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Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings (Perennial Classics)
 
 
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Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings (Perennial Classics) [Paperback]

Mark Twain (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
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Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings (Perennial Classics) + The Bible according to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden and the Flood + The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain (Modern Library)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0060518650
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060518653
  • Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.6 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 160,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

Mark Twain
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Product Description

Product Description

This is a strange place, and extraordinary place, and interesting. There is nothing resembling it at home. The people are all insane, the other animals are all insane, the earth is insane, Nature itself is insane. Man is a marvelous curiosity. When he is at his very very best he is a sort of low grade nickel-plated angel; at is worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm. Yet he blandly and in all sincerity calls himself the "noblest work of God." This is the truth I am telling you. And this is not a new idea with him, he has talked it through all the ages, and believed it. Believed it, and found nobody among all his race to laugh at it. Moreover -- if I may put another strain upon you -- he thinks he is the Creator's pet. He believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes, and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayers with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on praying just the same. There is something almost fine about this perseverance. I must put one more strain upon you: he thinks he is going to heaven! He has salaried teachers who tell him that. They also tell him there is a hell, of everlasting fire, and that he will go to it if he doesn't keep the Commandments. What are Commandments? They are a curiosity. I will tell you about them by and by. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Mark Twain began his career in letters as a printer's apprentice at the age of 12. He worked as a typesetter and hack writer until a trip down the Mississippi inspired him to become a steamboat pilot. Twain was a popular humorist, a failed silver miner, an inventor, a pacifist anti-imperialist, and a vegetarian. He had a strong interest in the paranormal. Twain's novel Huckleberry Finn has profoundly influenced the development of American storytelling. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
A nearly lost legacy 31 Jan 2006
By Stephen A. Haines HALL OF FAME TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Mark Twain remains the foremost writer in North America's literary scene. Widely imitated but never equaled, his perception and wit gave him mastery over nearly every topic. Although derided for it in his own time, his stature derives from his audience: he wrote for everyone, excluding none. Those who know Twain will find this collection a decorative capstone to works published a century ago. Nearly every work of social commentary [and few of his works miss that definition] touched on the topics presented here. But he harboured deeper feelings on many subjects, particularly the sham of Christianity, noting them down and hiding them away. Two world wars and world depression shattered many illusions and changed attitudes. Finally, this wonderful collection was released to be joyfully received by Twain fans. One can only wonder what he would have thought of the reaction.

The commonalty among the essays is man's place in the universe. The title is invoked in a series of letters from a banished archangel. It's a cold-water bath for the new Twain reader. How many Christians have truly considered what awaits them in their "heaven"? An earlier essay, Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven suggested Twain's thinking on the subject, but the Letters From the Earth is a raw inquiry into what environment "paradise" holds for the unthinking. Other aspects of Biblical teachings are covered in the Papers of the Adams Family. What society developed in those centuries between Genesis and The Deluge? Twain surveys the vagaries of his contemporary scene and projects them backward to that early age. It's an hilarious review of human frailty well suited to modern outlook. It's also a cry from heart at the realization of little humans change over time.

It's noteworthy that Twain would notice Alfred Russell Wallace, who produced a nearly identical theory of evolution to Charles Darwin's. Darwin would have secretly admired the essays comprising The Damned Human Race. After a gentle acknowledgment to Wallace's suggestion that the heavens and earth were purposely designed for man, Twain utterly demolishes the idea. That he used evidence only beginning to be understood is a tribute to his genius. The essay should be read by every churchgoer [and not a few science teachers] living today. The clarity of his logic, presented with the wit only Twain could present, makes this subset one of the highlights of the book.

Twain remained interested in everything he encountered in his lifetime. He maintained a fine balance between castigating unsupported revelations and applauding scientific progress. The Great Dark is a venture into the microscopic world through the mechanism of a dream. The dreamer is drawn into a droplet of water, sailing an endless ocean with his family and the crew of an unsuspecting ship. It's a tale that worthy of comparison with any fantasy of Jules Verne.

Why there are so few reviews of this book here is disturbing. More people need to read this collection and understand its importance and value. Twain was North America's greatest Renaissance Man. He traveled the planet, observed and assessed with insight and precision. Nothing he wrote is obscure and little of his work is outdated. Take yourself beyond the boyhood memories of Tom Sawyer and the horrible film productions of his writings. Meet the man at his honest best in this book. Rejoice in the knowledge he was, and is, among us. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Mark Twain's cynicism toward religion was an eye opening experience to me as a naive 13 year-old. After being raised with a strong Protestant background, to be presented with the notions that 1) God and His angels were uncaring entities who weren't even aware of our existence, and 2) that we humans were laughably stupid to think that we were God's chosen ones in all the Universe were shocking blasphemies! But many of Twain's comments, speaking as Satan, became grist for my teenage brain; the brain that was beginning to look outward toward the world and wonder about my place in it.

I am now 48 years-old. In thinking back to my first reading of LFTE, I have come to realize that this book might well have represented the first step in shaping the beliefs I hold today. I eagerly await my second reading of Twain's "Letters" to see, at mid-life, how they settle in my heart and brain now that I have married and have two children (ages 10 and 14). I believe I'll read them some of the more delicious passages!

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Pleasantly Disturbing 24 Nov 1998
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The first time I read this, I had just finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I was in for a surprise! Had I just read the Innocents Abroad, it may have prepared me better, but I think most people will be reading this book from a Tom Sawyer mindset, and it will shatter your belief about Mark Twain. It's a classic, well worth a read, and a good study of human nature.
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