The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics) by Mark Twain (Epub)

Description

“A book filled with richnesses of humor and tragedy of disappointment and triumph, of sweetness and bitterness, and all in that unsurpassed American prose.”—New York Herald Tribune Book ReviewMark Twain was a figure larger than life: massive in talent, eruptive in temperament, unpredictable in his actions. He crafted stories of heroism, adventure, tragedy, and comedy that reflected the changing America of the time, and he tells his own story—which includes sixteen pages of photos—with the same flair he brought to his fiction. Writing this autobiography on his deathbed, Twain vowed to be “free and frank and unembarrassed” in the recounting of his life and his experiences.Twain was more than a match for the expanding America of riverboats, gold rushes, and the vast westward movement, which provided the material for his novels and which served to inspire this beloved and uniquely American autobiography.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “The book as a whole is magnificently alive.” — Library Journal”A book filled with richnesses of humor and tragedy of disappointment and triumph, of sweetness and bitterness, and all in that unsurpassed American prose.” — New York Herald Tribune Book Review From the Back Cover “Mark Twain’s autobiography is a classic of American letters, to be ranked with the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Adams…. It has the marks of greatness in it–style, scope, imagination, laughter, tragedy.”–From the Introduction by Charles NeiderMark Twain was a figure larger than fife: massive in talent, eruptive in temperament, unpredictable in his actions. He crafted stories of heroism, adventure, tragedy, and comedy that reflected the changing America of the time, and he tells his own story–which includes sixteen pages of photos–with the same flair he brought to his fiction. Writing this autobiography on his deathbed, Twain vowed to he “free and frank and unembarrassed” in the recounting of his life and his experiences.Twain was more than a match for the expanding America of riverboats, gold rushes, and the vast westward movement, which provided the material for his novels and which served to inspire this beloved and uniquely American autobiography. About the Author Charles Neider was an essayist, novelist, nature writer, and noted scholar of Mark Twain. He died in 2001. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. I was born the 30th of November, 1835, in the almost invisible village of Florida, Monroe County, Missouri. My parents removed to Missouri in the early ‘thirties; I do not remember just when, for I was not born then and cared nothing for such things. It was a long journey in those days and must have been a rough and tiresome one. The village contained a hundred people and I increased the population by I per cent. It is more than many of the best men in history could have done for a town. It may not be modest in me to refer to this but it is true. There is no record of a person doing as much-not even Shakespeare. But I did it for Florida and it shows that I could have done it for any place-even London, I suppose.Recently some one in Missouri has sent me a picture of the house I was born in. Heretofore I have always stated that it was a palace but I shall be more guarded now.The village had two streets, each a couple of hundred yards long; the rest of the avenues mere lanes, with railfences and comfields on either side. Both the streets and the lanes were paved with the same material-tough black mud in wet times, deep dust in dry.Most of the houses were of logs–all of them, indeed, except three or four; these latter were frame ones. There were none of brick and none of stone. There was a log church, with a puncheon floor and slab benches. A puncheon floor is made of logs whose upper surfaces have been chipped flat with the adz. The cracks between the logs were not filled; there was no carpet; consequently, if you dropped anything smaller than a peach it was likely to go through. The church was perched upon short sections of logs, which elevated it two or three feet from the ground. Hogs slept under there, and whenever the dogs got after them during services the minister had to wait till the disturbance was over. In winter there was always a refreshing breeze up through the puncheon floor; in summer there were fleas enough for all.A slab bench is made of the outside cut of a saw-log, with the bark side down: it is supported on four sticks driven into auger holes at the ends; it has no back and no cushions. The church was twilighted with yellow tallow candles in tin sconces hung against the walls. Week days, the church was a schoolhouse.There were two stores in the village. My uncle, John A. Quarles, was proprietor of one of them. It was a very small establishment, with a few rolls of “bit” calicoes on half a dozen shelves; a few barrels of salt mackerel, coffee and New Orleans sugar behind the counter; stacks of brooms, shovels, axes, hoes, rakes and such things here and there; a lot of cheap hats, bonnets and tinware strung on strings and suspended from the walls; and at the other end of the room was another counter with bags of shot on it, a cheese or two and a keg of powder; in front of it a row of nail kegs and a few pigs of lead, and behind it a barrel or two of New Orleans molasses and native corn whisky on tap. If a boy bought five or ten cents’ worth of anything he was entitled to half a handful of sugar from the barrel; if a woman bought a few yards of calico she was entitled to a spool of thread in addition to the usual gratis “trimmin’s”; if a man bought a trifle he was at liberty to draw and swallow as big a drink of whisky as he wanted.Everything was cheap: apples, peaches, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and corn, ten cents a bushel; chickens, ten cents apiece; butter, six cents a pound; eggs, three cents a dozen; coffee and sugar, five cents a pound; whisky, ten cents a gallon. I do not know how prices are out there in interior Missouri now but I know what they are here in Hartford, Connecticut.’ To wit: apples, three dollars a bushel; peaches, five dollars; Irish potatoes (choice Bermudas), five dollars; chickens, a dollar to a dollar and a half apiece, according to weight; butter, forty-five to sixty cents a pound; eggs, fifty to sixty cents a dozen; coffee, forty-five cents a pound; native whisky, four or five dollars a gallon, I believe, but I can only be certain concerning the sort which 1 use myself, which is Scotch and costs ten dollars a gallon when you take two gallons–more when you take less.Thirty to forty years ago, out yonder in Missouri, the ordinary cigar cost thirty cents a hundred, but most people did not try to afford them, since smoking a pipe cost nothing in that tobaccogrowing country. Connecticut is also given up to tobacco raising, to-day, yet we pay ten dollars a hundred for Connecticut cigars and fifteen to twenty-five dollars a hundred for the imported article.At first my father owned slaves but by and by he sold them and hired others by the year from the farmers. For a girl of fifteen he paid twelve dollars a year and gave her two tinsey-woolsey frocks and a pair of “stogy” shoes-cost, a modification of nothing; for a negro woman of twenty-five, as general house servant, he paid twenty-five dollars a year and gave her shoes and the aforementioned linsey-woolsey frocks; for a strong negro woman of forty, as cook, washer, etc., he paid forty dollars a year and the customary two suits of clothes; and for an able-bodied man he paid from seventy-five to a hundred dollars a year and gave him two suits of jeans and two pairs of “stogy” shoes–an outfit that cost about three dollars. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a knock-off from some publishing pirate. Don’t buy this edition….seriously!!!!! It is poorly published. The typeset is large and has the look of a cheap knock-off, do it in your basement, self-publishing project. “Classic Biography Bookshelf” is the name of the publisher and I guess Mark Twain’s autobiography is now in the public domain so can be accessed from some free website (Gutenberg project?). This book is an enlarged copy of a copy. Shoddy and sort of scandalous practice that makes legitimate book publishing and selling look bad. Amazon should police this type of pirating practice better. The “look inside” feature on Amazon for this book has completely different formatting. The reputable Dover Press used to reprint classic works of literature and sell them for a couple of dollars each, but their publishing was commercial quality and their aim was for “everyman” to afford classic works of literature. “Classic Biography Bookshelf” just wants to steal someone’s work and your money. Again, the publisher you actually want for this work is “Harper Perennial Modern Classics” ISBN 13: 9780060955427

⭐This is one of Mark Twain’s best books. I’m reading it now for the third time, and enjoying every minute. Actually, I should have said that this is one of the best VERSIONS of Mark Twain’s autobiography, but that wouldn’t be quite right either. Twain worked on his autobiography on and off for many years and never really got going on it. After his wife “Livy” died he worked on it harder, and began dictating the rest of it. It got so big that when a comprehensiave edition of it was published in recent years, it had to come out in three large volumes. This present version is a lot shorter, and for those who don’t have time to tackle the 3-volumn version, it’s the best of the three earlier versions. It was edited by Charles Neider who gathered the best parts and put then in more-or-less chronological order. Reading this book it sort of like sitting with Mark Twain and just listening to him talk about his life, and that is a lot of fun.

⭐A simply brilliant account of the Holy Land pre-Israel 1948. A wilderness with few inhabitants that nobody wanted to live in UNTIL Israel was declared a Nation in May 14th, 1948. An hilarious record by a man who knows how to tel a story without just stating facts. A man I would have liked to have as a friend. A fun guy with an acute eye for details. Highly recommended ++++++. Essential reading for Christians.

⭐This book would have at least 4 stars if not for the negatives mentioned below. Regardless, the reader is truly exposed to Mark Twain’s thoughts about his life as if he was on the porch with you talking about them. Particularly interesting were his recollections of his early childhood, his exposure to slavery and African Americans at that time, his lecture travels later in life, and difficulties with publishers. You also seem to catch fragments of stories that might/should have made it into his published works. (And his comments on all of the unpublished material that he destroyed! To be able to read that material now . . . .) Overall, a very enjoyable book that does well to capture a truly great American author.There were some negatives — The numerous times that Twain was apparently financially duped by publishers, relatives, and acquaintances was depressing, and much of the middle part of the book became a lament, in my opinion, because of that. But still, you get the perspective of a great author who was either genuinely financially naive or a lousy custodian of his money; or perhaps he `stretched the truth’ a little.Also, at least in my copy, the pages were out of order in several places. (It was the equivalent to actually sitting on a porch with the great author, listening, but being occasionally interrupted by clouds of mosquitoes.) The out-of-order pages made it extremely annoying, and if you get a copy like that, send it back!

⭐Wistful, heart breaking, very personal and ribald as ever, this autobiography does not disappoint. Structured a bit differently from most autobiographies, that is not strictly organized chronologically, it is a delightful read at most every turn, since the author chose to write about things that interested him. There may be a few surprises for Twain mavens, though they are likely not the sort having to do with revelations about famous people he knew and wanted to come clean about, but instead, are personal confessions, having to do with those close to him, siblings, children, kith and kin. I am not looking forward to completing the last few chapters, as each one has been most enjoyable. So, I have repeated sections, sharing recollections about his older brother’s challenges in finding his calling with my son, a sophomore in college, anxious about selecting a major, and re-enjoyed such sections by reading them aloud with family and friends. His writing is spirited, and even when conveying heart breaking moments, like the death of his daughter, he is uplifting through the expression of deep affection, and the effects of life long loss and fond remembrances that also linger. It’s a wonderful book, and for those who enjoy any of his writing, they will surely continue to do so with this compilation.

⭐I have nothing good to say about the reader of this book. I would be surprised if he has a good reputation for reading the works of Twain. In my opinion, he doesn’t understand the literary voice of Twain and does not read Twain’s words in the way that Twain would have said them. One good example is that when Twain is speaking wryly, the reader does not put the necessary emphasis on particular words that make it clear that Twain is joking or trying to be funny. This kind of knowledge of how to emphasize words is what made Hal Holbrook so famous in his renditions of Twain. I agree that Twain’s persona is not easy to pull off, but a reader that has some knowledge of Twain’s literature would be nice.Skip this audio version. You will just have to read the book, in this case.

⭐Sonething wrong with Kindle implementation, caannot enlarge type cannot read.

⭐An uplifting and inspirational work by the creator of those ageless boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. One can see these characters and Becky and Tom’s Aunt in tales from Twain’s life. A short history of a long and glorious life, made short in words by his modesty and succinctness. He recites words of wisdom from those amongst whom he grew up with and developed. He does not dwell upon the misery of the divided Nation caused by the Civil War and speaks with joy and pleasure of his life and family, of his comfort in having provided for thise whom he loves and the desperation of the losses of his son, his two daughters and his beloved wife. He is a man who taught us much and still imparts his wisdom today.

⭐Excellent Book

⭐Very amusing and entertaining perspective on the life of a great writer and humourist. I greatly enjoyed it.

⭐Non l ho letto io ma il mio fidanzato e mentre lo leggeva lo sentivo scoppiare dalle risate.Mi ha confermato sia una biografia decisamente interessante e… da avere!!

⭐

⭐Divertente, anche se mi aspettavo più contenuto. In effetti è un estratto della vera autobiografia, ma utile a conoscere lo scrittore

⭐

Keywords

Free Download The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics) in Epub format
The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics) Epub Free Download
Download The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics) Epub Free
The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics) Epub Free Download
Download The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics) Epub
Free Download Ebook The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics)