He received it with a smile, one of those large smiles which goes all around over, and has folds in it, and wrinkles, and spirals, and looks like the place where you have thrown a brick in a pond and then in the act of his taking a glimpse of the bill this smile froze solid, and turned yellow, and looked like those wavy, wormy spreads of lava which you find hardened on little levels on the side of Vesuvius.Free to read online here at. My favorite passage: I handed the note to him, and said: It's a humorous story (of course, it's Mark Twain) with a can-do main character and just a little romance (instalove, more for smiles than feelz). Henry Adams happens to walk by their window, and becomes the subject of their human nature experiment. They make a bet about whether, if they give the bank note to a destitute stranger, he will be able to make something of it, or will be arrested or refused if he tries to cash in or use the money. It just so happens that a couple of rich brothers have bought up a one-of-a-kind bank note for a million pounds. When he arrives he is ragged and penniless. Henry Adams, a young man working a clerking job in San Francisco, is lost at sea, picked up by another ship and taken to London. or at least half of it? This novella is an amusing, quick read. Who knew that Mark Twain wrote a Victorian era version of the Eddie Murphy movie Trading Places. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".ģ.5 stars. Twain worked hard to ensure that all of his creditors were paid in full, even though his bankruptcy had relieved him of the legal responsibility.īorn during a visit by Halley's Comet, he died on its return. With the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers, however, he eventually overcame his financial troubles. Though he made a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he squandered it on various ventures, in particular the Paige Compositor, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which proved to be very popular and brought him nationwide attention. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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