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Title details for The Life and Work of Mark Twain by Stephen Railton - Available

The Life and Work of Mark Twain

by Stephen Railton
Audiobook
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Samuel Clemens, the man known to history as Mark Twain, was more than one of America's greatest writers. He was our first true celebrity, one of the most photographed faces of the 19th and 20th centuries. This series of 24 lectures by an acclaimed teacher and scholar explores Twain's dual identities - as one of our classical authors and as an almost mythical presence in our nation's cultural life. The lectures are a gateway to both appreciating Twain's literary achievements and to understanding his life, highlighting seven of his major works - Innocents Abroad, Roughing It , "Old Times on the Mississippi," The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson - each replete with the issues that most interested and concerned Twain over the course of that life. But you also learn that there are even deeper depths to explore. Although Twain may have died a widely beloved figure, he himself once wrote: "Everyone is a moon and has a dark side that he never shows to anybody." Professor Railton shows you that in his private life, Samuel Clemens struggled with doubt, disappointment, despair, and an increasing misanthropy that was greater than any contained in his most sarcastic satires. Even his closest friends almost lost patience with his rantings on how to exterminate what he called "the damned human race." Dr. Railton also explores in some detail the unpublished manuscripts, discovered after his death, that reveal this dark and despairing side of Mark Twain. They include such partly completed works as The Enchanted Sea Wilderness, The Great Dark , and Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes.

Expand title description text
Publisher: The Great Courses Edition: Unabridged

OverDrive Listen audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781682765456
  • File size: 353482 KB
  • Release date: October 14, 2002
  • Duration: 12:16:25

MP3 audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781682765456
  • File size: 353524 KB
  • Release date: October 14, 2002
  • Duration: 12:21:23
  • Number of parts: 12

Formats

OverDrive Listen audiobook
MP3 audiobook

subjects

Essays Nonfiction

Languages

English

Samuel Clemens, the man known to history as Mark Twain, was more than one of America's greatest writers. He was our first true celebrity, one of the most photographed faces of the 19th and 20th centuries. This series of 24 lectures by an acclaimed teacher and scholar explores Twain's dual identities - as one of our classical authors and as an almost mythical presence in our nation's cultural life. The lectures are a gateway to both appreciating Twain's literary achievements and to understanding his life, highlighting seven of his major works - Innocents Abroad, Roughing It , "Old Times on the Mississippi," The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson - each replete with the issues that most interested and concerned Twain over the course of that life. But you also learn that there are even deeper depths to explore. Although Twain may have died a widely beloved figure, he himself once wrote: "Everyone is a moon and has a dark side that he never shows to anybody." Professor Railton shows you that in his private life, Samuel Clemens struggled with doubt, disappointment, despair, and an increasing misanthropy that was greater than any contained in his most sarcastic satires. Even his closest friends almost lost patience with his rantings on how to exterminate what he called "the damned human race." Dr. Railton also explores in some detail the unpublished manuscripts, discovered after his death, that reveal this dark and despairing side of Mark Twain. They include such partly completed works as The Enchanted Sea Wilderness, The Great Dark , and Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes.

Expand title description text
Essays Nonfiction
  • Details

    Publisher:
    The Great Courses
    Edition:
    Unabridged

    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    ISBN: 9781682765456
    File size: 353482 KB
    Release date: October 14, 2002
    Duration: 12:16:25

    MP3 audiobook
    ISBN: 9781682765456
    File size: 353524 KB
    Release date: October 14, 2002
    Duration: 12:21:23
    Number of parts: 12

  • Creators
  • Formats
    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    MP3 audiobook
  • Languages
    English
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