Author: James Edward CaronPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : American wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 696
Book Description
Mark Twain and the Tall Tale Imagination in Nineteenth-century America
Author: James Edward CaronPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : American wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 696
Book Description
Mark Twain and the Art of the Tall Tale
Author: Henry B. WonhamPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195360192
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 218
Book Description
Mark Twain and the Art of the Tall Tale is a study of a peculiar American comic strategy and its role in Mark Twain's fiction. Focusing on the writer's experiments with narrative structure, Wonham describes how Twain manipulated conventional approaches to reading and writing by engaging his audience in a series of rhetorical games--the rules of which he adapted from the conventions of tall tale in American oral and written traditions. Wonham goes on to show how Twain's appropriation of the genre developed through the course of his career, from The Innocents Abroad to Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. This eminently readable study will interest Twain enthusiasts and students of nineteenth-century American literature, as well as anyone interested in American humor and oral narrative traditions.
Mark Twain and the American West
Author: Joseph L. CoulombePublisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 082621956X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 198
Book Description
In Mark Twain and the American West, Joseph Coulombe explores how Mark Twain deliberately manipulated contemporary conceptions of the American West to create and then modify a public image that eventually won worldwide fame. He establishes the central role of the western region in the development of a persona that not only helped redefine American manhood and literary celebrity in the late nineteenth century, but also produced some of the most complex and challenging writings in the American canon. Coulombe sheds new light on previously underappreciated components of Twain's distinctly western persona. Gathering evidence from contemporary newspapers, letters, literature, and advice manuals, Coulombe shows how Twain's persona in the early 1860s as a hard-drinking, low-living straight-talker was an implicit response to western conventions of manhood. He then traces the author's movement toward a more sophisticated public image, arguing that Twain characterized language and authorship in the same manner that he described western men: direct, bold, physical, even violent. In this way, Twain capitalized upon common images of the West to create himself as a new sort of western outlaw--one who wrote. Coulombe outlines Twain's struggle to find the proper balance between changing cultural attitudes toward male respectability and rebellion and his own shifting perceptions of the East and the West. Focusing on the tension between these goals, Coulombe explores Twain's emergence as the moneyed and masculine man-of-letters, his treatment of American Indians in its relation to his depiction of Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the enigmatic connection of Huck Finn to the natural world, and Twain's profound influence on Willa Cather's western novels. Mark Twain and the American West is sure to generate new interest and discussion about Mark Twain and his influence. By understanding how conventions of the region, conceptions of money and class, and constructions of manhood intersect with the creation of Twain's persona, Coulombe helps us better appreciate the writer's lasting effect on American thought and literature through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.
Mark Twain: Historical Romances (LOA #71)
Author: Mark TwainPublisher: Library of America
ISBN: 9780940450820
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1068
Book Description
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.
A Horse's Tale
Author: Mark TwainPublisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 42
Book Description
"A Horse's Tale" is a unique and humorous work by Mark Twain, narrated from the perspective of Buffalo Bill's horse. The story is set in the American West during the late 19th century and provides a satirical look at the events and characters of that time. The novel's central character is Soldier Boy, Buffalo Bill's prized horse, who offers a witty and often sardonic commentary on the adventures and misadventures he experiences while serving as the steed of the famous frontiersman. Through Soldier Boy's eyes, readers are exposed to the quirks and foibles of the human characters he encounters, including Buffalo Bill himself, as well as Native American tribes, military figures, and various other individuals. As Soldier Boy recounts his various escapades, the novel touches on themes such as the clash of cultures in the American West, the treatment of Native Americans, and the absurdities of human behavior. Twain's signature humor and wit are on full display as he uses the horse's perspective to lampoon societal norms and human folly. "A Horse's Tale" is not as well-known as some of Twain's other works, but it offers an entertaining and unconventional narrative that provides insight into the author's satirical style and his fascination with the American frontier. It's a delightful read for those interested in Twain's unique storytelling and his ability to view the world through an unexpected lens.
American Studies International
Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational exchange
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
Mark Twain and Nineteenth Century American Literature
Author: Publisher:
ISBN: 9788185848129
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 134
Book Description
Papers presented at the Seminar on "Mark Twain and Nineteenth Century American Fiction", in November 1991, organized by American Studies Research Centre.
Mark Twain and the Novel
Author: Lawrence HowePublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521561686
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
This book provides a fresh look at Twain's major novels such as Life on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
Roughing It
Author: Mark TwainPublisher: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks
ISBN: 3985942625
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 511
Book Description
Roughing It - Mark Twain - Roughing It follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the Wild West during the years 18611867. After a brief stint as a Confederate cavalry militiaman, he joined his brother Orion Clemens, who had been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory, on a stagecoach journey west. Twain consulted his brother's diary to refresh his memory and borrowed heavily from his active imagination for many stories in the novel.
Youth Literature
Author: W. Bernard LukenbillPublisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780824084981
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 488
Book Description
General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1911 Original Publisher: Eaton