Showing results by author "Mark Twain" in All Categories

This tale of murder and mistaken identity in a small Southern town is Twain's allegory for the absurdity of basing a person's worth on the color of their skin. Please be advised that this audiobook includes racial epithets of the period that may be offensive to some of today's listeners.

"Cannibalism In The Cars" is a short story by Mark Twain that satirizes the political system of the US. The story is about a group of men trapped in a train during a snow storm. After a week, the men know they must resort to cannibalism for survival. They hold ineffective elections, and are so formal that they even follow parliamentary procedure.

As a cub river pilot, one of Mark Twain’s masters was a pilot named George Ealer, who recited Shakespeare by the hour - from memory - and who was a virulent opponent of the notion that the Shakespeare plays and poems were in truth written by Sir Francis Bacon. At first, young Sam Clemens agreed with his teacher and boss, but he soon realized that it was no fun for the pilot to argue with someone who agreed with him all of the time.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about 20 years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.

Leonidas W. Smiley would bet on anything. Horse races, dog fights, cat fights, chicken fights - all were fair game to the gambling nature of Smiley. But he meets his match when a stranger comes into town, and puts his champion jumping frog to the test.

Widely regarded as one of the Great American Novels, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn follows the title character and his unlikely companion, a runaway slave named Jim, as they attempt to escape the confines of “sivilized” life. Written in the first person vernacular and brimming with satire, insight, and good old fashioned adventure, Twain’s tale is ideal for listening.

Let yourself be swept away by these classic tales of hope and courage!!

- Classic tales (short stories and poems) of hope and courage from the 19th and 20th centuries

Annotated for modern listeners

The third entry in the Classic Tales series, joining "Classic Tales of Horror" and "Classic Tales of Christmas"

For adventure fans of all ages, these stories are guaranteed to intrigue, delight, and sometimes take you by surprise!

On Christmas Eve 1909, Mark Twain's youngest daughter, Jean, died. She was just 29 years old. Over the next two days, in his grief, he wrote of his deep love for her; her last days with him; the previous loss of his wife, another daughter, and long-ime friends; and his profound loneliness as he reached what would be his own final days. He wanted this to be the final chapter of his autobiography. Four months later he, too, was dead.

Commonly named among the Great American Novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, the narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective) and a friend of Tom Sawyer. It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Five great American short story writers, dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, are represented here. Different in atmosphere and writing style, they nevertheless caught the mood and concerns of the day in a way that was distinctly American.

Even if the act of travel has been transformed beyond recognition in a mere decade or two, how much has actually changed in our favorite destinations in the past two hundred years? Listeners are invited to compare their impressions with those of veteran travelers and literary legends: Charles Dickens on Rome; Mark Twain on Paris and Versailles; and Washington Irving on Stratford On Avon. Added to this mix is elegiac verse by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840 in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel, Tom Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn. Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best selling of any of Twain's works during his lifetime. Although overshadowed by its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the book is considered a masterpiece of American literature.

This is the story of a boy's adventures growing up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi river over 100 years ago. The cheerful, adventurous hero plays truant to form a pirate band and, together with his best friend, Huckleberry Finn, finds fun, excitement, and buried treasure along the shores of the great river.

Double Barrelled Detective Story is an intriguing tale penned by Mark Twain, where the iconic Sherlock Holmes finds himself embroiled in a mystery in the American West. The story unfolds in a mining camp in California, where Fetlock Jones, Sherlocks nephew, is accused of murdering his silver-mining master by blowing up his cabin. With Holmes on the scene, he applies his renowned deductive reasoning to the case but ends up with conclusions that are shockingly off the mark. An amateur detective with an uncannily sharp sense of smell unexpectedly solves the case, reinforcing Twains frequent theme...

This collection is bursting with Twain’s legendary wit. The speeches focus on a great number of issues ranging from cigars and tobacco to ladies, politics, courage, health and Russian stutterers... the topics are endlessly diverse, profound and entertaining! Twain was in great demand as a featured speaker, performing solo humorous talks, similar to what would later become stand-up comedy. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers.

Sketches New and Old is a compilation of fictional stories written by Mark Twain. Among them is "A Ghost Story". In each story, one can catch a great sense of Twain's humor and creativity. These classic sketches from Twain are no longer than 10 minutes each, but all show his quick-witted humor in response to the events of the day.

Mark Twain's hilarious account of life with a malfunctioning burglar alarm.

Fourteen mysteries to test your inner sleuth! This collection includes "The Stolen White Elephant" by Mark Twain, narrated by Mauro Hantman; "The Fenchurch Street Mystery" by Baroness Orczy, narrated by Davina Porter; "Problem of the Superfluous Finger" by Jacques Futrelle, narrated by Stephen R. Thorne; "The Blue Sequin" by R. Austin Freeman, narrated by Simon Vance; "An Intangible Clue" by Anna Katharine Green, narrated by Angela Brazil; and "The Oblong Box" by Edgar Allan Poe, narrated by Mauro Hantman, among others.

On the Decay of the Art of Lying is a classic essay penned by Mark Twain in 1880. This narration is performed by Larry G. Jones.

The mighty Mississippi River is the backdrop for this charming and adventurous tale. Samuel Clemens, who is better known as Mark Twain, began his Mississippi adventure as a riverboat captain and decided to pen a journal, recording the Mark Twain classic, Life on the Mississippi. Twain writes of the history of the river and relates his own adventures and misadventures as he seeks his fortune.