Mark Twain- American Author Challenge

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

-Mark Twain

"Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, Samuel L. Clemens wrote under the pen name Mark Twain and went on to pen several novels, including two major classics of American literature, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor. Twain died on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut."

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2014. This author will be read in July. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/162960

I read Huck Finn in high school and loved it. I have reread it once or twice since then. What I am ashamed about is, how little of his other work, I have read. I think I read Tom Sawyer but I am not completely sure. Maybe, I only read parts of it. I am taking advantage of AAC, to finally get back into Mr. Clemens. I will be reading Life on the Mississippi, which I believe was highly recommended by Mr. R.D. If I can bookhorn in a second title, I will do so.

Okay, what is everyone else got in mind?

I'm currently leaning toward Innocents Abroad, which I have never read.

P.S. Love that image in the first message!

Life on the Mississippi for me too.

>2 msf59: I had that exact edition of Tom Sawyer when I was a kid!

I haven't decided what I'll be reading for this month. In the past couple of years, I re-visited Huck Finn on audio and experienced Tow Sawyer for the first time (also on audio). Both make for great listening experiences, if anyone is leaning that way...

Somehow I managed to never read Tom Sawyer, so that's the one for me.

I thought it was a Mark Twain quote, but apparently it's Groucho Marx. Still worth posting:

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog it is too hard to read.”

“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”
― Mark Twain

This is the awesome Mark Twain dog quote. He had many and they are all awesome!

I read a lot of Twain as a teen--I loved his irreverent humor. I have Life on the Mississippi ready for next month. If I get extra time, I may re-read Huck Finn or Innocents Abroad.

I'll be reading Innocents Abroad.

>11 LoisB: High-five, Lois!

I read Tom Sawyer in Jr. High but I've never read Huckleberry Finn so I'll be reading that.

I am pleased with all the Twain love. Sweet!

Question: Can anyone highly recommend a Twain, that is not as well known?

Question 2: Has anyone read The Autobiography of Mark Twain? I've had it saved on audio, for quite awhile.

I'll be joining in this month with an audiobook. I have both The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and The Prince and the Pauper in audio, and I'm leaning toward The Notorious Jumping Frog.

I'm also looking at The Prince and The Pauper on audio

I am reading The Innocents Abroad, but might take it into August.

I had a DNF with Huckleberry Finn. I found it boring - go down the river, something happens, go down the river, something happens, go down the river, ad nauseam. Nor did I like the characters. I quit about 100 pages in.

That's all I've attempted by Twain. Any suggestions for something short?

I own a copy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. Hope to find it before July is up. A friend recommends it as excellent and mostly overlooked Twain.

I also have a copy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. It's one of a set I remember in my aunt's house during my childhood. My mom saved it after my aunt passed, and now I've been cleaning out mom's house since she's moved to a retirement apartment. >19 Helenoel: I'm glad to hear the recommendation. It's what I'm planning to read, but somehow I'm not looking forward to it. The other unread one in the set is Life on the Mississippi which I'll switch to if Pudd'nhead misses the mark.

>18 Morphidae: I don't think I understand your comment. Isn't that more or less what happens in pretty much every book ever written? Something happens, someone reacts to it, something else happens, reaction, and so on until the end. How is Huckleberry Finn any less eventful than any other book?

>21 rosalita: Julia when I read Lolita last year, I felt kind of like Morphy's description of Huckleberry Finn. H.H. & Lolita would be in the car on the road and endless descriptions of the landscape. Then they would stop over. Then back on the road and it was truly endless to me. I finished the book but if I had it to do all over I would invoke the Rule of 50 and never look back.

I love road trip books but this one seemed like it was on play back loop. Maybe Morphy felt this way. I don't know but that is how I took her comment.

If anyone reading loved Lolita, I'm sorry but it was a slog for me. :-/

I felt the same way about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. He walked some, slept overnight, walked some . . .

>22 luvamystery65: I haven't read Lolita, so I'm not able to tell you how wrong you are. ;-) It's totally fine that Morphy didn't like Huckleberry Finn — I don't want to seem as if I am criticizing her for not liking it. I was just curious if maybe the "road trip" aspect is one that she generally doesn't like in books or if Huck seemed like a particularly bad example of a genre she normally enjoys.

>24 rosalita: Julia I took it as you asking for clarification rather than criticizing. I just put my two cents worth in.

>23 LoisB: Good to know.

>25 luvamystery65: Oh, good! I was worried maybe my tone came off as overly harsh. That happens sometimes with written communication. Your example was useful, actually, in helping me understand why it was tedious. I don't think either Lolita or Harold Fry are going on my wishlist anytime soon.

My 2 cents: Loved Lolita. Harold Fry...not so much.

I'm in for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I've read Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Life on the Mississippi and really liked them. I'll certainly keep an eye on this thread for further recommendations (or discommendations, even though it's not a word).

Karen O.

>21 rosalita: Road trip + episodic + the characters were either uninteresting, unlikable or both

I simply didn't care what happened to Huck or Jim.

>29 Morphidae: Makes sense.

Meanwhile, any suggestions?

Sorry, Morphy, I have only read Huck Finn. Maybe, one of his shorter works?

I'm planning a re-read of Tom Sawyer.

Lori- I hope Twain works better for you, than Mr. Vonnegut. LOL.

>34 msf59: I have no doubt that Twain will work better, Mark! After all, it is a re-read.

>31 Morphidae: I would second Mark's suggestion of Twain's short stuff, of which he wrote a metric crapton (technical measurement). The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was pretty darned funny, as I recall. This site seems to have all his works available for reading online:

American Literature online

>36 rosalita: It's sounds good. I did the same for Welty. I read her short story, "Why I Live at the P.O.," because I couldn't get through her other stuff.

>36 rosalita: Thanks for posting that link, Julia. I have read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and I really don't care to do so again. But The Celebrated Frog might be worth a go.

You're welcome, Morphy and Ellen! I had downloaded a copy of Innocents Abroad from Project Gutenberg, but this site is very nicely designed and if I end up reading it at home rather than on the go, I think I'd use this one instead.

>39 rosalita: I have started Innocents Abroad. It's been 3 days and I'm not even halfway through! I just can't get into it, so I've put it aside for the time being.

I plan to read Life on the Mississippi and possibly The Prince and the Pauper. I think the 19th century "feel" of Twain's writing is putting some people off. Since I've been reading him for over 50 years, it's comfortable and familiar for me, but if you're coming to him for the first time, consider giving him a little more time to grow on you than you would with a modern author.

>41 laytonwoman3rd: I agree with you about the 19th century feel to his writing. It doesn't fit naturally with our modern vernacular. I've started Life on the Mississippi and he is actually quite funny but it is not laugh out loud or giggle funny. He is ironic and some of the things he says don't actually hit me until I'm a paragraph or a page away. This is not a book I'm going to stay up all night reading but I will read it and see if I can enjoy the workings of Mr. Twain's brain.

I've started Puddn'head Wilson today and (somewhat to my surprise) am enjoying it. Each chapter starts with a bit from Puddn'head's Journal:

"Adam was but human - this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent."

And I loved this part of the description of the porches in small town Missouri::

"When there was room on the ledge outside of the pots and boxes for a cat, the cat was there - in sunny weather- stretched at full length, asleep and blissful, with her furry belly to the sun and a paw curved over her nose. Then that house was complete, and its contentment and peace were made manifest to the world by this symbol, whose testimony is infallible. A home without a cat -and a well-fed, well petted and properly revered cat - may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?"

> 43 Love the cat quote! I am really enjoying Life on the Mississippi. Here's a quote that I liked:

"The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book--a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day."

^ My plan was to kick off AAC, with Life on the Mississippi, but an audio copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer came in early and has to be returned mid-month. I will get to "Life" later in the month.

Here is the preface to Tom Sawyer, by M.T.:

"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 combina- tion of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of archi- tecture.

The odd superstitions touched upon were all preva- lent 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 en- tertainment 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."

^I love that and think it's worth sharing.

>44 banjo123:- Love the quote, Rhonda! I plan to get to that one in a couple of weeks.

>43 streamsong: Love the cat quote. I'm saving that.

>45 msf59: - Mark, who's reading Tom Sawyer on your audio? I listened to a version narrated by Grover Gardner and thought he was terrific.

Dick Hill is the narrator, Katie. I've heard him before and he is good but I LOVE Grover Gardner. I see, he also does the Life on the Mississippi. I think I will splurge and get that on audio.

>48 katiekrug: Yay the Grover Gardner edition of Life on the Mississipi is available on Hoopla!

How does Hoopla work, Ro?

Mark your library has to offer it like Overdrive. You can get audiobooks, music and movies for two weeks. You can borrow up to 8 titles a month. They have a nice selection and you can download on your computer or your phone. It's not a perfect system, there has been some bugs but they do seem to try to work through them and for the price I'm not complaining. ;-)

Look them up to see if your library participates.

ETA: I'm listening right now and Grover is doing an excellent job.

Innocents Abroad *

This will be my last Mark Twain read! I didn't particularly like his writing when I was young, and I like it even less now.

>53 LoisB: Oh no! I hope I have a better experience when I tackle that one soon. Fortunately I do rather like his style so I hope that will carry me through.

>54 rosalita: I hope so, too!

I read and loved Life on the Mississippi. For me it was a great romp through US history.

I'm in the middle of Tom Sawyer and having fun with it. The superstitions you mention, Mark, are a hoot. Bury a marble in a box, and with the proper incantation, all the ones you've lost will be drawn to it, and be in the box when you dig it up?! And there's always a good explanation when whatever is being tried doesn't work.

>50 luvamystery65:: I'm a big fan of Hoopla, Roberta. AND Grover Gardner!

>51 msf59:: Lois, I'm sorry The Innocents Abroad didn't work for you. I am enjoying it but need to take frequent breaks. It helps to have both the audio and e-book so I can mix things up.

Tom Sawyer=fun read. Glad I finally got around to this one.

Glad to see some Twain activity. I still have Life on the Mississippi queued up, but I probably won't get to it, for another week. It is all about Middlemarch, until completion.

I' reading Life on the Mississippi. I'm finding it a little uneven, but overall well worth reading.

I listened to The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County: And Other Stories on a recent car trip. It's a selection of mostly humorous stories, with a couple of poignant stories about slavery and the Civil War thrown into the mix. Norman Dietz has a storyteller's voice that enhanced my experience with the collection.

I've just started The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:-)

I finished Pudd'nhead Wilson.

In>43 streamsong: I posted a bit of Twain's small town life description and also a few of the witticisms that begin each chapter.

It's the story of a 1/16 Negro slave who gives birth to her 1/32 Negro slave son on the same day the white heir of her master's family is born. She fears for her son's future, and since no one but she can tell them apart, she switches them when they are a few months old. The switched son grows up spoiled, self-centered and dissolute, racking up huge gambling debts. He eventually murders his guardian in order to hide the debts lest he be disinherited.

There is an aspiring lawyer in town, who on the first day of his arrival, made a joke which was misunderstood. From this he got the name of Puddn'head - an idiot. He has an odd hobby of taking fingerprints - he does it multiple times with infants and then again as they grow into adulthood. He makes the discovery that the fingerprints are unique to each individual and do not change with time.

A bloody fingerprint left at the murder scene enables him to deduce the murderer as well as the fact that the babies were switched when quite young. At this time, fingerprints were not used in solving crimes and so this is a unique twist to the plot.

I thought it was interesting that palmistry also made an appearance and seemed to be taken quite as seriously as fingerprints.

The book I read had a second entry bound with it called Those Extraordinary Twins. It turns out that Twain had originally written Pudd'nhead as a farce, with the main characters a set of conjoined "Siamese" twins based on celebrated Italian conjoined twins. Eventually Twain says that he saw the tragedy of the Pudd'nhead story did not work with the farce of the twins, so he separated the two. In Pudd'nhead, the conjoined twins became Italian twins of noble birth, one of whom gets blamed for the murder.

The Italian twins are a distraction in Pudd'nhead. There are traces of them being conjoined - for examples, they have always slept in the same bed and they worked in a circus side show, an odd occupation for Italian nobility. Some of the gags about the twins' natures being completely different, running against each other for office, and kicking the dissolute young son off a stage (with conjoined twins, who could tell who did the kicking?) don't work as well with regular twins.

In my opinion, Twain was right to remove the conjoined twins from the story and leave the story of racism and slavery. However, the whole story of Pudd'nhead could have used further rewriting with the Italian twins written out altogether, or at least their story cleaned up better.

In a way I'm sorry I read Those Extraordinary Twins, because while it did give insight into Twain's creative process, it also spoiled a lot of the Pudd'nhead story for me. It's not a stand alone story, as large sections that were left in Pudd'nhead are merely summarized.

I've been contemplating reading Pudd'nhead Wilson when I finish Life on the Mississippi, but I think I'll leave the extraordinary twins story to the Twain scholars. Thanks for the review!

Finished Pudd'nhead Wilson - can't add much to streamsong's comments but I did enjoy the "calendar entries" and Twain's dry wit.

I finished Life on the Mississippi and posted a bit of a review over on my thread.

On audio, I started Life on the Mississippi and managed to listen to a healthy chunk. It has some dry spots but it is still very good and his time piloting a steamboat on the Mighty Miss, is highly enjoyable. Grover Gardner is doing a stellar job narrating it.

>67 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for sharing, Linda, I'll buzz over and check out your review.

I finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It was a re-read for me.

I had been planning to read The Innocents Abroad, but this month is getting away from me. I think I will just read a short story or two. I'm already a Twain fan :)

My history with Mark Twain has been brief. I have read Huckleberry Finn three times and Tom Sawyer once. Now I have added Pudd'nhead Wilson for this group read. I only "chose" that one because it was the one and only Mark Twain book my town's library owns! That in itself astounded me. Anyway, I started it this morning about 8 a.m. and read straight through and finished about 2:30 p.m., so it was painless. I'd probably call it a farce though if one were to stop and think about all the circumstances there really was a lot to consider on a deeper level. Next time, if I have the luxury of more choice I think I'd like to read some of Twain's essays, such as the one on his time in Nevada since I live in California and love Nevada.

Finally finished The Innocents Abroad. It wasn't bad and I managed not to get too much worked up about those remarks which today would be called racist and condescending. It must have been a hell trip at times, and that's reflected in the writing. Sometimes light, sharp, informative, amusing and then for chapters you feel that he's annoyed and tired. He admits to having become travel-weary at some point, and still he took all those risky side trips. I am glad I read it, although those last 20 % were hard to get through.

I finished the audio of The Prince and the Pauper a couple of days late. If I had known how much I would enjoy it, I wouldn't have put off reading it (or in this case, listening to it) for so long. It has one of those plots that seems to be common knowledge whether you've read it or not, yet it still had surprises for me.

>74 msf59: Glad to hear The Prince and the Pauper works well on audio. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Carrie!

Anyone else still reading Mr. Twain??

I finished A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court last week. It just was not the right book for me - or not the right time. I enjoyed the satire piece of the book, but it was kind of difficult to read right now. I liked Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer when I read those. Maybe I will try more when I get the chance.

Just about finished with ol' Huck Finn! I'm really enjoying the reading, but it does bog down in places, and the racist terms and thinking that some of the characters employ so thoughtlessly never stops stunning.

Karen O.

p.s. I have now finished, and have somewhat come to terms with the book. It gave an interesting and charming look at a period of time and a place and a coming-of-age young boy.