Mark Twain and Human Nature
Mark Twain and Human Nature

Author: Tom Quirk

Publisher: University of Missouri Press

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 0826266215

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Mark Twain once claimed that he could read human character as well as he could read the Mississippi River, and he studied his fellow humans with the same devoted attention. In both his fiction and his nonfiction, he was disposed to dramatize how the human creature acts in a given environment—and to understand why. Now one of America’s preeminent Twain scholars takes a closer look at this icon’s abiding interest in his fellow creatures. In seeking to account for how Twain might have reasonably believed the things he said he believed, Tom Quirk has interwoven the author’s inner life with his writings to produce a meditation on how Twain’s understanding of human nature evolved and deepened, and to show that this was one of the central preoccupations of his life. Quirk charts the ways in which this humorist and occasional philosopher contemplated the subject of human nature from early adulthood until the end of his life, revealing how his outlook changed over the years. His travels, his readings in history and science, his political and social commitments, and his own pragmatic testing of human nature in his writing contributed to Twain’s mature view of his kind. Quirk establishes the social and scientific contexts that clarify Twain’s thinking, and he considers not only Twain’s stated intentions about his purposes in his published works but also his ad hoc remarks about the human condition. Viewing both major and minor works through the lens of Twain’s shifting attitude, Quirk provides refreshing new perspectives on the master’s oeuvre. He offers a detailed look at the travel writings, including The Innocents Abroad and Following the Equator, and the novels, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Pudd’nhead Wilson, as well as an important review of works from Twain’s last decade, including fantasies centering on man’s insignificance in Creation, works preoccupied with isolation—notably No. 44,The Mysterious Stranger and “Eve’s Diary”—and polemical writings such as What Is Man? Comprising the well-seasoned reflections of a mature scholar, this persuasive and eminently readable study comes to terms with the life-shaping ideas and attitudes of one of America’s best-loved writers. Mark Twain and Human Nature offers readers a better understanding of Twain’s intellect as it enriches our understanding of his craft and his ineluctable humor.

Handbook of the American Short Story
Handbook of the American Short Story

Author: Erik Redling

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-01-19

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 3110585324

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The American short story has always been characterized by exciting aesthetic innovations and an immense range of topics. This handbook offers students and researchers a comprehensive introduction to the multifaceted genre with a special focus on recent developments due to the rise of new media. Part I provides systematic overviews of significant contexts ranging from historical-political backgrounds, short story theories developed by writers, print and digital culture, to current theoretical approaches and canon formation. Part II consists of 35 paired readings of representative short stories by eminent authors, charting major steps in the evolution of the American short story from its beginnings as an art form in the early nineteenth century up to the digital age. The handbook examines historically, methodologically, and theoretically the coming together of the enduring narrative practice of compression and concision in American literature. It offers fresh and original readings relevant to studying the American short story and shows how the genre performs American culture.

90 Masterpieces You Must Read (Vol.1)
90 Masterpieces You Must Read (Vol.1)

Author: Jules Verne

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2023-11-12

Total Pages: 19145

ISBN-13:

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Invest your time in reading the true masterpieces of world literature, the greatest works by the masters of their craft, the revolutionary works, the timeless classics and the eternally moving storylines every person should experience in their lifetime: Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) Middlemarch (George Eliot) The Madman: His Parables and Poems (Kahlil Gibran) Ward No. 6 (Anton Chekhov) Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky) The Overcoat (Gogol) Ulysses (James Joyce) Walden (Henry David Thoreau) Hamlet (Shakespeare) Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) Macbeth (Shakespeare) The Waste Land (T. S. Eliot) Odes (John Keats) The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire) Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott) Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Emma (Jane Austen) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë) Lorna Doone (R.D. Blackmore) The Lady of the Camellias (Alexandre Dumas) Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) Vanity Fair (Thackeray) Dangerous Liaisons (De Laclos) The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot) Dona Perfecta (Benito Pérez Galdós) Swann's Way (Marcel Proust) Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence) David Copperfield (Charles Dickens) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy) The Wings of the Dove (Henry James) The History of a Scoundrel or Bel-Ami (Guy de Maupassant) Two Years in the Forbidden City (Princess Der Ling) Les Misérables (Victor Hugo) The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) Pepita Jimenez (Juan Valera) The Way We Live Now (Anthony Trollope) The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane) A Room with a View (E. M. Forster) Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser) The Blazing World (Margaret Cavendish) The Jungle (Upton Sinclair) The Republic (Plato) The Golden Ass (Apuleius) Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) Art of War (Sun Tzu) Candide (Voltaire) Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes) Decameron (Giovanni Boccaccio) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Frederick Douglass) Dream Psychology (Sigmund Freud) The Einstein Theory of Relativity by H. A. Lorentz The Science of Being Well (Wallace D. Wattles) As a Man Thinketh (James Allen) The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie) A Study in Scarlet (Arthur Conan Doyle) The Sign of Four (Arthur Conan Doyle) Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) The Call of Cthulhu (H. P. Lovecraft) The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) The War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells) The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) The Black Cat (Edgar Allan Poe) The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum) Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson) The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson (Selma Lagerlöf) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) The Call of the Wild (Jack London) White Fang (Jack London) Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Jules Verne) Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling) Tarzan of the Apes (Edgar Rice Burroughs) The Complete Fairytales of Brothers Grimm The Complete Fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw) Botchan (Soseki Natsume) The Sorrows of Young Werther (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Harvard Classics: The Shelf of Fiction - Complete Edition: Vol.1-20
Harvard Classics: The Shelf of Fiction - Complete Edition: Vol.1-20

Author: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2023-11-11

Total Pages: 9384

ISBN-13:

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DigiCat presents the meticulously edited and timeless Harvard collection: Vols. 1 & 2: The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding Vol. 3: A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Vol. 4: Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott Vol. 5 & 6: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Vol. 7 & 8: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Vol. 9: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot Vol. 10: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving Eleonora by Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe The Luck of Roaring Camp by Francis Bret Harte The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Francis Bret Harte The Idyl of Red Gulch by Francis Bret Harte Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog by Mark Twain The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale Vol.11: The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Vol. 12: Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo Vol. 13: Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac The Devil's Pool by George Sand The Story of a White Blackbird by Alfred de Musset The Siege of Berlin by Alphonse Daudet The Last Class by Alphonse Daudet The Child Spy by Alphonse Daudet The Game of Billiards by Alphonse Daudet The Bad Zouave by Alphonse Daudet Walter Schnaffs' Adventure by Guy de Maupassant Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant The Cripple by Guy de Maupassant Vol. 14: Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by J. W. von Goethe Vol.15: The Sorrows of Young Werther by J. W. von Goethe The Banner of the Upright Seven by Gottfried Keller The Rider on the White Horse by Theodor Storm Trials and Tribulations by Theodor Fontane Vols. 16 & 17: Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina Ivan the Fool Vol. 18: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Vol. 19: Ivan Turgenev A House of Gentlefolk Fathers and Children Vol. 20: Pepita Jimenez by Juan Valera A Happy Boy by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Skipper Worse by Alexander L. Kielland

Bloom's how to Write about Edgar Allan Poe
Bloom's how to Write about Edgar Allan Poe

Author: Susan Amper

Publisher: Infobase Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 079109488X

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Bloom's How to Write About Edgar Allan Poe offers valuable paper-topic suggestions, clearly outlined strategies on how to write a strong essay, and an insightful introduction by Harold Bloom designed to help students develop their analytical writing skills and critical comprehension of this important author's turbulent life and unforgettable works.