The literary criticism you can get from the Oxford edition (check your local library); the commentary is thorough (which parts did Twain write? which parts Warner?) and informative. My reasons for recommending this book have nothing to do with its literary value (spotty) and everything to do with its subtitle. Every now and then an old book teaches us that much of what we take to be modern and sophisticated is truly old hat. One of the best descriptions of the Cold War was written by Thucydides, and one of the best depictions of the go go dot.com economy was written by Twain. Substitute web sites for depots and bandwidth for rails and the conversations in this book could have been overhead on cel phones in San Jose. IPO's and bubbles are not twenty-first century innovations: as Twain shows us,it may be possible to get rich from hard work, but it's more tempting to get rich by looting the pockets of the uninformed. Senator Dilworthy's dedication to pork evokes Byrd, and we learn lecherous behavior in Congress didn't start with Condit. An entertaining validation of Ecclesiates: there truly is nothing new under the sun.

Moving stuff at the start, very funny in spots, and heartily American. The end wasn't all I'd hope for but there is still good stuff up till the end which is hard to do in any book. Like I said in the title, I liked it better than Huck Finn because Huck Finn is more of the kitchy journey story which is too easy whereas this one is not a road trip but a full fleshed tale.

This book, written by Twain and Warner, pokes fun at American society during what they called "the guilded age". This term has stuck and is often used by historians to describe the period 1877-1914. Twain and Warner see this time as one where men care only for money. These men will not work hard, but merely scheme and plot in order to strike it rich. The dialogue in the book is very snappy, the best being when Laura Hawkins arrives in Washington, DC and meets with the other high society ladies. I would recommend this book to anybody interested in United States History, or just those who want to read a good novel. The book can drag at times, but overall is very engrossing.

Yes - they can. At Heights Elementary in Pittsburg California back 35 years ago or so we would have a jumping frog contest every year in the circles used for kick ball. All the kids would bring giant frogs and let them go from the center of the ring. OH MY! It was so much fun - all because of this book (I am still scared of frogs to this day) but I love the book and every kid should read it.

"Jumping Frog" is a wonderful, hilarious story (among a group of several other great ones) that my father read to me as a kid. If you love Twain, get it.

Mark Twain is the quintesential American curmudgeon. His style formed an era and no one could ever reproduce him although many have tried. Read the book and meet the Man. I laughed out loud and at times was gripped with the wringing unrelenting pathos of this great master. I had to laugh at myself a time or two...

As expected, this book from America's greatest writer is fun and funny. It's actually three books, put together in a facsimile edition by Oxford. The first books, _The Stolen White Elephant, etc._ is a collection of Clemens' humorous short stories and speeches. Though these do not get into the same serious criticism of society as _Huck Finn_ or _Connecticut Yankee_, they do have a biting tone and make the reader laugh. Despite the title, the only of these tales with any detectives is the title story. The second book, _Tom Sawyer, Detective_, follows Tom and Huck on a third adventure. Huck tells the story, and though the accent isn't done as thoroughly as in the prequel, the novel is funny and...well, funny! The last novel, _A Double-Barreled Detective Story_, makes fun of the whole detective genre.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who who missed Tom, Huck and Hank Morgan, and to anyone looking for a good laugh.

The main portion of the book is "Puddnhead Wilson", but Twain writes a fascinating intro to "Those Extraordinary Twins" to explain how he started writing one book and ended up with the other. The twins were originally conjoined (Siamese), and were the main characters. The side characters of Tom and Roxy developed into main characters in an entirely different story. what you end up with is a tragedy and a comedy, that occur around the same time, in the same town, with most of the same characters. Its amazing how much a few little twists change everything.

There is probably no book in American literature more loved and hated than "Huckleberry Finn". Twain's masterpiece has been reviled as a racist rant; parents have tried to get it banned from school libraries, and people have claimed that not only is the book racist, so is its author. But Twain was hardly a racist; Jim is presented as one of the few characters in the book who has real dignity, humanity and common goodness; and Huck learns to see Jim as a friend and a fellowman. But how does Huck reach this epiphany and who did Twain base his character on? In a solidly researched and fascinating book, Shelly Fishkin posits that Huck was based on two young African-Americans Twain knew personally, one a ten year old boy named Jimmy and the other a young slave in Missouri named Jerry.

Jimmy was described in Twain's newspaper article "Sociable Jimmy", which was published in The New York Times in November of 1874. Jimmy's family was employed in a village inn where Twain was staying, and Twain was clearly fascinated by "the most artless, sociable and exhaustless talker I ever came across... I listened as one who receives a revelation." Twain invited Jimmy to sit and chat, and Jimmy planked himself down in an easy chair and proceeded to regale Twain with stories about his family in the inn; in particular, their aversion to having cats around. "When dey ketches a cat bummin' aroun' heah... dey snake him into de cistern -- dey's been cats drownded in dat water dat's in yo' pitcher. I seed a cat in dare yistiddy -- all swelled up like a pudd'n." (Imagine the look on Twains face as Jimmy fed him this tidbit.) As Fishkin shows, Jimmy and Huck share some key characteristics. They both launch into long family narratives to hold their listener's attention. They both have a visceral loathing of violence and cruelty, and they speak with a remarkable similarity. The are both "unpretentious, uninhibited, easily impressed and unusually loquacious." When we close our eyes and listen to Jimmy, we can easily hear Huck in Jimmy's voice.

Jerry was young black man in the 1850's who Twain idolized when he was himself a teenager, much to the dismay and disgust of Twain's mother. Actually, Mom could be a stand-in for Tom Sawyer's Aunt Polly, who didn't want Tom associating with Huck because he was unwashed, uncouth, and the envy of every boy in the neighborhood of good family who admired him and wished they dared to be like him. Here we see Huck as Jerry. Jerry was a master at "signifying", or indirectly satirizing whatever he held in contempt. There is a lot of Jerry in the characters of both Huck and Jim, who compensate for their lack of formal education with a large store of mother-wit and down to earth common sense.

We don't know if Twain directly based Huck on Jimmy and/or Jerry, and it may be impossible to determine for certain. But there are enough similarities in all three characters to make the point that Twain thoroughly liked and respected both Jimmy and Jerry, and turned some of the best qualities of each of them into one of the most endearing and enduring people in all of American fiction.

This book and her book "Lighting Out For The Territory", have made me reconsider a lot more than Mark Twain's Huck Finn. No teacher of literature or American History should get a degree without reading these books.

The high-toned wording of the Kirkus Review might just turn you off of the this book before having given it a chance... and that would be a great loss. I've read the review three times now and I still can't tell if it is praising the book or condemning it. Ms. Fisher-Fishkin's prose is very readable and this book can be enjoyed by plain ol' Twain fans and academia alike.

This book is not for everyone. If you believe what is happiness,
and you're happy w/ your life w/ no dought, skip this book.
If you doubt everything including your feelings (especially
happiness and satisfaction), then this book provides some idea
to fill up the hole (at least partially).

There is a book by the same author called "the Misterious Stranger" which is much easier to read. It's enjoyable. So I
recommend you guys to try out the misterious stranger first.
Then, if you like the story, and you'd like to know more
about the philosophy behind it, read this one

After having read the first few pages of What Is Man? I knew that I would not be able to let it go just like that. In the form of a dialogue Mark Twain raises a bunch of questions about Mankind and the way the mind works. And without revealing too much I can safely say that these are not regular everyday questions!

Whether or not one finds the questions and ideas raised in the book outrageous or greatly revolutionary, one will still be able to get many hours of reading satisfaction out of it. With his usual wit, Twain has created a beautiful dialogue that in many ways can be compared to that in Plato's The Republic. And I would be amazed if this book doesn't put your brain to work. In my case I spend hours, days and even weeks discussing the book with friends and family. I simply wanted to get other people's conceptions and opinions of the ideas raised.

What Is Man? is not just a great piece of art. It is a somewhat behaviouristic philosophy and a way of looking at Mankind. In my opinion a must in every personal library. In my own case I'll need it as an e-book on my laptop for when I'm on the road and as hard back on the book shelve when I'm sitting in my easy chair relaxing after a long day.

Do you wonder where your thoughts originate? Do you wonder what motivates your, or why you act or react to different situations, or just everyday life? Mark Twain, in the characters of the old man and the young man, present arguments that can change you way of looking at living. It is a must read book, that will cause you to pause...everytime a thought comes to mind and everytime you react to any situation. You will wonder who it really belongs to......take a new look into your own mind. See people from a new perspective..it is amazing.

The genius of Mark Twain is that his work is still enjoyable, and funny, to this day. This book, originally published in 1871, is Twain's account of his journey from Missouri to Hawaii (called the Sandwich Islands in his day). He tells story after story of his adventures along the way, starting with the stagecoach ride on the Overland Stage Line to Carson City, Nevada, around 1861, and then telling of his stay in Nevada, then California, then his visit to Hawaii. The stories are informative, humorous, and all-around entertaining. He lampoons everybody he can--nobody is safe--including miners, pioneers (emigrants), politicians, Mormons, Blacks, American Indians, Chinese, newspaper reporters, "desperados", even himself on more than one occasion. Sometimes his stories are so outrageous that you wonder how much is true and how much is embellishment, or just outright fiction. Even he understands this by telling the reader on occasion that he has not made up a particular story, to demonstrate that truth is often stranger than fiction, but also to imply that he has taken liberties in other places in the book. (I wonder if the Mormon Church has ever banned this book for the things he says about them.) Even while he is being irreverent, however, he often demonstrates a sensitivity toward people, with an awareness of the situation of others that seems to me to be ahead of his time. For example, he has a chapter on the immigrant Chinese population in the West, and while he pokes fun at them in some respects, he spends the time detailing their lives and culture, as much as he could understand it, with a respect that was uncommon in his day.

I bought a copy of this book years ago because I am a native Californian, and knew that there was some material in here about California in the early days (my copy is an old hardcover published by Grosset and Dunlap). As Twain states in his Prefatory: "...There is quite a good deal of information in this book. I regret this very much, but really it could not be helped." I enjoyed reading about the "old West" from an eye-witness, although most of it deals with Nevada, not California. While some of it sounded familiar, like something from any Western-genre movie, other things were like nothing I had ever heard of before, describing the "Wild West" from an original point of view. In that respect, this book is a great resource.

This book falls short of five stars due to some minor flaws. He often digresses with text that is not only marginal to the point, but not even written by him, reprinting someone else's text. I skipped over some of that. He would also spend pages detailing coversations between other people that he could not have possibly remembered verbatim. While I understand that it was a common writing style of his day, it sounds like bad jounalism today. Those complaints aside, this is some great writing by Twain and some valuable American history.

Twain's escapades in the West make fascinating reading. His encounters with the Mormons in Utah are particularly interesting. Anyone afflicted with Mormon missionaries on his or her doorstep ought to bring out a copy of this book and read aloud the chapter in which Twain discusses the absurd Book of Mormon. Nobody can match Twain in skewering foolishness and pomposity dressed up as religion.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of travel logs, journals, reports, diaries, etc. that tell about the American West in the mid-nineteenth century. This book by Mark Twain, however, is both unique and one of the best. This is travel writing as it should be. Twain, traveling across the plains from Missouri to Nevada in the early 1860's, and spending seven years loafing about Nevada, California, and Hawaii, collected and compiled his experiences into this extraordinary book. One of the best things about Twain, of course, is his unique view on things. This tale is told in Twain's wry, humorous style, and is very enjoyable.

This book is not quite as pessimistic as Twain's other great travel writing, 'The Innocents Abroad,' but it does include some interesting and unorthodox views which often prove hilarious. Twain spends time as a gold and silver seeker, a speculator, a journalist, and a vagabond (as he himself puts it), and puts a unique spin on each of these occupations. As far as travel writing goes, this book is indispensable, and it also proves quite valuable (odd as it may seem) in any thorough study of frontier life in the American West.

This book is funny. Sometimes, this is funny/cruel, as in his attempt to pay the Egyptian kid to climb pyramids until it kills him. Pretty much every nationality in Europe is attacked. Maybe this jumps out at you when he gets to the Holy Land, but it's there all along.

I found Twain's discussion of Lake Como to be the most troubling. Here, in comparing it to Lake Tahoe, he gets diverted into what can only be called a racist tirade against the Washoe Indians of Nevada.

Melville (in The Confidence Man) has a long chapter on Indian-hating, but he writes as an observer, not a practitioner. Twain is more partisan. There is an anti-Catholic tinge as well; but then, anti-Catholic political parties (such as the 'Know Nothings') were also a feature of pre-civil war America.

I do believe that this is one of the finest books on tourism one can read. Twain is a keen observer of Old World culture, which he opposes to our American adaptation. Admiration can lead to whitewashing if some of Twain's social pathologies are left unexamined.

The book is as anti-Indian as anti-Arab, as anti-Mormon as anti-Catholic. It remains a very funny book; but I wouldn't give it to a teenager to read without a precautionary warning.

This book, along with Twain's 'Roughing It,' is often considered to be some of the best travel narrative ever put to paper. Certainly it deserves its acclaim. Twain, the irreverent All-American writer, took a trip halfway around the world in a steamer and visited many of the great sites of Europe and the Middle East. This is his account of his experiences, and the experiences of the group of 'Pilgrims' which accompanied him on this 'pleasure excursion.'

One of the best things about Twain is his refusal to romanticize, even in the cases of the greatest places in the world. He does not hesitate to verbally abuse Paris, Florence, Damascus, even Jerusalem. He tells it how it is, refusing to admire the work of the great painters (Raphael, Michael Angelo, and co.) and asserting that everyone who ever wrote of the beauty of the Sea of Galilee was a downright liar. He has some good things to say, too (he seems to have approved of Athens), but mostly he spends his time dispelling the romantic images of the great places of the world. The result is hilarious, and certainly makes one realize that, despite the perfect images that Paris, Pisa, and Rome sometimes have in our minds, they are a far cry from paradise.

Twain's wit, as always, is very sharp, and this book is an excellent example of it. His antics (and descriptions of them) are very funny, and his way of putting things a joy to read. Along the way, he pokes fun of the American "Pilgrims," who deface the sacred relics they visit and call every guide they have 'Ferguson.' This is certainly a classic in American Literature. Anyone interested in travel writing will profit greatly from this book, as will anyone who enjoys Twain's humor or just a good laugh.

Ok, maybe that is a minor overstatement, but this is one hilarous book, to be read by people who have travelled, who plan to travel, and generally, people who want to laugh. A lot.

The book is also surprising for its timeless points about the journeying of certain upper white, middle class people going on a grand tour of Europe. I frequently had to remind myself that it was written in 1869 because his observations and the behavior of his shipmates is so close to the way people I studied abroad with acted-only a few years ago.

Twain also puts those "cosmopolitan" people who claim to have traveled, but don't know anything about any place they have been but and just like to lord it over everyone else that they have "travelled" and you have not.

Reading this book is like listening to a very wise, old man tell you about his adventures. Its not like a book, more like one long conversation. Twain takes nothing seriously-not himself, his fellow travelers or the places they visit. The words are another adventure-sometimes, you know he is setting you up for something, other times he is serious for a while, then you end up in the middle of a joke.

I know this is against the rules, but the other posters who don't like this book-don't be so serious and p.c. all the time. Twain is making humorous observations, at a time when a different standard was acceptable. Not to mention, he does manage to get a few zingers in there about what people are willing to accept and what they do not.

You will laugh yourself silly and want to book a trip-not to Europe, just to anywhere, after reading this book.

Was Twain the greatest writer America ever produced? Certainly no other author has written so many genres so well. Life on the Mississippi is one of my favorites by Twain. What a storyteller! From his own personal experiences to explorers, psychics, the Civil War, slavery, geography, steamboat history etc. Twain gives us a glimpse into himself and his country.

Twain is of course humorous in this book, but his lesser known quality--insight--is very keen in this book. Twain's style is at once sophisticated and simple. It is pure mastery.

While this may not be up there with some of other Twain's writings, it is certainly worth the time and money. Definitely recommended.

Life on the Mississippi is by far one of the most wonderful books ever written about the post Civil War era in America. Mark Twain takes the reader on a melancholy look at this period of time in history as you journey into the Mississippi of his youth, adulthood, and the people and the communities he knew so well. He conveys a miraculous picture of this lively river giving it the grandeur and prominence it deserves. He defines the river very much like a living organism with a power and personality all its own. As the book unfolds, he begins in his days when he grew up along the river and became a steam boat pilot, ending that career with the advent of the Civil War. Later he returns to the river after some twenty years and takes a journey as a writer from around St. Louis to New Orleans and back up the river into what is present day Minnesota. You learn about the different cultures along the river, its tributaries, as well as the remarkable people who become part of the forgotten history of our nation. Twain's anecdotes are sheer brilliance, and he has an incredible way of choosing just the right story to illustrate a particular point transporting the reader back into time as if it was the present day and you are standing beside Twain observing what he is seeing. His reflections of his times along the river and his descriptions of the people and places make this a true masterpiece of literature and I highly recommend it. I found myself only able to read short portions at a time, as I personally found the sheer beauty of the entire book was a work to be savored and digested rather than rapidly consumed as you would with any other book. As I poured through the book, I felt often as if I was traveling with Mark Twain as a companion along his charming and magnificent journey during a wonderful period of history.

In Life on the Mississippi, Twain recounts his river experiences from boyhood to riverboat captain and beyond. Encompassing the years surrounding the Civil War, this book is an excellent source of 19th-century Americana as well as an anthology of the mighty river itself. Replete with rascally rivermen, riparian hazards, deluge, catastrophe, and charm, Life on the Mississippi is another of Twain's stellar literary achievements.

Wit and wisdom are expected from Twain and this book does not disappoint. It is equally valuable for it's period descriptions of the larger river cities (New Orleans, St. Louis, St. Paul), as well as the small town people and places ranging the length of America's imposing central watershed.

The advent of railroads signalled the end of the Mississipi's grand age of riverboat traffic, but, never fear, Life on the Mississippi brings it back for the reader as only Samuel Clemens can. Highly recommended.