Mark Twain

[USMC1960s]

Any Mark Twain fans? Anniversary today of his birthday.
November 30, 1835 in the small town of Florida, Missouri but moved to nearby Hannibal as a young child.
"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" tied with "Moby-Dick" for the honor of being The Great American Novel.

[Ganondorf]

I am a huge Mark Twain fan, in fact I have a strange feeling that I've made a thread about him before. My favorites are perhaps surprisingly Roughing it and collaborative effort with Charles Dudley Warner that is The Gilded Age. Great American frontier description in the first one and magnificent satire in both. However I do like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I read Tom Sawyer back in elementary school and did not enjoy it then but when I read Huckleberry Finn on high school and found it good I went back to Tom Sawyer and liked it a lot more.

However when it comes to The Great American Novel I personally would rate Moby Dick and Gatsby above Huckleberry Finn. Roughing it is not a novel really so closest Mark Twain candidate IMO would be The Gilded age but some find it a bit confusing due to being written by two different authors. I dont find it distracting in the slightest.

Coincidentally I am currently reading Connecticut Yankee.

[SonicMan46]

Big Mark Twain fan here too! 

Read most of his books as a boy-teen but have not returned to any lately - several decades ago wife and I saw Hal Holbrook on state locally doing a wonderful Twain show with a lot of quotes. Also own the PBS video below that we've watched multiple times.  Dave

 

[USMC1960s]

Connecticut Yankee is interesting because it begins jovially enough but becomes a very dark, pessimistic novel very quickly.

[USMC1960s]

I too would rate Moby-Dick as The Great American Novel.

[USMC1960s]

Visited the Mark Twain House in Hartford several times. That's well worth it. So is reading Fred Kaplan's The Singular Mark Twain.

[Karl Henning]

Any Mark Twain fans? Anniversary today of his birthday.
November 30, 1835 in the small town of Florida, Missouri but moved to nearby Hannibal as a young child.
"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" tied with "Moby-Dick" for the honor of being The Great American Novel.

A great fan, indeed.

[j winter]

Yep, I love Mark Twain.  Most recently I've spent time with his travel books, Innocents Abroad, etc.  Wonderful not only for his sense of humor, but as a fascinating window on another time and exotic places...