Mark Twain and His Classics

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Paliden
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Re: Mark Twain and His Classics

Post by Paliden »

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are obviously his most famous works. Great books!
But I also really enjoy The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
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Post by Sine_Ni_Ceallach »

I asked for, and subsequently received a copy of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court last Christmas. I really loved it, some of the passages had me quite literally laughing out loud, which is rare for me. In the words of G.K. Chesterton: "In all those excruciating tales of [Twain's], which in our youth made us ill with laughing, the idea always consisted in carrying some small fact or notion to more and more frantic lengths of deduction. If a man's hat was as high as a house Mark Twain would think of some way of calling it twenty times higher than a house. If his hat was smashed as flat as a pancake, Mark Twain would invent some startling and happy metaphor to prove that it was smashed twenty times flatter than a pancake." I would highly recommend it to anyone as a fantastic piece of 19th century American literature.
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DanBR
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Post by DanBR »

Sine_Ni_Ceallach wrote:I asked for, and subsequently received a copy of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court last Christmas. I really loved it, some of the passages had me quite literally laughing out loud, which is rare for me. In the words of G.K. Chesterton: "In all those excruciating tales of [Twain's], which in our youth made us ill with laughing, the idea always consisted in carrying some small fact or notion to more and more frantic lengths of deduction. If a man's hat was as high as a house Mark Twain would think of some way of calling it twenty times higher than a house. If his hat was smashed as flat as a pancake, Mark Twain would invent some startling and happy metaphor to prove that it was smashed twenty times flatter than a pancake." I would highly recommend it to anyone as a fantastic piece of 19th century American literature.
That is very true of Twain. I remember something he wrote one time about an inaccurate revolver he's owned: that once it fired, no person or thing in the world would be safe except those standing directly in front of it.
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Post by Craigable »

I read "Letters from the Earth" many moons ago. I still associate it with a short story by Twain titled "A Cat-Tale." Possibly "Letters" was included in a posthumous collection along with other little known works by the author. Anyway, "A Cat-Tale" is a bedtime story about a cat family. A funny and adorable tale thanks chiefly to wordplay involving the word "cat." A mini work of American comic genius.

The last Twain work I read was The Innocents Abroad, a nonfiction work featuring the author's experiences on an excursion to Europe and the Holy Land. I think Twain was being paid to write about the trip by a newspaper that was publishing his remarks in installments.
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Post by Felisari »

One of my last reading was " A Yanki in King arthur's court" From Mark Twain. I really enjoyed some chapters and situations in the book. But really there were some parts I felt a bit bored about.

Anyway, I preffer the Huckleberries Flynt series :)
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Post by Nathrad Sheare »

Mark Twain was a funnyman. I have to say that was the most charming thing about his work, the best of which I think was "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I was reading it aloud one day to my grandma and my mom decided to join in. We almost had her rolling on the floor laughing. (Text talk is so much more attractive when unraveled in conversation, hm? :D ) A very clever book.

I was never too keen on "Tom Sawyer," though there were a few parts that had some mff here and there. I thought that Tom Sawyer's unusual mind was more entertaining in Huck Finn's telling.
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Post by QueenCat »

I remember reading Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court as a child. Loved them then and still do. The Diaries of Adam and Eve is funny, profound and thought provoking. I haven't read anything of his that doesn't become one of my favorites.
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Post by godreaujea »

Last year I had to read Huckleberry Finn in a college class and I loved it. Twain really brought the story to life.
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Post by MASaint »

Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were the books that hooked me on reading and I still reread them yearly. The life lessons in them and the pure Americana are a joy to re-live often.
I have recommended them to all the younger members of my family, as the years have pasted, and have been rewarded with many, if not most, of our youth becoming readers and several writers.
All the Mark Twain's books and Sayings should be 'must reads' in every school in our country.
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Post by ninachatterjee »

It is exactly as stated: beautiful, historical satire. One of Mark Twain's best written works. It establishes the dire contrast in characteristics of a prince and a pauper / beggar boy whose places are switched. I especially loved the little hidden comic relief moments in between the entire storyline that shows intensely how lives differed so vastly in those days.
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Post by shootseven »

Letters from the Earth is one of the funniest, well writing stories I have ever read. Twain satirizes not only religion but mankind generally. I recommend it highly.

It's available in a book by that name and also in a larger collection called The Bible According to Mark Twain, which also contains other funny and interesting stories.
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Post by Bluecobia »

I have always enjoyed Mark Twain''s humor and of course his books.
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Post by TobiOrNotTobi »

Ahhh, yes, Huckleberry Finn; my first crush. :romance-inlove: :lol2:
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Post by jaylperry »

I have found Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to be much more accessible in audiobook form, read by a very talented voice actor. I personally have difficulty reading the multiple, specific accents and dialects and find that I enjoy the books more when that piece of hard lifting is done for me. It makes me sad to admit.
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Post by GabbiV »

I've recently finished Tom Sawyer and I was charmed by his characters and the personalities he fleshes them out with. The imagery and pacing are also wonderful, both serve to heighten the emotion of the scene.
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