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Editorial Review Product Description
Here for the first time in one volume are the most famous and characteristic of Mark Twain's works. Through each of them runs the powerful and majestic Mississippi. The river represented for Twain the complex and contradictory possibilities in his own and the nation's life: the place where civilization's comforts meet the violence and promise of freedom of the frontier. It was the place, too, where Twain's youthful innocence confronted the grim reality of slavery. The nostalgic re-creation of childhood in "Tom Sawyer"--"simply a hymn put into prose form to give it a worldly air," said Twain--and the richly anecdotal memoir of his days as a riverboat pilot in "Life on the Mississippi" give way to the realism and often dark comedy of "Huckleberry Finn" and the troubled exploration of slavery in his mystery, "Pudd'nhead Wilson." Together, these four books trace the central trajectory of his life and career, and they can be read as a single masterpiece. ... Read more Customer Reviews (13) 
Mark Twain at his Finest
In this volume of a multi-volume issue, Mark Twain's finest works are included. And, the Mississippi is the background. For it was the river that presented Twain with the opporunity to write some of his most compelling works.
Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson are included along with Life on the Mississippi. High school English teachers would do well with introducing their learners with Twain's masterpieces. This volume does it!!
Great Collection
This great collection has four of Mark Twain's most famous books, containing some of his most essential work:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. All deal with the Mississippi area that is so essential to his life and work -- and to American literature and culture generally. Putting them together is thus ideal, and anyone who is still without them would do well to get them here. It is a fine edition with extensive notes and documentation; the quality of the book itself is also very high, and we even get a built-in bookmark. Anyone wanting specifics may read on, but the gist is that everyone should have these works in some form.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a treasure of American literature and has added immeasurably popular fiction. If any book needs no introduction, it is this. Its influence is simply ubiquitous;: countless images are commonplace not only in literature but also in television - nay, everywhere. The tale is timeless and universal. Though it may have been written mainly for children, it can - and should - definitely be enjoyed by all. The imagination, narrative drive, and sheer adventure will fascinate children of all ages and may very well spark an early love of reading. However, the book also exists on a whole other level. The character of Tom symbolizes the child in us all - what we once were, or what we'd like to be (again, perhaps) and the innocence that we have so irretrievably lost. As always with Twain, it also contains masterful wit. Keen observations on society and human nature abound, as do subtle comments on religion and superstition; this is quite a good satire of religion in its own way - very different from what Twain later did it in works like Letters from the Earth. The book contains many bits of wit and interlaced commentary that will likely be lost on younger readers but that older and/or more perceptive readers will enjoy immensely. It is truly an American classic and an essential read.
Mark Twain is synonymous worldwide with the Mississippi River, mainly because of the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn stories. However, Life on the Mississippi is just as important and, in a testament to Twain's greatness, nearly as readable despite being non-fiction. It details his history with the river and gives an overview of the river itself; this may sound boring, and almost certainly would be with anyone else, but I long ago decided that even Twain's laundry list would be worth reading, and this certainly is. The magic he seemed to bring to everything is in full force; one would be very hard-pressed to find another non-fiction book that is so entertaining, besides Twain's others of course, but it is also awesomely informative. In addition, Life is historically notable as the first book written on a typewriter, not Huck as is commonly thought; however, it made Twain able to finish Huck, which he had struggled with for some years and set aside. Huck fans and scholars will want to read Life for this alone, but it is more than worthy in itself.
Twain starts by giving some basic facts and history; this is the least interesting part but only lasts a few pages, and I urge anyone bored by it to continue. Much of the information is of course dated but remains historically valuable as a portrait of the river as it then stood. Far more interesting is Twain's unforgettable rundown of his years as a riverboat pilot - a central life experience that led to much of his writing. We get a fascinating glimpse of this long-vanquished trade, which was all but unthinkable even when Life was published. It is important to recall that Twain was a pilot before such boats had steam or even lights at night. He details piloting's extraordinary difficulties with engrossing detail and typical self-deprecating humor. We learn much along the way about the riverboat lifestyle, the river itself, and riverside towns. Anyone curious about what it was like to live in this era and/or how its inhabitants thought and acted will find a wealth of information; we learn as much here as in any history book, and it is of course infinitely better written. Life covers a crucial American history era and is an important primary source even for those not interested in Twain and certainly essential for anyone who is, as it gives substantial background about a crucial part of his life. The book is indeed in part a bildungsroman; Twain had always loved the river and began pilot training soon after first leaving home. He structures the narrative so that it reads much like a story, and we see him grow from naïveté and ignorance to an admirable experience and wisdom.
Twain then details a trip he made on the river many years later, noting what changed and what stayed the same. There is significant autobiographical material here also, but the crux is descriptive. Twain describes the river's whole length and everything having to do with it as he goes, making it all utterly absorbing. As always, there are many eminently readable tangents. Several are autobiographical - reminisces as well as then recent events. Particularly interesting is Twain's profoundly touching visit to his hometown after a long absence. However, a good part of Life has nothing to do with the river directly but is at least as engrossing as what does. Twain's many asides are full of wit and insight; few have ever probed so deeply into life and humanity, and we are lucky to have his wisdom, much of which is hilarious. Especially engaging are observations on North/South differences, notably including the Civil War. Twain's sociopolitical criticism is also as brilliant as ever, taking on everything from architecture to Walter Raleigh to speech. Finally, Life would be valuable even if lacking all this because it passes on an invaluable treasure of American folklore.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is simply an indispensable part of the American canon. Among many other things, it is a rich, stunningly accurate portrayal of the antebellum South. It is also an enduring portrait of childhood. Quite simply, it is a masterpiece. Huck is a character to whom all can relate, no matter who we are or how ostensibly far removed. The novel's American dialect use was also extremely influential. A quote you often see is the one Ernest Hemingway himself made about this being the American novel's very archetype. And it is true. Tom Sawyer was the first step, but this is the culmination. It is here that American literature found its voice and stepped out from its neglected step-child relationship with English literature, and its immense influence on later American work cannot be overestimated. Finally, its portrayal of slavery was a very immediate thing as well. Its influence on such writers as William Faulkner and John Steinbeck - as well as, in some form, literally all great literature to come from America - is profound. For this reason, and for its sheer adventure and narrative drive, it is an essential read for all.
Though not Mark Twain's best novel, Pudd'nhead Wilson is a major work essential for fans and critics. Published in 1894, it is Twain's last significant novel and in some ways the culmination of prior ones but also looked to the future - not so much his own work as the complex twentieth century novels that it in many ways prefigures.
The basic plot is so improbable as to be near-absurd, a fact exacerbated by simple, melodramatic presentation. This is doubtless partly because Twain wrote at near-superhuman speed when desperately in need of money, doing little revision and not being overly concerned with the book as art. This means Pudd'nhead is not his best literary work but lends the not inconsiderable virtue of extremely fast reading. One can easily plow through in an hour or two - even in one setting - and will likely want to because the story is supremely engrossing, pulling us in immediately and never letting go. In this it is very different from most late Victorian novels. Of course, as always with Twain, the structure is also partly satirical - a parody of the sensational mysteries then wildly popular and which Twain elsewhere mocked. Later works - e.g, Tom Sawyer, Detective - were also structural parodies, but this is significantly more successful. Twain pokes insightful but essentially gentle fun at stories that were ridiculously bombastic. Needless to say, this does not prevent enjoying Pudd'nhead on a very simple level as a murder mystery full of suspense, plot twists, and highly wrought revelations. It is quite likable even on this level and has been enjoyed for over a century on account of this alone.
However, Twain also deals with very serious themes. Like many of Twain's best-known works, this is set in antebellum small town Missouri and gives a fascinating peek into the culture, speech, and landscape of that time and place. This would make the valuable even if it had nothing else, but it also has many other virtues. Twain's wit always had an acerbic streak, but he became increasingly pessimistic and cynical and came to believe in something very near determinism. Pudd'nhead was his first real novelistic expression of this last, vividly dramatizing - in a way recalling but complexly different from The Prince and the Pauper - how environment determines character. The novel leaves very little room for free will - a thought highly disturbing to many; thus, though almost never considered such, Twain was an important member of the naturalist school flourishing near century's end. Even more disturbing is the book's unflinching human evil depiction; Tom is one of the most loathsomely vile characters ever, fully self-absorbed and seemingly conscienceless. Later Twain works focused even more obsessively on humanity's rather large dark side, but this is more than stunning. Unlike those works, mostly unpublished in Twain's life, this is still livened with the light elements mentioned before plus a profusion of the country humor for which Twain had long been famous. Tenuously straddling the line, ostensibly the latter but leaning toward darkness and seemingly struggling to avoid falling in altogether, are the aphorisms beginning each chapter. They usually relate in some way to what follows but are sometimes little more than an excuse for Twain to throw in ever-darkening wit. The sayings, several of which have become among his most famous, have penetrating insight into life and human nature and are so great that the book is well worth buying for them alone.
We think of Twain as epitomizing his era, as he certainly does, but he was also always well ahead of his time in many ways. Quite remarkably considering the brevity and simple structure, Pudd'nhead has many such examples. First, as often with Twain, its race presentation was very advanced. As Langston Hughes observes, the presentation of blacks as human beings by a white Southern writer who grew up with slavery is truly remarkable. Twain was one of his era's great liberals, condemning racism and promoting the essential humanity of all people; that he has become the unfortunate victim of absurdly perverse, politically correct, knee-jerk overreaction is so viciously ironic that it would be hilarious if it were not so sad. The novel was practically revolutionary in showing that people are not good or bad, smart or dumb because of race. The sympathetic picked up the general drift, but the truly nuanced portrayal was virtually unnoticed and did not really reappear in fiction - or indeed science - for several decades. Pudd'nhead deals with complex psychological, sociological, criminological, and Freudian factors when such things were hardly even known concepts. It is also highly noteworthy as a very early depiction of fingerprinting's criminal application - surely the first fictional instance and one of the first period. Hughes points out that that the concept had been proposed only sixteen years before, and initial application began merely two years earlier. It has of course been so ubiquitously used in fiction since that the grand finale is not only obvious almost from the start but seems patently contrived. However, Twain's audience could have had no idea what was coming, and the climax must have been absolutely spellbinding.
A Kid Remembers
My husband who is physically inactive remembered reading this book as a young child and needed something to interest him in his "latter years", mentioned liking this author from his youth so I found it on Amazon and it is so much more than I expected. Has several of Mark Twain's stories and has grabbed his interest greatly. He is reading and savoring it like a real treasure. Great find. Thanks to Amazon..
Uncle Tom to Master Tom
My review will focus on "Puddin Head Wilson". It is a story without "time limits", even though the "time has gone" because it encompasses the human condition known as "blood being thicker than water". Or should be. But that also depends largely upon a lot of other things, it would appear, from Twain's Tale of social injustice begetting social revenge that backfires in yet again another twist of fate manipulated.Most of us wish to give our children what we did not have ourselves, but our goals usually revolve around how to send them to the best college, or just find a way to send them to "a" college. This tale opens to us a whole new meaning of the idea, as well as denoting the dogged determination of a man with a mission - whom everyone referred to as Puddin' head because not only did he not fit a "norm", he (and his intellect)was far ahead of his time.History is full of them.
This is the story of Roxy, a slave in the days of the Old South, withjust enough colored blood to qualify her as a slave, but not enough to be visible for others "to know it unless they knew it". In other words, Roxy could pass for white.She also had an infant son of her own, who was born within the same time frame as that of her white nursery charge; and since she was the one who raised the plantation owner's children anyway, there was little chance of their noticing that she had decided to switch the children in their infancy so that her own son would assume the advantages of the blood child of the plantation owner as well as his name, Tom Driscoll. She then hoped to one day in the future to tell her natural son the truth, and thereby make good her own escape from slavery somehow by proxy. She trusted fate and threw it to the wind. It was a fine plan, but Roxy could not know at the moment how far awry it would go for her.
The years go by; the owners child is reared as the slave while Roxy's own is reared as royalty; things begin to take a turn for the worse; Roxy has to watch while her own flesh and blood goes against her in the most agonizing ways. Instead of becoming a well-educated young man of good character, it is soon apparent that nothing good is going to come of his good fortune at the hands of his desperate mother. He evolves into a drunk and a gambler; debauched beyond control, he sells Roxy "down the river" for money to pay his gambling debts.
She takes refuge in an abandoned building, and what ensues when Tom comes to meet her is the stuff of legends.The tirade of Roxy towards her untrustworthy, disloyal, "misplaced by her own hand" son after she discovers his treachery - was truly a piece of literature.Her amazingly articulate oratory gave us an inside glipse of what it truly meant to be a slave; but more than that, it was a magnificently designed, tragic outpouring of unbelieving grief; her betrayal at the hands of her child; her subsequent wrath at discovery of same; her admonitions while accepting the reality of her fate; inexoriably mixed with a mother's deep-rooted love for a treasonous child - is one of the reasons Mark Twain was and is unarguably one of the best of his kind through any century.
Puddin' Head figures in this story as the free-thinking individual who was dabbling in - of all things - a crazy theory he had called "fingerprints".He was able to solve "the" murder with them, but that is all that should be disclosed in a review.
For those who haven't read this one, I highly recommend it, and the LOA is one of the best places to seek out fine old literature revisited.A lot like a Deep South version of The Prince and The Pauper, the story nonetheless is far more gripping, in my view because it is readily conceivable that it could actually have happened. Further, it is complimented with "Puddinhead Wilson's Calendar" inserts, which are tiny stories in their own right, encapsuled in a few words, but mighty in their context.
A beautiful edition of an American Classic
The eleven- hundred pages of this volume contain a tremendous amount of literary enjoyment. They contain the truly greatest Twain, Huckleberry Finn and its companion, Tom Sawyer. There is also the picture of that other world, the life on the river the autobiographical 'Life on the Mississippi'. I have never been a great fan of Puddinhead Wilson but others think otherwise. Twain is as everyone knows America's greatest writer of humor, but also its great explorer of hidden mysteries of character, and intricacies of the American landscape and language. A great character himself he was great too in the creation of unforgettable literary characters.
For the person who has space in their home and loves the solid feel of the real book, this volume is a treasure.
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Errors in this edition were very distracting
Rating the kindle version, not the book itself
Print TOO big...