Showing results by author "Mark Twain" in All Categories

Mark Twain's classic satire on the German language. A must read for anybody learning German or living in a German-speaking country. "The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the other half at the end of it. Can anyone conceive of anything more confusing than that?"

In April 1878, Mark Twain and his family traveled to Europe. Overloaded with creative ideas, Twain had hoped that the sojourn would spark his creativity enough to bring at least one of the books in his head to fruition. Instead, he wrote of his walking tour of Europe, describing his impressions of the Black Forest, the Matterhorn, and other attractions. Neglected for years, A Tramp Abroad sparkles with Twain’s shrewd observations and highly opinionated comments on Old World culture.

During the hectic Christmas season, slow down with these heartwarming stories from some of literature’s most beloved writers. In this collection, listeners will discover lesser-known but tender stories and poems from classic authors they know and love. Each selection celebrates the beauty, mystery, and joy found in the season that commemorates Christ’s birth. A Vintage Christmas includes stories from Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and many more great writers....

"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (often shortened to "Huck Finn") is a novel written by Mark Twain and published in 1884. It is commonly regarded as one of the "Great American Novels" and is one of the first major American novels written in the vernacular, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels.

A classic tale of the journeys and challenges faced by young boys unravels in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The energetic Tom - who lives with his aunt - is frequently made to do things that he simply does not want to do; namely, going to school and to church. His days off are Saturdays, but when he misbehaves, even those are taken away from him by Aunt Polly. Yet after Tom and his friends witness a murder, for whom the wrong person is blamed, his summer of adventures truly begins.

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an excursion into boyhood, a return to the simple, rural Missouri world of Tom Sawyer, his friends Huck Finn, Becky Thatcher and Aunt Polly. It is a world of summertime and hooky, of pranks and punishments, of villains and adventure, seen through the eyes of a boy who might have been the young Mark Twain himself.

Let yourself be swept away by these classic tales of hope and courage!!

- Classic tales (short stories and poems) of hope and courage from the 19th and 20th centuries

Annotated for modern listeners

The third entry in the Classic Tales series, joining "Classic Tales of Horror" and "Classic Tales of Christmas"

For adventure fans of all ages, these stories are guaranteed to intrigue, delight, and sometimes take you by surprise!

No nation has ever achieved the literary diversity of America. From nativist humor to immigrant triumph, Americans have recorded their visions and hopes better than anyone

Cracked on the head by a crowbar in nineteenth-century Connecticut, Hank Morgan wakes to find himself in King Arthur's England. Branded by Twain's aptitude for broad comedy and biting social satire, the grim truths of Twain's Camelot, fear, injustice, ignorance, resound as clearly now as when it was written.

Hank Morgan is a mechanic, an engineer, and a foreman at the Colt Arms Factory. One day he gets into an argument, "conducted with crowbars," with an employee known as "Hercules." A blow to Hank's head sends him back to King Arthur's England in the Sixth Century.

Roughing It is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature written by American humorist Mark Twain. He published in 1872 as a prequel to his first book, The Innocents Abroad. Roughing It is the hilarious record of those early years traveling from Nevada to California to Hawaii, as Twain tried his luck at anything and everything--and usually failed. Twain's encounters with tarantulas and donkeys, vigilantes and volcanoes, even Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, come to life with his inimitable mixture of reporting, social satire, and rollicking tall tales

Huckleberry Finn—the casual rebel, the homeless waif, the sometime liar and thief, the boy nobody wanted—finds, for the first time in his life, a sense of responsibility, acceptance, and love when he befriends a runaway slave named Jim. Fleeing down the Mississippi on a raft, Huck courageously violates social convention rather than betray the person who needs him most.

A gifted raconteur, distinctive humorist, and irascible moralist, Mark Twain transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure and one of America's best and most beloved writers.

If your best friend is named Huckleberry Finn, and there's a girl in your life named Becky Thatcher, a villain named Injun Joe, and you and your friends get into all kinds of mischief and adventures, then you must be that ever-lovin' charmer from Missouri, Tom Sawyer!

The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress is a travel book by American author Mark Twain. Published in 1869, it humorously chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City (formerly USS Quaker City) through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867. The five-month voyage included numerous side trips on land.

Tom Sawyer emanates self-confidence wherever he goes. With his buddy Huck Finn, pretty Becky Thatcher, cantankerous Aunt Polly, and a host of others, let's begin a journey to the time of riverboats, fishin' holes, and midnight grave robbers. Each character is brought to life through the sparkling narration of B.J. Harrison.

The Huck Finn of foreign correspondents provides a colorful account of old Honolulu, the island nobility, the City of Refuge on the Kona coast, and the active volcano of Kilauea. These selections of Mark Twain's newspaper dispatches are both charming and informative. The light touch of the great humorist is seldom missing as he reveals the "loveliest fleet of islands that lie anchored in any ocean".

Mark Twain's story, told from the standpoint of a courageous and loving she-dog, was first published in 1903. The story, by turns both funny and heartbreaking, begins with a description of her life as a puppy. As she grows, she is sold, then takes a mate and has a puppy, and her master and mistress have their first child. Her motives are misunderstood when she saves their baby from a fire and she is cruelly beaten....

Twain called this story a "hymn to boyhood". Loved by all ages in countless renditions in all media. A classic piece of American literature.

This classic tale and superb short story by Mark Twain is a funny yet blistering indictment of political hypocrisy. A mysterious stranger is treated badly by the town of Hadleyburg—the town that proclaims itself "the most honest and upright town in the region". Through an ingenious sting operation, the stranger sets out to expose Hadleyburg's leading citizens and reveal their greedy, deceitful natures. Twain's burning wit and insight into political posturing and civic cowardice seem more pertinent than ever.