Mark Twain : Historical Romances : Prince & the Pauper / Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court / Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Library of America) - Hardcover

9780940450820: Mark Twain : Historical Romances : Prince & the Pauper / Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court / Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Library of America)
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
In the three novels collected in this Library of America volume, Mark Twain turned his comic genius to a period that fascinated and repelled him in equal measure: medieval and Renaissance Europe. This lost world of stately pomp and unspeakable cruelty, artistic splendor and abysmal ignorance—the seeming opposite of brashly optimistic, commercial, democratic nineteenth-century America—engaged Twain’s imagination, inspiring a children’s classic, and astonishing fantasy of comedy and violence, and an unusual fictional biography.
 
Twain drew on his fascination with impersonation and the theme of the double in The Prince and the Pauper (1882), which brilliantly uses the device of identical boys from opposite ends of the social hierarchy to evoke the tumultuous contrasts of Henry VIII’s England. As the pauper Tom Canty is raised to the throne, while the rightful heir is cast out among thieves and beggars, Twain sustains one of his most compelling narratives. A perennial children’s favorite, the novel brings an impassioned American point of view to the injustices of traditional European society.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 
(1889) finds Twain in high satiric form. When hard-headed Yankee mechanic Hank Morgan is knocked out in a fight, he wakes up in Camelot in A.D. 528—and finds himself pitted against the medieval rituals and superstitions of King Arthur and his knights. In a hilarious burlesque of the age of chivalry and of its cult in the nineteenth-century American South, Twain demolishes knighthood’s romantic aura to reveal a brutish, violent society beset by ignorance. But the comic mood gives way to a darker questioning of both ancient and modern society, culminating in an astonishing apocalyptic conclusion that questions both American progress and Yankee “ingenuity” as Camelot is undone by the introduction of advanced technology.

“Taking into account . . . her origin, youth, sex, illiteracy, early environment, and the obstructing conditions under which she exploited her high gifts and made her conquest in the field and before the courts that tried her for her life—she is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever known.” So Twain wrote of the heroine of Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), his most elaborate work of historical reconstruction. A respectful and richly detailed chronicle, by turns admiring and indignant, Joan of Arc opens a fascinating window onto the moral imagination of America’s greatest comic writer.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and died at Redding, Connecticut in 1910. In his person and in his pursuits he was a man of extraordinary contrasts. Although he left school at twelve when his father died, he was eventually awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Missouri, and Oxford University. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher. He made fortunes from his writing but toward the end of his life he had to resort to lecture tours to pay his debts. He was hot-tempered, profane, and sentimental and also pessimistic, cynical, and tortured by self-doubt. His nostalgia helped produce some of his best books. He lives in American letters as a great artist, the writer whom William Dean Howells called “the Lincoln of our literature.”
Susan K. Harris is Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature at the University of Kansas.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Twain, Mark
Published by The Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
A Book By Its Cover
(Louisville, KY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. New in Near Fine slipcase. Trivial scratching to slipcase. Seller Inventory # 044753

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 9.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.75
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Mark Twain
Published by Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0940450828

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 19.78
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Mark Twain
Published by Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 10
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780940450820

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 28.26
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Twain, Mark (Author); Harris, Susan K. (Editor)
Published by Penguin Random House (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0940450828

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 26.77
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Twain, Mark; Harris, Susan R.
Published by Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 504347-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 29.62
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Mark Twain
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. In the three novels collected in this Library of America volume, Mark Twain turned his comic genius to a period that fascinated and repelled him in equal measure- medieval and Renaissance Europe. This lost world of stately pomp and unspeakable cruelty, artistic splendor and abysmal ignorance-the seeming opposite of brashly optimistic, commercial, democratic nineteenth-century America-engaged Twain's imagination, inspiring a children's classic, and astonishing fantasy of comedy and violence, and an unusual fictional biography.Twain drew on his fascination with impersonation and the theme of the double inThe Prince and the Pauper(1882), which brilliantly uses the device of identical boys from opposite ends of the social hierarchy to evoke the tumultuous contrasts of Henry VIII's England. As the pauper Tom Canty is raised to the throne, while the rightful heir is cast out among thieves and beggars, Twain sustains one of his most compelling narratives. A perennial children's favorite, the novel brings an impassioned American point of view to the injustices of traditional European society.A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court(1889) finds Twain in high satiric form. When hard-headed Yankee mechanic Hank Morgan is knocked out in a fight, he wakes up in Camelot in A.D. 528-and finds himself pitted against the medieval rituals and superstitions of King Arthur and his knights. In a hilarious burlesque of the age of chivalry and of its cult in the nineteenth-century American South, Twain demolishes knighthood's romantic aura to reveal a brutish, violent society beset by ignorance. But the comic mood gives way to a darker questioning of both ancient and modern society, culminating in an astonishing apocalyptic conclusion that questions both American progress and Yankee "ingenuity" as Camelot is undone by the introduction of advanced technology."Taking into account . . . her origin, youth, sex, illiteracy, early environment, and the obstructing conditions under which she exploited her high gifts and made her conquest in the field and before the courts that tried her for her life-she is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever known." So Twain wrote of the heroine ofPersonal Recollections of Joan of Arc(1896), his most elaborate work of historical reconstruction. A respectful and richly detailed chronicle, by turns admiring and indignant,Joan of Arcopens a fascinating window onto the moral imagination of America's greatest comic writer.LIBRARY OF AMERICAis an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries. The library of America is dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as the "finest-looking, longest-lasting editions ever made" (The New Republic), Library of America volumes make a fine gift for any occasion. Now, with exactly one hundred volumes to choose from, there is a perfect gift for everyone. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780940450820

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 36.49
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Mark Twain
Published by Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Books Unplugged
(Amherst, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0940450828xvz189zvxnew

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 40.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Mark Twain
Published by Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0940450828-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 40.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Samuel Clemens Mark Twain
Published by The Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 3
Seller:
Books Puddle
(New York, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. pp. 1050. Seller Inventory # 261034669

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 36.39
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Mark Twain
Published by Library of America (1994)
ISBN 10: 0940450828 ISBN 13: 9780940450820
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
LibraryMercantile
(Humble, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # newMercantile_0940450828

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 51.14
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book