Who Is Mark Twain? audiobook

A writer par excellence and a humorist impeccable,He’s a satirist that amazes with his eloquence amiable,His timeless works will continue to educate and entertain,He is the legendary Samuel Clemens better known as Mark Twain!About the author: Mark Twain is a name that needs no introduction. His works ‘The adventures of Tom Sawyer and ‘The adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ are not only cherished and immortalized as literary classics but also are part of school curriculum to expose little minds to the joys of reading those memorable tales.I stay in Connecticut in the USA where Mark Twain lived. His mansion at Hartford is a tourist attraction and a historic landmark. His and his daughter’s birthdays are celebrated in many places around and the libraries proudly boast of aisles of his books and biographies. Even the bookstores here hand out bags printed with his quotes! Needless to say, any book lover would be drawn to the magic that is named Mark Twain. One of them is me. Plot: This is neither a story nor an autobiography. This is a collection of unpublished articles, personal opinions, and anecdotes that Mark Twain left among his possessions. According to him, freedom of speech although propagated by many countries and cultures is not truly practiced. A person is completely free of inhibitions to speak his mind only ‘from the grave’. So, from the grave, he does speak through the largest collection of personal papers left by any American author in the 19th century. Although all of them subtly convey a touching message, here is a list of my absolute favorite articles from the book along with a quote from each write-up: 1. Whenever I am to publish a book:This is about the feelings Twain went through when he published any book. He mentions that he read his books out to a private audience carefully picked by him and classified the listeners into 14 categories. The 14th category is ‘The man who always goes to sleep’! He placed his blind trust in this category since he got to know how interesting or uninteresting his book is by observing this man! If he kept awake for an hour and then slept, Twain confidently published the book.Quote: If he drops off to sleep within 15 minutes, I burn the book. His verdict has burned several books for me.2. Frank Fuller and my first New York Lecture: This article is about the grandiose plans of his friend(acting as a marketing manager) - Mr. Frank Fuller. Fuller wanted to make extravagant arrangements for Mark Twain’s first lecture and he booked a hall for seating 3000 listeners for a period of 3 months, reducing Twain to a nervous wreck! Quote: Admiral Farragut couldn’t come for my lecture. Just at that time, a child was born to – not to him, and I don’t remember now who it was born to , and now I come to think, I believe it was not born that year but anyway he couldn’t come.3. Happy memories of the dental chair: We all remember that scary day when we went to the dentist for the first time and so does Mark Twain. Just like most dentists, his one also scared the wits off him by mentioning the name of a queer disease of his teeth although there was no pain experienced. Twain strongly believes that dentists require two qualities very essential to their profession: 1. Skill related to teeth 2. Active talking and entertaining.Quote: The dentist had a calm, possessed, surgical look of a man who could endure pain in another person. 4. Dr. Van Dyke as a man and as a Fisherman: This is a serious account that despises the hobby of fishing. He says that experiencing pleasure in fishing is similar to experiencing a maniacal happiness in murdering a child that was innocently playing around. He was a vegetarian and being one myself, I could completely understand and applaud his view.Quote: Man conceived the idea of getting pleasure out of deceiving, frightening, capturing mutilating and murdering a child.5. Jane Austen: This is a sharply satirical account of Jane Austen’s writing. While considering himself unworthy of praising her work, he subtly hints the unlikable nature of all her main characters!Quote: Is it her purpose to make the readers detest the characters up to the middle of the book and like them later on? That would be high art. Someday I would examine the other end of the book and see. My Opinion: In the past few weeks, I was celebrating a secret Mark Twain festival in my own world. I plunged into his books from the library. I have not read all of them yet, but it was scintillating to bask in the glory of his works. Most of the stories have a sharp satire and unadulterated wit. Each story is a gem. I consider myself unworthy of providing ‘my opinion’ on the legend, but consider it a pleasure to remind my fellow readers of the great writer and a better humorist!

Jon Lithgow reads the audio version of this collection of Mark Twain's work and there are some gems among the short stories. There is also some score-settling on Twain's part like the essay on the high cost of postage.Good stuff, but very esoteric.

While leftovers of a master, the collection is at times hilarious, astute, prejudiced (especially against established religion), but always readable.

Twain is an excellent writer and thinker, Lithgow is an excellent reader

A great collection of funny, timely, and interesting pieces. A fascinating look into Mark Twain's mind and writing process. And an absolute joy to read.

I can see why Twain waited to allow these to be published until after his death, but these are his best works!

John Lithgow and Mark Twain! So good!

Mark Twain is perhaps the most quoted American author in history. His one-line adages serve as witticisms for almost any occasion (I've heard him read at weddings and funerals). What we have in this release is a collection of some previously published but mostly unpublished short essays and stories by Twain taken from the almost half million pages of literature that he left behind at his death. Some essays mirror the hilarity of Twain's traditional style, while others are curt and serious, seeming to end when the author was done with the thought (often before finishing it). The short stories of the collection are classic Twain, and provide an entertaining front while manintaining an insightful underbelly. "The Music Box" will just make you laugh. A lot. Twain is a writer that I could read ceaselessly. He reminds me of the joy that comes out of art, when we're so used to finding the brilliance of how it relates to our misery.

When I first heard about this book, I couldn't stop smiling. I have read everything that Mark Twain wrote, and having this new taste from his grave is a mighty treat indeed. If you are a fan of Samuel Clemens, you MUST pick up this quick read of essays and lectures he decided to publish from the grave. It makes a great Sunday evening read with a glass of wine in hand. Although all the pieces are brilliant, one of my favorite stories in his new book is “The Quarrel in the Strong-Box.” It is a fantastic fable about a nickel and a copper arguing about who is mightier in the society which they exist. Some of the writings are published even though they are unfinished. But nonetheless, it definitely gives us the pleasure once again to enjoy a great read from the man that was way beyond his time.

What fun! This is from a large collection of Twain's collected works, which are gradually being made available to the public. The publisher is very honest that the first few selections are unfinished works - one is practically a draft - so they are not particularly fun to read. BUT, when you get past those, you are into classic Twain. Read "On Postage Rates on Authors' Manuscripts" for a hysterical commentary on Capital Hill. Worth reprinting as a full-page article in the Wall Street Journal - just too funny! "Interviewing the Interviewer" is a funny take on shoddy journalism. And other, homier ones are really funny, too. Great read!

I'm a big fan of Mark Twain. My alma mater is in Elmira, NY, which makes an appearance in one of final pieces of this collection, so I feel a connection to Twain. There's no doubting that Twain has made an incredible impact on American literature with his novels. Certainly, this collection is not one of those - it was only recently released. But even so, there's still some of that Mark Twain genius in these pieces. I appreciated being able to see the kernels of stories, the snippets of ideas, the ideas that Twain didn't quite get right.

This collection of works ranges from quite comical to more cut and dry. It was very pleasant to see Twain's sense of humor come through, and even the more serious pieces had quite a bit of tongue in cheek cheekiness to them. The book itself read rather slow (I think this has more to do with the arrangement and plus the choppy nature of compiling a bunch of short pieces), but it was still really nice to see Twain in his craft.

Previously unpublished and somewhat unfinished stories/articles/musings from Mark Twain. Loved them, especially "Conversations with Satan," "Jane Austen," "A Group of Servants," "The Undertaker's Tale," "The Music Box," "The Snow-Shovelers, and "Telegraph Dog." Mark Twain is hilarious. I just love his work.

It's always hard to give a book by Mark Twain less than 4 starts. This tidbits range from incompleted sketches to works Twain considered too controversial to publish until long after his death. They show a man deeply concerned about humanity and it's frailties. But also a man with a committed sense of humor.