検索キーワード： 著者 "Mark Twain" すべてのカテゴリー

This is Mark Twain's passionate eulogy for his eldest daughter, who died from spinal meningitis aged 24. It provides an intimate portrait of his daughter and attempts to present what he experienced as her unique character.

Mark Twain attended the performance of operas like Parsifal at Bayreuth. He enjoyed the instrumental parts but didn’t like the singing, as he recounts in a humorous way. He called it "the wailing, screeching of third-rate obscurities, palmed off on us in the interest of economy".

Die Abenteuer des cleveren Lausbuben Tom Sawyer gehören zu den Klassikern der amerikanischen Literaturgeschichte und sind bei Kindern und Erwachsenen gleichermaßen beliebt. Der 1876 erschienene Roman wurde in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzt und vielfach verfilmt. Mark Twain schildert die aufregenden Erlebnisse von Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Becky und Indianer Joe atemberaubend spannend, realistisch und mitunter auch ironisch, immer jedoch mit einem humorvollen Augenzwinkern.

Twain describes how he and his friend, Joe Twichell, tried to learn how to ride a bicycle in May of 1884. The bicycle was a new invention, and it proved to be more difficult than riding a horse. According to Twain, it was a painful and short-lived experience.

This 1899 essay describes Mark Twain's method of teaching historical dates to his children. It was first published posthumously in Harper's Monthly Magazine in December 1914.

In this brief, semi-autobiographical work, Mark Twain explores the controversy over the authorship of the Shakespearean literary canon. Applying satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation, he uses the debate over Shakespeare's real identity to satirize prejudice, intolerance, and self-importance.

Here are three of the most celebrated works of Mark Twain collected in a single volume. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court bring you an interesting array of exciting characters and entertaining adventures that have been precious to readers for years.

The tale is told from the standpoint of a household pet. When a fire breaks out in the nursery, the dog risks her life to drag the baby to safety. In the process, her motives are misunderstood and she is cruelly beaten by the father of the family before the truth of the situation is discovered and she receives no end of praise. Later her puppy is killed by the father of the family to prove his opinion on optics to his scientist peers.

One of Mark Twain’s most famous books for young people. As children, his daughters loved to act out the story in their library. It’s a carefully researched and written story, which incorporates all of Mark Twain’s signature humor, evil villains, and compelling plotlines. Yes, it was written with young people in mind, but it is surely enjoyable to listeners of all ages.

A couple was promised a $30,000 inheritance from a rich relative on condition that it remains a secret. Through the years, they invest money, accumulating sizable assets, until they lose it all in a stock market crash. One day, they find out that the relative had died penniless, which means they yearned for an illusion their whole life long.

Thirty years after his death, Capt. Stormfield is still speeding across the universe, on his way to the next life, though he doesn't know yet where or when his journey will end. It's not a spoiler to tell you that he does get into heaven (it's in the title after all), but you may be surprised at some of the customs, characters, and spectacles he finds there.

One of Mark Twain’s classic tales, a small band of boys in a medieval village make friends with a very real angel whose name is Satan. He assures the boys that he’s not The Satan, but his nephew. He looks like a boy of their own age, but his magical powers and unusual perspectives on morals and mankind leave the boys amazed and bewildered. Mark Twain never finished this story to his own satisfaction. In 1916, his biographer and friend Albert Bigelow Paine, with fellow author Frederick Duneka, added an evil astrologer and devised an ending, and published the version presented here.

Adam cannot understand Eve - her penchant for naming everything in the garden irks him, as does her boundless curiosity, but he learns, in time, that he cannot live happily without her. And Eve finds that she loves Adam above all things.

Twain reflects on the defining moment of his childhood. The incident occurred when a measles epidemic was raging in his hometown; fear was everywhere, and Twain was confined to the house for months. The turning point was when he left the house as he concluded that taking brave action was better than being smothered by fear.

"The Californian's Tale" is the story of a man, Henry, waiting for his wife to come home. The narrator, a stranger to the town, knows nothing of the circumstances. He discovers the tragic truth at a party thrown by Henry’s friends at his house.

Mark Twain relates how he broke the news when he was still unknown. He was in Honolulu when the survivors from the harrowing open sea voyage of the clipper-ship Hornet arrive. He stayed up late to get the accounts of the sailors’ trials, writes through the night and relays a detailed account when the other reporters only had an outline report.

Mark Twain, incensed by increasing religious and political imperialism around the globe, characterizes a large nation's invasion and occupation of a smaller country as the "strange and over-showy onslaught of an elephant upon a nest of field mice, on the pretext that the mice had squeaked an insolence at him conduct which 'no self-respecting government could allow to pass unavenged' as Mr. Chamberlain said. Was that a good pretext in a small case when it had not been a good pretext in a large one?- for only recently Russia had affronted the elephant three times and survived...."

"The Invalid’s Story", an example of Mark Twain’s frontier-style humor, describes the misadventures of two men - Thompson and the narrator - on a train who mistake a gunbox and a rotting cheese for a corpse in a coffin. Thompson does not know much but his wild imagination has a strong influence on the naïve narrator. In the end, this situation leads to disaster.

This is a story within a story by Mark Twain. The one within is the tale of the gambler Jim Smiley and his jumping frog Dan’l. After many winning bets on Dan’l’s jumping ability, a cunning stranger comes along and that day Jim loses.

Mark Twain wrote this witty satire in response to a request by editors of the New York World to contribute a humorous essay describing his first lie. He used the opportunity for discussion on the nature of lying, including "the lie of silent assertion". He pointed out the difference between a spoken lie and any other, as well as the fact that we readily condemn a lie by an individual but rarely challenge the false assumptions on which entire nations and institutions base their existence.