The Mysterious Stranger - Softcover

Twain, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1605124907 ISBN 13: 9781605124902

Publisher: Akasha Classics, 2009

Synopsis

The Mysterious Stranger is a tale that is itself both mysterious and strange. Written by Mark Twain, better known for such humorous tales as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the story concerns the visit of Satan to a medieval Austrian village. One of several versions which he wrote during his later life, it was only published posthumously by his biographer. It is a deeply serious book which examines the nature of morality and maintains a scathing attack on organized religion as a tool of oppression. If you are interested in seeing another side of one of America's most famous authors, The Mysterious Stranger is a fascinating read.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In his last years Mark Twain had become a respected literary figure whose opinions were widely sought by the press. He had also suffered a series of painful physical, economic, and emotional losses. The Mysterious Stranger, published posthumously in 1916 and belonging to Twain's "dark" period, belies the popular image of the affable American humorist. In this antireligious tale, Twain denies the existence of a benign Providence, a soul, an afterlife, and even reality itself. As the Stranger in the story asserts, "nothing exists; all is a dream".

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 sentimentaland 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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Akasha Classics
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1605124907
• ISBN 13: 9781605124902
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 114