his most well-known works? Where did he live? What was his real name? Test your knowledge about Mark Twain. Mark Twain: Gilded Age and Other Novels
This "Gilded Age" collection encompasses Mark Twain's literary career, starting with his first novel-length, fictional work, "The Gilded Age," which he co-wrote with Charles Dudley Warner... and carrying us through to his final work, "The Mysterious Stranger," which was left in manuscript format upon his death. Profile: Mark Twain
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is one of the most famous writers in American literature. Twain went to work in 1847 when his father died. He started off as an apprentice to a printer, and from there, he wrote for his brother's newspaper and worked as a riverboat pilot (1857-61).Singular Mark Twain, The
Mark Twain is one of the most popular names in American literature, even as the name was a product of his imagination. With "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Twain created one of the most controversial works in literary history, which is spiced with humor and resonating with tragedy.
Analyzes American author Mark Twain's use of humor in his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and various short stories. Discusses how Twain's use of humor engages his readers.
Mark Twain was the funniest man of his time. His writing inspired comedy as readers know it today. With The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Mark Twain's Short Stories, he had every reader smiling and laughing aloud.
He made readers laugh at innocence, at his plot and characters, and sometimes he turned it around so that readers laughed at themselves.
Readers were compelled to laugh at Twain's characters' naiveté. For example, Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn asked, "Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does". A reader had to laugh at the frivolous question. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when Tom asked, "Say, Becky, was you ever engaged", one had to grin at his innocence.
Mark Twain died on 21 April 1910 inRedding, Connecticut and now rests in the WoodlawnCemetery in Livy’s hometown of Elmira, New York State, buried beside her and the children. A memorial statue and cenotaph in the Eternal Valley Memorial Park of Los Angeles, California states: “Beloved Author, Humorist, and Western Pioneer, This Original Marble Statue Is The Creation Of The Renowned Italian Sculptor Spartaco Palla Of Pietrasanta.” Twain suffered many losses in his life including the deaths of three of his children, and accumulated large debts which plagued him for many years, but at the time of his death he had grown to mythic proportions as the voice of a spirited and diverse nation, keen observer and dutiful reporter, born and died when Halley’s Comet was visible in the skies.
“Death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all—the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.” —Twain’s last written statement.
Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor, by James M. Cox
(Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1966)
I think all of us would agree that Mark Twain's a pretty funny guy. James M. Cox wants to know what's really making us laugh.
Cox traces the development of Twain's humor and the forms it takes in his works, underscored by a pretty thorough biography. The events of Twain's real life take a back seat, however, to the actual humor of Mark Twain. Cox doesn't try to uncover what real-life events prompted a particular work; instead, he's interested in how Twain's humor evolves over time, and how it compliments the real-life experiences of Samuel Clemens.
Twain's humor first takes shape, according to Cox, while working as a newspaper correspondent. It's in this highly respectable and objective business that he learns the fine art of lying- or "burlesque", as Cox calls it. Of course, he doesn't really lie, but he does become prone to exaggeration and parody in his stories, and begins to find his personal voice in editorials. He discovers a feel for subtle mockery. It is here, Cox believes, that Twain discovers his unavoidable "true genius"- the humor which will come to define his success.
The laughter continues as Mark Twain starts to travel. As a professional traveler, his narrative becomes "a fusion of burlesque and mock innocence." The Innocents Abroad, as we know, is filled with anecdotes that all basically follow the same pattern- Mark Twain as the lovable yet mock-innocent fool, continually setting himself up by believing his own illusions. An example of this would be the disappointing Parisian shave that he survives, which crushes the dreams about Parisian barbers that he's had since early infancy; or even the continual humiliations of the steamboat apprentice in Old Times on the Mississippi. This persona is the Mark Twain that the world begins to laugh along with.
Twain also develops what Cox calls the "tall tale"- a humorous way of relaying stories of his travels as if they were myths, almost not to be believed. Twain does this most clearly in Roughing It, where his evidence for these stories is often that there isn't any evidence to disprove them. These exaggerated, mythological, "tall tales" are only fitting for Mark Twain, who is himself a kind of myth created by Samuel Clemens.
As time goes by and Twain moves from personal narrative to fiction, Cox notes that he "had to invent a character to take his place" in his work. That's where characters like Tom and Huck come in.
Twain's burlesque humor is still present, but it now comes from the childhood world of Tom and Huck. Twain himself gets to be a quiet, adult observer, while his characters provide the entertainment. Because the narrators are children, any "serious" issues are presented as play, and Twain can still mock the adult world through the eyes of these children.
Twain's humor at this time also rests on what Cox defines as "an inverted order of values"- the more Huckleberry Finn gets into trouble, or berates himself, the more the reader likes him and cheers him on. The stronger his "southern vernacular" language, the more it becomes a legitimate literary form. Essentially, the "worse" Huck, or Tom, is, the more we laugh.
But Twain's humorous success peaked with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Before it's publication, Cox tells how Twain wrote and released The Prince and the Pauper with the encouragement of his serious side- his wife. Olivia Langhorne Clemmons acted as Twain's editor- and as an influence. As he noted in a letter, "I never wrote a serious word until after I married Mrs. Clemens." The Prince and the Pauper failed, according to Cox, simply because it wasn't funny, nor was it meant to be. Twain had attempted to suppress his genius.
This suppression continues with A Connecticut Yankee in King Author's Court, which, Cox asserts, is more of a political satire than a humorous story. While The Prince and the Pauper could be seen as a simple children's book, A Connecticut Yankee pleads to be liberal social commentary. It, like The Prince, was not well received, if nothing else because Mark Twain as a persona seemed lost amid the changing desires of Samuel Clemens.
This is where the life of Samuel Clemens seems to poke into the literature of Mark Twain. The second half of his career sees the release of Private History of the Campaign that Failed (a reflection on the Civil War- a touchy subject, perhaps at the time equivalent in sensitivity to our 9/11), and, later, Joan of Arc and The Mysterious Stranger, both of which are serious, religious, and rather un-Twain like. He released several other short works before the end of his life, few of which were very humorous. Not even Pudd'nhead Wilson, with it's forced plotline that Cox believes overshadows any potential for humor, resonated with readers the same way that his humorous works did. Any why should Samuel Clemens have been in a humorous mood, faced with bankruptcy, the death of a child, and his wife's terminal illness?
In the end, Cox shows us that Mark Twain, throughout his life and development, is the fate of humor. Cox declares, at one point, that Samuel Clemens doesn't have to be humorous, but Mark Twain does. Readers, ultimately, will respond the to persona that Clemens created in Mark Twain that makes them laugh. Cox believes that, in spite of his literary evolution, Twain cannot escape his fate as a humorist. Even Mark Twain himself knows this, as he wrote to his brother even before The Jumping Frog was published: "I have had a call to literature, of a low order- i.e. humorous. It is nothing to be proud of, but it is my strongest suit."
I, for one, am glad Mark Twain answered that call.
美国的幽默大师和现实主义作家马克·土温,被认为是一个世界文学巨匠.他的幽默对其后辈文人产生了巨大的影响.批评家对此亦高度重视并就此提出了不同的阐释.然而,幽默在马克·土温后期的作品里非但消失殆尽反而被辛辣讽刺所取代.马克·土温为何改变了他的写作风格和人生态度?什么原因导致了他的这种巨变?紧紧围绕上述问题,文章从社会影响和个人遭遇两个方面分别分析了引起马克·吐温写作风格和人生态度改变的原因.旨在就他的这些改变提出理性分析,从而使其作品更加通俗易懂.
Mark Twain, a mastermind of humor and realism, is seen as a giant in world literature. His humor had great impact on the following men of letters; critics also attached significant importance to it and put forward various interpretations. However,humor could no more be found in Twain's later works. On the contrary, it was replaced by bitter satire. Why did Twain change his writing style as well his attitude towards life?What was the cause of this sharp conversion? Focusing on these questions, the paper tries to analyze the basic elements which affected Twain from social influence and personal encounters respectively, aiming at offering rational analysis of this shift as well as making Twain's works readily understood.