The success as a writer gave Twain enough financial security to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870. They moved next year to Hartford. Twain continued to lecture in the United States and England. Between 1876 and 1884 he published several masterpieces, Tom Sawyer (1881) and The Prince And The Pauper (1881). Life On The Mississippi appeared in 1883 andHuckleberry Finn in 1884.
2. What is Mark Twain famous for? 3. What role does Tom Sawyer play in America? How do you? 4. What is the reason why Twain lives a bitter life, esp. when he gets old? 5. What can we learn from the text?
The death of his wife and his second daughter darkened the author's later years, which is seen in his post-humously published autobiography (1924). Twain died on April 21, 1910 .
Background information Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835-April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, writer and lecturer. …
Titles in Fiction category: Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Letters From The Earth Mysterious Stranger Prince and the Pauper The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
In 1864 Twain left California, and worked in San Francisco as a reporter. He visited Hawaii as a correspondent for The Sacramento Union, publishing letters on his trip and giving lectures. He set out on a world tour, traveling in France and Italy. His experiences were recorded in 1869 in The Innocents Abroad, which gained him wide popularity, and poked fun at both American and European prejudices and manners.
… as adventurous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. (1) 1) adventurous: Mark Twain was adventurous in every sense of the word. He was always trying new things, and always going to new places. Even in his literary career, he was never satisfied with what he had achieved.
2) patriotic: It refers to Mark Twain' s profound love for his country with its robust people and beautiful scenery and its lofty ideals. It may also refer to his pride in the American traditions and the American language.
In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earnings in financial speculations and in the failure of his own publishing firm. To recover from the bankruptcy, he started a world lecture tour, during which one of his daughters died. Twain toured New Zealand, Australia, India, and South Africa. He wrote such books as The Tragedy Of Pudd'head Wilson (1884), Personal Recollections Of Joan Of Arc (1885), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and the travel book Following The Equator (1897). During his long writing career, Twain also produced a considerable number of essays.
Tramp printer, river pilot, Confederate guerrilla, … acid-t0ngued cynic. (2) the new American experience: Twain lived in the stirring years in American history---the American-Mexican War; the Civil War; the Gold Rush; the Westward expansion; the American, Spanish War; the rapid development of capitalism and later the emergence of imperialism along with the first economic depressions, etc.
Titles in Non-Fiction category: Christian Science Life on the Mississippi Roughing It
Titles in Short Stories category: Burlesque Biography, A Californian's Tale, The Captain's Story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Telephonic Conversation, A Travelling with a Reformer, Was It Heaven? Or Hell?
Questions for discussion
1. What does “mirror” in the title mean? Mirror here means a person who gives a true representation or description of the country. All literary giants in human history are also great historians, thinkers, and philosophers in a sense. Their works often reveal more truth than many political essays put together, and their flames usually live in people's memory long after the names of all the kings and queens that ruled the country are forgotten. Mark Twain was one of these giants, and his life and works are a mirror of the America of his time.
3) romantic: (in art, literature and music) marked by feeling rather than by intellect; preferring grandeur，passion，informal beauty, to order and proportion 4) humorous: His works, are so full of humor that he is considered America's greatest humourist.
Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, of a Virginian family. He was brought up in Hannibal, Missouri. After his father's death in 1847, he was apprenticed to a printer and wrote for his brother's newspaper. He later worked as a licensed Mississippi riverboat pilot. The Civil War put an end to the steamboat traffic and Clemens moved to Virginia City, where he edited the Territorial Enterprise. On February 3, 1863, 'Mark Twain' was born when Clemens signed a humorous travel account with that pseudonym.