Biography

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse but evolved into a grim, almost profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich humour, sturdy narrative and social criticism. Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech and helped to create and popularise a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language.

Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He enjoyed immense public popularity and his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers.

ePub Books Available by Mark Twain

5 Titles Online

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [en] (1889)

In this biting satire by Twain, a 19th c. Yankee mechanic is knocked out during a brawl, and wakes to find himself in Camelot, A.D. 528, in King Arthur's Court. When the modern mechanic tries to cure society's ills (oppressed peasantry, evil church, etc.) with 19th c. industrial inventions...

Genres: Fantasy, Satire, Science Fiction

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [en] (1884)

Huckleberry Finn, rebel against school and church, casual inheritor of gold treasure, rafter of the Mississippi, and savior of Jim the runaway slave, is the archetypal American maverick. Fleeing the respectable society that wants to “sivilize” him, Huck Finn shoves off with Jim on a rhapsodic...

Genres: Action/Adventure, Satire, Young Readers

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [en] (1876)

Here is the story of Tom, Huck, Becky, and Aunt Polly; a tale of adventures, pranks, playing hookey, and summertime fun. Written by the author sometimes called "the Lincoln of literature," The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was surprisingly neither a critical nor a financial success when it was...

Genres: Action/Adventure, Satire, Young Readers

Joan of Arc [en] (1896)

In 1429, a 17-year-old peasant girl receives a message from Heaven that she is to rescue France from its English oppressors. Within two years this most unlikely of heroines leads a ragtag army to victory, sees the king crowned, and dies at the stake, martyred by traitors. America's most...

Genre: Historical Fiction

The Prince and The Pauper [en] (1882)

Rich with surprise and hilarious adventure, The Prince And The Pauper is a delight satire of England's romantic past and a joyful boyhood romp filled with the same tongue-in-cheek irony that sparked the best of Mark Twain's tall tales. Two boys, one an urchin from London's filthy lanes, the...

Genres: Satire, Young Readers