What Is Man and Other Essays of Mark Twain

By Twain, Mark

Book Id: WPLBN0000662381
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.8 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	What Is Man and Other Essays of Mark Twain
Author:	Twain, Mark
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Literature, Literature & drama
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection, Penn State University's Electronic Classics Series Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Penn State University's Electronic Classics


Citation APA MLA Chicago Twain, B. M. (n.d.). What Is Man and Other Essays of Mark Twain. Retrieved from https://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Summary (520) written with AI assistance by the National Public Library on 2026-09-28 from the title, author and published reference sources; it is not taken from the text of this edition.

Summary
This collection, published in 1917, gathers essays and sketches from the later years of Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens, 1835–1910). The title piece, What Is Man?, is a dialogue between an Old Man and a Young Man in which Twain argues that human beings are machines driven by temperament and training, and that all their actions spring from the wish for their own approval; it is one of his most pessimistic works. The book also includes the moving The Death of Jean, written days after his daughter's death in 1909, and a wide range of lighter pieces: The Turning-Point of My Life, How to Make History Dates Stick, Taming the Bicycle, Concerning Tobacco, a tribute to his friend William Dean Howells, the comic English As She Is Taught, and the essay Is Shakespeare Dead? This PDF was prepared from Penn State University's Electronic Classics series.

Excerpt
Excerpt: What Is Man and Other Essays by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens).

Table of Contents
Contents WHAT IS MAN? ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 THE DEATH OF JEAN ............................................................................................................................................ 75 THE TURNING-POINT OF MY LIFE ................................................................................................................... 86 HOW TO MAKE HISTORY DATES STICK ......................................................................................................... 95 THE MEMORABLE ASSASSINATION............................................................................................................... 108 A SCRAP OF CURIOUS HISTORY...................................................................................................................... 118 SWITZERLAND, THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY ................................................................................................ 125 AT THE SHRINE OF ST. WAGNER ..................................................................................................................... 135 WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS ............................................................................................................................... 148 ENGLISH AS SHE IS TAUGHT ............................................................................................................................ 156 A SIMPLIFIED ALPHABET................................................................................................................................. 169 AS CONCERNS INTERPRETING THE DEITY................................................................................................. 174 CONCERNING TOBACCO .................................................................................................................................. 181 THE BEE.................................................................................................................................................................. 184 TAMING THE BICYCLE ...................................................................................................................................... 187 IS SHAKESPEARE DEAD? .................................................................................................................................. 195

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Fiction, Literature, Literature & drama The Ghostly Rental (by James, Henry) As Minas de Salomao Sabotage in Space Euthydemus True to the Old Flag The Transfer A Night at an Inn (by Dunsany, Lord) Mother West Wind Where Stories The Net Book of Riddles The Bomb (by Harris, Frank) Mormon Settlement in Arizona War and Peace (by Tolstoy, Leo)