Brief biography of Mark Twain, an outstanding American writer. Mark Twain

Introduction

The famous American writer Mark Twain was born in the village of Florida, Missouri, in 1835. Mark Twain is only a pseudonym for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and the first note signed famous pseudonym, refers to 1863.

The childhood years of the writer were spent on the Mississippi, in the town of Hannibal, known to readers all over the world under the name of St. Petersburg. Samuel Clemens came from a family whose fate was closely intertwined with the American frontier - the border of the civilized lands of America. Hannibal at that time was the last outpost of civilization, followed by almost undeveloped lands. On the other side of the Mississippi, territories free from slavery began. Through Hannibal lay the path of settlers to the West, the path of slaves who were taken along the river to cotton plantations in its lower reaches, and the path of runaway slaves. History seems to have taken special care to ensure that the main conflicts of American life of the last century clearly appeared in this backwater.

Samuel Clemens from childhood worked as a printer's apprentice, sold newspapers, drove steamboats along the Mississippi, worked as a secretary for his brother in Nevada, in the governor's office, and as a gold digger. Then he joined journalism, and in 1867 his career as a professional writer began. In 1888, Clemens graduated from Yale University in New Haven (Connecticut), where he received an honorary diploma of Doctor of Literature, an honorary representative of the university.

Mark Twain was the representative democratic direction US literature, it was Twain's democratic attitude that helped him create works that are a fusion of the achievements of previous American art, without becoming an imitator of authorities or a mere successor to traditions.

In the works of Twain, a completely natural synthesis of romanticism and realism arose, which is one of the conditions for the emergence of great realistic art. His work, partly prepared by both romantics and realists of the 50s, became a point of intersection of heterogeneous artistic trends. But romanticism was not an "appendage" to Twain's realism, but an organic quality of his worldview, which determined the entire internal structure of his works. Even with a superficial contact with them, one can feel, as in all phenomena of high realism, the ability to combine "romantic beauty" with "realistically everyday", he managed to synthesize these concepts.

In the works of Twain, American realism acquired its characteristic artistic appearance with all its defining features: grotesqueness, symbolism, metaphor, inner lyricism and closeness to nature. This made a decisive difference in artistic development America.

At the same time, the heir to the great American romantics of the XIX century. was also their staunch and irreconcilable opponent. The struggle of the writer with romanticism was of an extremely purposeful and constant character and continued throughout his entire career. creative way. The reason for Twain was a different understanding of the main task of art - the task of reproducing the truth of life. Following the romantics, he sang the beauty of the "natural" phenomena of life not spoiled by civilization, shared their hatred of everything false, artificial, but he found all these features in the works of the romantics themselves.

A true son of his people, he possessed that clarity of sight, that concreteness of poetic thinking, which was feature popular sentiment. Truly "he had a clear view of life, and he knew it better and was less deceived by its ostentatious sides than any American."

Twain's connection to working America, sealed life experience, right from the start writing activity determined his living force creative imagination. These features of the worldview allowed the author to look at his country through the eyes of an open-minded person, pure and open to new ideas.

Mark Twain's first book

When Twain became a reporter for "Enterprise Territory," published in Virginia City, the capital of Nevada, a literary road opened up for him. Only in our time, all his notes published there, feuilletons, essays, sketches, sketches were collected. It was at that time that Twain's humor was formed - a unique and at the same time essentially a deeply American artistic phenomenon.

Twain quickly became fed up with humor, designed only for the tastes of the not spoiled high literature miners and migrants. The famous jumping frog from Calaveras, against the backdrop of such humor, seemed like Mont Blanc next to small mounds. There is a quality in her that would be in vain to look for in anecdotes and fables - this is the ability to literally describe in two or three strokes not just a funny situation, but a whole way of life, a whole world in its unusualness. And this skill will grow stronger in Twain from story to story, rapidly gaining fame for him. the best comedian America.

At the same time, he needed the reader to see, behind the self-evident, violent and unrestrained grotesque, the authentically described American life with all its versatility. He tried to keep the tone the way it was in an oral presentation that did not know any literary smoothness, he tried to make his story, first of all, laugh.

The cover of his very first book was decorated with a huge yellow frog, which stood out brightly against the creamy background of the cover. What is her story? Where did the story about the frog named Daniel Webster come from? Found several printed versions of this story. But still, the frog from Calaveras was glorified by none other than Mark Twain. The story is quite reliable, it could be heard in Twain's native lands or even read in newspapers published in the periphery, on the front.

Jim Smiley lost forty dollars on a bet to a stranger who showed up in Calaveras, relying on Daniel's amazing talent. Twain recorded this incident almost exactly as it was recounted more than once: a stranger doubted Daniel's abilities, accepted a bet, and while Smiley was catching another frog for him, he poured a handful of quail shot into the champion's mouth, so that the poor celebrity could not move from place. Generally sad story about deceived trust and diligence, which went to dust, but such is life.

There are special signs of Twain's humor that will be seen if you read the story of a frog named Daniel Webster carefully. But Twain presented this case, which fit on several pages, in such a way that it will amuse readers for the second century, and the point is inimitable humorous gift.

This story by Twain preserves the colorful atmosphere of the life and customs of the settlers. We can clearly imagine this village in a few crooked streets leading into the endless prairie, and haphazardly dressed people who have not shaved for a long time at the entrance to the saloon.

We learn about the frog races only at the very end, and before that Twain will talk for a long time about various incidents in Smiley's life. Twain? No, the narrator will be a certain Simon Wheeler, who is entrusted with the narration. This Wheeler himself is from Calaveras, he saw her with his own eyes and remembered everything.

The subtext of this ultra-comic short story, which is an adaptation of one of the anecdotal Western plots, was the antithesis of the "unpolished" West and the "sleek" East. Beneath the ingenuous narration of the clumsy frontiersman Simon Wheeler, entertaining his gentleman listener with a guileless tale of the "exploits" of dogs and frogs, lurked the idea of ​​a special world with its own illegitimate scale of values, in principle as legitimate as it was dominant.

The names of the characters also hinted at this. Daniel Webster - the frog and Andrew Jackson - the dog were the namesakes of famous statesmen. Wheeler's story proves that he doesn't care about these celebrities. Outlining his frog epic, he "never smiled, never frowned, never changed that softly murmuring tone to which he tuned in from the very first phrase, never once showed the slightest excitement; his whole story was imbued with amazing seriousness and sincerity. This clearly showed me that he does not see anything funny or funny in this story, treats it without jokes at all and considers his heroes tricksters of the highest flight.

Is Simon Wheeler really that simple? After all, in essence, in this story there are not one, but two narrators - a clown and a gentleman, and it is not known which of them is a true "simpleton" and who is fooling whom. Only one thing is clear, that of the two storytellers, the frontiersman is the more skillful. He tells better, brighter, juicier and, like the author, knows how to see things and feel them. inner life. In other words, he speaks the language of Mark Twain. This way of presentation leads the reader to some additional conclusions regarding the nature of both the narrator and the listener.

Grotesque in early works Twain

The art of young Twain is the art of the grotesque. But the grotesque is also very different in its forms, and in essence. The whole humorous flavor of the stories of the young Mark Twain is based on the imaginary seriousness of the author. In those days, it was believed that literature must certainly be sublime, profound and emphasizing its profoundness, refined in language, built in accordance with strict rules and laws. artistic narrative. And Twain came across rude and simply slang words, sophistication was ridiculed mercilessly, and the story itself most of all resembled a fable or an anecdote.

Fables and anecdotes necessarily required exaggerations, circumstances presented as genuine, absolutely reliable reality, phenomena that were completely unthinkable, but considered true in every detail.

We read how collegiate assessor Kovalev's nose disappeared. Poor Kovalev saw his nose - just think! - in a carriage that rolls down the street. And when a suspicious traveler was detained at the post station, it turned out that the nose had already managed to acquire a passport. Artifice? Certainly. All this is pure fantasy. Gogol does not at all want the reader to suspect even for a second that he is dealing with an event, even remotely plausible. Maybe it's all just horrible dream unfortunate Kovalev, perhaps his delirium, an obsession (“the devil wanted to play a trick on me”) or just some inexplicable mystery of nature. For Gogol, this is not so important. More importantly, the whole of life, as it is presented in The Nose, is absurd and terrible to the last limit, turned upside down.

Years of life: from 11/30/1835 to 04/21/1910

Outstanding American writer, satirist, journalist and public figure. He is best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

early years

Born in the small town of Florida (Missouri, USA) in the family of merchant John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. He was the sixth child in a family of seven children.

When Mark Twain was 4 years old, his family moved to the town of Hannibal, a river port on the Mississippi River. Subsequently, it is this city that will serve as the prototype of the town of St. Petersburg in famous novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At this time, Missouri was a slave state, therefore already at that time Mark Twain was faced with slavery, which he would later describe and condemn in his works.

In March 1847, when Mark Twain was 11, his father died of pneumonia. IN next year he starts working as an assistant in a printing house. Since 1851, he has been typing and editing articles and humorous essays for the Hannibal Journal, a newspaper owned by his brother Orion.

The Orion newspaper soon closed, the paths of the brothers diverged for many years, only to cross again by the end civil war in Nevada.

At the age of 18, he left Hannibal and worked at a print shop in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and other cities. He was self-educated, spending a lot of time in the library, thus gaining as much knowledge as he would have received from a regular school.

At the age of 22, Twain moved to New Orleans. On the way to New Orleans, Mark Twain traveled by steamboat. Then he had a dream to become the captain of the ship. Twain meticulously taught the route of the Mississippi River for two years, until he received a diploma as a ship captain in 1859. Samuel got his younger brother to work with him. But Henry died on June 21, 1858, when the steamer he was working on exploded. Mark Twain believed that he was primarily to blame for the death of his brother and guilt did not leave him throughout his life until his death. However, he continued to work on the river and worked until the Civil War broke out and shipping on the Mississippi ceased. The war forced him to change his profession, although Twain regretted it for the rest of his life.

Samuel Clemens had to become a Confederate soldier. But since he has been accustomed to being free since childhood, in two weeks he deserts from the ranks of the army of the inhabitants of the South and directs his way west, to his brother in Nevada. It was only rumored that silver and gold had been found in the wild prairies of this state. This is where Samuel worked whole year in a silver mine. At the same time, he wrote humorous stories for the newspaper "Territorial Enterprise" in Virginia City and in August 1862 received an invitation to become its employee. This is where Samuel Clemens had to look for a pseudonym for himself. Clemens claimed that the pseudonym "Mark Twain" was taken from the terms of river navigation, which was called the minimum depth suitable for the passage of river vessels. This is how the writer Mark Twain appeared in the spaces of America, who in the future managed to win world recognition with his work.

Creation

For several years, Mark Twain wandered from newspaper to newspaper as a reporter and feuilletonist. In addition, he earned extra money by reading his books in public. humorous stories. Twain was an excellent orator. As a correspondent for Alta California, he spent five months on a Mediterranean cruise on the steamer Quaker City, during which he collected material for his first book, Simpletons Abroad. Her appearance in 1869 aroused some interest on the part of the reading public because of the combination of good southern humor and satire, rare for those years. Thus, the literary debut of Mark Twain took place. In addition, in February 1870, he married the sister of his friend Ch. Langdon, whom he met during the cruise - Olivia.

Mark Twain's next successful book, co-authored with Charles Warner, was The Gilded Age. The work, on the one hand, is not very successful, because the styles of the co-authors were seriously different, but on the other hand, it became to the taste of readers so much that the time of the reign of President Grant was dubbed its name.

And in 1876 she saw the world A new book Mark Twain, which not only cemented him as the greatest American writer, but also forever brought his name into the history of world literature. It was the famous "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". In fact, the writer did not have to invent anything. He remembered his childhood in Hannibal and his life during those years. And now, on the pages of the book, the place of St. Petersburg appeared, in which one can easily distinguish the features of Hannibal, as well as the features of many other small settlements scattered along the banks of the Mississippi. And in Tom Sawyer, you can easily recognize the young Samuel Clemens, who really did not like school and was already smoking at the age of 9.

The success of the book exceeded all expectations. A book filled with simple humor and written by in plain language, liked the broad mass of ordinary Americans. Indeed, in Tom, many recognized themselves in a distant and carefree childhood. This recognition of readers Twain secured the next book, also not designed for sophisticated minds. literary critics. The story "The Prince and the Pauper", which was published in 1882, takes readers to England during the Tudor era. Exciting adventures are combined in this story with a dream common american grow rich. The casual reader liked it.

The historical theme interested the writer. In the preface to his new novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain wrote: "If anyone is inclined to condemn our modern civilization Well, you can’t prevent this, but it’s good sometimes to draw a comparison between it and what was done in the world before, and this should calm and inspire hope.”

Before 1884, Mark Twain was already famous writer and also became a successful businessman. He set up a publishing firm nominally headed by C. L. Webster, the husband of his niece. One of the first books published by his own publishing house was his Adventures of Huckleberry Fin. The work, which, according to critics, was the best in the work of Mark Twain, was conceived as a continuation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. However, it turned out to be much more complex and multi-layered. It was reflected that the writer had been creating it for almost 10 years. And these years were filled constant search the best literary form, the polishing of the language and deep reflection. In this book, Twain, for the first time in American literature, used colloquial American outback. Once it was allowed to be used only in farce and satire on the customs of the common people.

Among other books published by the Mark Twain publishing house can be called "Memoirs" of the eighteenth President of the United States, V.S. Grant. They became a bestseller and brought the desired material well-being to the Samuel Clemens family.

The publishing company of Mark Twain successfully existed until the well-known economic crisis of 1893-1894. The writer's business could not withstand the severe blow and went bankrupt. Back in 1891, Mark Twain was forced to move to Europe in order to save money. From time to time he comes to the United States, trying to improve his financial situation. After the ruin, he does not recognize himself as bankrupt for a long time. In the end, he manages to negotiate with creditors to defer the payment of debts. During this time, Mark Twain wrote several works, among which his most serious historical prose is "Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc by Sieur Louis de Comte, Her Page and Secretary" (1896), as well as "Coot Wilson" (1894), " Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer Detective (1896). But none of them could achieve the success that accompanied Twain's previous books.

Later years

The star of the writer inexorably rolled into decline. IN late XIX centuries in the United States begin to publish a collection of works by Mark Twain, thereby elevating him to the category of classics of bygone days. However, the fierce boy who sat inside the elderly, already completely gray-haired, Samuel Clemens did not think to give up. Mark Twain entered the twentieth century with a sharp satire on the mighty of the world this. The writer marked the stormy revolutionary beginning of the century with works designed to expose untruth and injustice: “To a Man Walking in Darkness”, “The United Lynching States”, “The Tsar's Monologue”, “King Leopold's Monologue in defense of his dominance in the Congo”. But in the minds of Americans, Twain remained a classic of "light" literature.

In 1901, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Yale University. The following year, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Missouri. He was very proud of these titles. For a man who had left school at 12, the recognition of his talent by pundits of famous universities flattered him.

In 1906, Twain acquired a personal secretary, who became A. B. Payne. The young man expressed his desire to write a book about the writer's life. However, Mark Twain has already sat down to write his autobiography several times. As a result, the writer begins to dictate the story of his life to Payne. A year later, he was again awarded a degree. He receives an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Oxford.

At this time, he is already seriously ill, and most of his family members die one after another - he survived the loss of three of his four children, his beloved wife Olivia also died. But even though he was in deep depression he could still be joking. The writer is tormented by severe attacks of angina pectoris. Ultimately, the heart gives out and on April 24, 1910, at the age of 74, Mark Twain dies.

His last work, the satirical story The Mysterious Stranger, was published posthumously in 1916 from an unfinished manuscript.

Information about the works:

Mark Twain was born in 1835, the day when Halley's comet flew near the Earth, and died in 1910, the day of its next appearance near the earth's orbit. The writer foresaw his death back in 1909: "I came into this world with Halley's comet, and next year I will leave it with it."

Mark Twain foresaw the death of his brother Henry - he dreamed about it a month before. After this incident, he became interested in parapsychology. He subsequently became a member of the Society for Psychical Research.

At first, Mark Twain signed with another pseudonym - Josh. This signature was followed by notes about the life of miners who flooded into Nevada from all over America when the Silver Rush began there.

Twain was fond of science and scientific problems. He was very friendly with Nikola Tesla, they spent a lot of time together in Tesla's laboratory. In his work A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain describes a journey through time that took many modern technologies appeared in England during the time of King Arthur.

Having received recognition and fame, Mark Twain spent a lot of time searching for young literary talents and helping them to break through, using his influence and the publishing company he acquired.

A crater on Mercury is named after Mark Twain.

Bibliography

Screen adaptations of works, theatrical performances

1907 Tom Sawyer
1909 The Prince and the Pauper
1911 Science
1915 The Prince and the Pauper
1917 Tom Sawyer
1918 Huck and Tom
1920 Huckleberry Finn
1920 The Prince and the Pauper
1930 Tom Sawyer
1931 Huckleberry Finn
1936 Tom Sawyer (Kyiv Film Studio)
1937 The Prince and the Pauper
1938 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1938 Tom Sawyer, detective
1939 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1943 The Prince and the Pauper
1947 Tom Sawyer
1954 Million Pound Bank Note
1968 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1972 The Prince and the Pauper
1973 Completely lost
1973 Tom Sawyer
1978 The Prince and the Pauper
1981 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
1989 Philip Traum
1993 Hack and the King of Hearts
1994 Eva's Magical Adventure
1994 Million for Juan
1994 Charlie's Ghost: Coronado's Secret
1995 Tom and Huck
2000 Tom Sawyer

The biography of the American writer Mark Twain, who devoted many of his books to adventure, is itself full of various trips and unexpected twists of fate. Full name prose writer - Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born at the end of the autumn of 1835, during the period when Halley's comet swept over the Earth. By a mysterious coincidence, the second flight celestial body over the planet will happen exactly on the day of the death of the writer.

29 palms

The family of the future writer lived in a small Florida village, Missouri. The parents were John Marshal Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. The family experienced difficulties, although the father served as a judge. And soon they were forced to move to the navigable city of Hannibal, which was located on the banks of the American Mississippi River. Sam has the warmest memories of his childhood with this place. They formed the basis of the most popular works prose writer.

15 year old Mark Twain | Wikipedia

After the death of his father in 1847, when Sam was only 12 years old, the family was left on the brink of ruin. The children had to leave school and start working. The boy was lucky: his older brother Orion had just opened his own printing house, and future writer went there as a typist. Occasionally, he managed to print his own articles, which did not leave readers indifferent.

Youth years

At the age of 18, Samuel Clemens sets out on a trip around the country. He reads avidly, visiting the best library halls. A boy who was forced to drop out of school as a child fills in the educational gaps in New York's book depositories. Soon the young man gets the position of assistant pilot on the ship.

Jose Angel Gonzalez

According to the writer himself, he could have devoted his whole life to working on the Mississippi River, if the civil war had not begun in 1861. For a while, Sam falls into the ranks of the Confederates, but soon goes to the Wild West to the gold and silver mines.

First attempts at pen

The work of extracting precious metals did not bring Samuel a lot of money, but here for the first time he is revealed as an observant and witty writer of small pamphlets and stories. And in 1863, for the first time, the writer signs his works with the pseudonym Mark Twain, taken from shipping practice. The prose writer never signed his books with his real name. It must be said that Samuel immediately becomes popular, and his first major humorous work, The Famous Jumping Frog from Calaveras, gained fame in all states.

Ram Web

For several years in a row, the newly-made feuilletonist changes one edition after another, where he publishes his reviews and stories, honing his skills. Mark Twain speaks to audiences a lot. At the same time, one more of his talents as an excellent speaker and storyteller is revealed. During the next move, he meets his future wife Olivia, sister close friend. The photo of those times shows that we have a successful and self-confident person. Everything in him speaks about this: his look, height and posture. Samuel is going through best time own life.

The heyday of creativity

Inspired by the changes in his personal life, the writer easily creates several works in the style of realism, which fixed his name in the series classics XIX century. In the mid 70's there was famous story"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", which describes the childhood of the writer himself in a slightly different way. Then the story "The Prince and the Pauper" saw the light, which came to the taste of the American people. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court also appears, where historical theme intertwined with the theme of moving in a time machine.

Newspaper "All for you"

In the mid-80s, Samuel Clemens opened his own publishing house, and the first book was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In this novel, Mark Twain for the first time vividly criticizes the established order in society. The writer also publishes the bestseller "Memories", enlightened by US President V.S. Grant. Own printing house lasted until the mid-90s, until it finally went bankrupt due to the economic collapse in the country.

Jpghoto

The last books of the writer, which were written in an already honed, verified style, did not have the same success as the first. His characters, while still being witty adventurers, find themselves in ambiguous situations that require a philosophical approach and an uncompromising choice. During these years, Mark Twain was awarded a number of doctoral degrees from leading US universities. It was very flattering for a man who had long ago been forced to leave school.

Writer's friends

Samuel Clemens greatly valued his friendship with Nikola Tesla. The age difference of more than 20 years did not interfere with their creative communication. Together they participated in the physicist's bold experiments, and in free time the writer often made fun of his serious friend. But once Nicola still managed to laugh it off. He offered the aged Samuel some means of rejuvenation, having happily tried which the writer felt that he was getting younger before his eyes. But after a while he rushed to the restroom due to severe pain in his stomach. According to him, the remedy had a radical cleansing effect on him.

big picture

In 1893, fate brought Mark Twain to the financial tycoon Henry Rogers, who was known as a great misanthrope and miser. But a close friendship with the writer changed him. The banker not only helped the writer's family overcome financial difficulties, but also became a real donor and philanthropist, which was discovered after his death. Henry spent a lot of money to support young talents. He also organized jobs for people with disabilities.

Quotes

Samuel Clemens was a very articulate man. This manifested itself both in his literary work and in colloquial speech. Many of his statements became catchphrases which have not lost their relevance to this day. Here are some of them:

“Quitting smoking is easy. I myself threw a hundred times "

“Be careful when reading health books. You can die from a typo"

“First of all, facts are needed, and only then they can be distorted”

Sunset years

The last decade of the writer's life turned out to be poisoned by the bitterness of irreparable losses: since the beginning of the new century, Mark Twain has experienced death of three children and beloved wife Olivia. At the same time, he finally established himself in his views on religion.

Econ

In his last works, The Mysterious Stranger and Letter from the Earth, which were published only years after his death, Twain sings of atheism with his characteristic sarcasm. The cause of his own death was angina pectoris. Her next attack claimed the life of the great writer in the middle of spring 1910 in the city of Redding, Connecticut.

Bibliography

• The famous jumping frog from Calaveras - 1867
• Simpletons Abroad - 1869
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - 1876
• The Prince and the Pauper - 1882
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -1884
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court -1889
• American Pretender - 1892
• Tom Sawyer Abroad - 1894
• Dupe Wilson - 1894
• Tom Sawyer - detective - 1896
• Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc by Sieur Louis de Comte, Her Page and Her Secretary - 1896
• The Mysterious Stranger - 1916

The work of Mark Twain.

TWAIN Mark, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorn Clemens American writer. Born into the family of a small merchant. Participated in the civil war. My literary activity started with journalism. In 1867 he made a long journey on a tourist steamer as a correspondent for the major newspaper Alta California. His weekly correspondence subsequently compiled one of his most popular books, The Innocents Abroad. Twain soon gained worldwide fame.

Twain's work is very diverse. He left more than 25 volumes of works of various genres, from light sketches and feuilletons to thick historical novels. Twain began writing in the 1960s, during the US economic boom. Good-naturedly poking fun at the "simplicity" of his compatriots making a Mediterranean journey, Twain at the same time sarcastically ridicules the mores and customs of the Old World. This ironic tone appears in Innocents Abroad, Travels Abroad, and other European travelogues.

Twain's world fame was created by novels about Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn. The first of these novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, sounded fresh and new in American literature for young people. Young heroes Twain's novels are endowed with enterprise, courage and imagination, they experience various adventures, perform "feats", they captivate with their energy and spontaneity. All this makes it clear why Tom Sawyer was and still is one of the favorite books of the youth of all countries and is also read with enthusiasm by adults. The continuation of "Tom Sawyer" are "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "Tom Sawyer Abroad" and "Tom Sawyer Detective". Here, the images of both boys are very vividly developed. These are not only lively and vivid individual characters, but also representatives of a certain social environment. The bourgeois boy Tom Sawyer is opposed to Gekk, the son of a drunkard and a vagabond, who despises bourgeois morality.

In the work of Mark Twain, oddly enough, the features of enlightenment realism, as he was in the 18th century, many of his works lack the credibility of specific everyday details, which realism of the 19th century is famous for, do not create real vitality, full plausibility. For him, the main thing is not to truthfully reflect life, but to prove his idea. According to his worldview, he is an enlightener, a materialist, a militant atheist. Its main goal is to fight against the remnants of the feudal system, social injustice, the division of society into classes, the exposure of the nobility, the war against religion as an obstacle to liberation and enlightenment. Among the core values ​​of Mark Twain Reason and common sense. He considers the USA the best country world, a democratic republic where simple people the most free and happy (I think he is not far from the truth here).

In addition, an important goal of Twain ridicule in general a variety of stupid, meaningless generally accepted traditions, conventions, rules of conduct that are contrary to common sense, existing only by tradition, by inertia.

The two most enlightening works of Twain.

The story "The Prince and the Pauper" (1882). England in the 16th century, two very similar boys one prince, the other a beggar changed clothes for fun, and no one noticed this change. The beggar became a prince, and the prince became a beggar. Medieval court ceremonies are described through the eyes of a beggar and look ridiculous and ridiculous. But the prince has a very hard time, he experienced in his own skin the terrible life of the common people.

Novel " A Yankee in King Arthur's Court» (1889). Yankee A skilled American worker from a mechanical factory finds himself in 6th century England, during legendary king Arthur, his round table, knights, etc. And through the eyes of this Yankee Twain ridicules the Middle Ages as such, the way of life of people, traditions, customs, social injustice, religion, manner of dressing, etc. Yankee, armed technical knowledge and skills of the 19th century, seems to be a great sorcerer in the 6th century, he intervenes in medieval life, is trying to turn it into America of the 19th century, both in a technical and political sense. But none of this works.

There are a lot of really funny moments in both books, but in general they are completely unconvincing, implausible, uninteresting.

Mark Twain wrote good stories, the most funny ones: "The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras", "The Hours", "Journalism in Tennessee", "How I Edited the Agricultural Newspaper".

>Biographies of writers and poets

Brief biography of Mark Twain

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is an outstanding American writer and public figure. Born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. In his work, Mark Twain used many genres, from satire to philosophical fiction. However, in all these genres, he invariably remained a humanist. At the peak of his career, he was considered perhaps the most prominent American, and his comrades-in-arms spoke of him as the first real writer in the country. Of the Russian writers, Kuprin and Gorky spoke especially warmly of him. Most popular books writer - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Mark Twain was born to John and Jane Clemens in a small town in Missouri. Then the family moved to the city of Hannibal, whose inhabitants he later described in his works. When the father of the family died, the eldest son started publishing a newspaper and Samuel made his unbearable contribution there. With the outbreak of the Civil War, the young man went to work as pilots on a steamer. In July 1861, he moved away from the war to the west, where silver was mined at that time. Not finding himself in the career of a prospector, he again took up journalism. He got a job at a newspaper in Virginia and began to write under the pseudonym Mark Twain.

Writing success came to him in the late 1860s, when, after traveling to Europe, he published the book "Simples Abroad". In 1870 Mark Twain married and moved to Hartford. In the same period, he began to lecture and write satire, criticizing American society. In 1876, a novel about the adventures of a boy named Tom Sawyer was published. The continuation of this novel was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). most famous historical novel Mark Twain is The Prince and the Pauper (1881).

In addition to literature, Mark Twain was fascinated by science. He was friendly with Nikola Tesla and often visited his laboratory. IN last years In his life, the writer was in a deep depression: literary success gradually faded away, his financial situation worsened, three of his four children died, and his beloved wife Olivia Langdon also died. Being depressed, he still tried to joke sometimes. Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910 from angina pectoris.