The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature)

Author - Mark Twain ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from University of California Press was reviewed on 26-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:0520246950 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) Reference Book. Classifications : American Literature Literature Humanities New & Used Textbooks Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books General AAS Literature Humanities New & Used Textbooks Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books General . Click the following link to view the cover of The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature).

Related topics: American Literature. Literature. Humanities. Custom Stores. Specialty Stores. Books. General AAS. Literature. Humanities. Custom Stores.

1) Paperback Book The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) by University of California Press. I must first of all confess that, since reading Huck Finn as a kid, this is the only Twain I´ve read. I must also confess that the nearest comparison I can give for this book is the writings of William Burroughs!

In his last years Twain several times approached the idea of a story about a mysterious, "satanic" figure who appears to a small community and brings about an anti-religious revelation. This book contains his three attempts, thankfully free of the posthumous bowdlerisation that marred its previous publication.

The middle section is most like "classic" Twain, a semi-comic episode set in the familiar time and territory of Tom Sawyer. The "bookends", however, are set in a vaguely medieval middle-Europe and have a somewhat Gothic atmosphere. The first section is the most scathing, while the last is more like a dream.

The effect of these three substantial fragments being presented together is a remarkable insight into the creative processes of an extraordinarily imaginative mind. This breaking beyond narrative and into the writer´s consciousness is the reason I draw the comparison with Burroughs. The result was never meant to be published as is, but nonetheless it is a challenging and haunting work, which provides a unique insight into the writer´s mind.¤

2) Paperback Book The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) by University of California Press. THis is an excellent book! I really liked the main character and the way he love the ourdoors.¤

3) Paperback Book The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) by University of California Press. Six years after Mark Twain´s death, Albert Bigelow Paine, the author´s literary executor, brought out a bowdlerized edition of The Mysterious Stranger, which he patched together from Mark Twain´s three unfinished manuscripts, produced, Paine asserted, during a period of supposed creative paralysis. Scholars have since discovered that Paine´s edition of the book was largely based on the earliest of those three versions, onto which Paine then grafted the final chapter of the last version. Indeed, Paine changed so many of the book´s essentials that it cannot be said to accurately reflect the author´s mood and thought at all.
Gibson´s volume, first published in 1969 and now back in print, presented the manuscripts for the first time exactly as Mark Twain wrote them. Here the reader is offered a glimpse of Mark Twain´s creative process on what many critics consider the finest fiction of his later years. While the work was begun in 1897 and revised first in 1902 and then in 1908, the third version was the only manuscript actually titled The Mysterious Stranger. These texts provide a rare opportunity to observe Mark Twain´s sustained literary struggle with a central theme.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 23-Nov-2008, 05202469509780520246959, 570-220-3X0-680-500-640-861-8

The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature), Book, Image © University of California Press

Search: University of California Press, Book Posters, Book Art