Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens,1835-1910),was an American writer,journalist and humorist,who won a worldwide audience for his stories of the youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Clemens was born on November 30,1835 in Florida,Missouri,of a Virginian family.He was brought up in Hannibal,Missouri.After his father's death in 1847,he was apprenticed to a printer and wrote for his brother's newspaper.He later worked as a licensed Mississippi river-boat pilot.The Civil War put an end to the steamboat traffic and Clemens moved to Virginia City,where he edited the Territorial Enterprise.On February 3,1863,'Mark Twain' was born when Clemens signed a humorous travel account with that pseudonym.
In 1864 Twain left for California,and worked in San Francisco as a reporter.He visited Hawaii as a correspondent for The Sacramento Union,publishing letters on his trip and giving lectures.He set out on a world tour,traveling in France and Italy.His experiences were recorded in 1869 in The Innocents Abroad,which gained him wide popularity,and poked fun at both American and European prejudices and manners.
The success as a writer gave Twain enough financial security to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870.They moved next year to Hartford.Twain continued to lecture in the United States and England.Between 1876 and 1884 he published several masterpieces,Tom Sawyer (1881) and The Prince And The Pauper (1881).Life On The Mississippi appeared in 1883 andHuckleberry Finn in 1884.
In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earnings in financial speculations and in the failure of his own publishing firm.To recover from the bankruptcy,he started a world lecture tour,during which one of his daughters died.Twain toured New Zealand,Australia,India,and South Africa.He wrote such books as The Tragedy Of Pudd'head Wilson (1884),Personal Recollections Of Joan Of Arc (1885),A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and the travel book Following The Equator (1897).During his long writing career,Twain also produced a considerable number of essays.
The death of his wife and his second daughter darkened the author's later years,which is seen in his posthumously published autobiography (1924).Twain died on April 21,1910
汤姆索亚历险记英文简介
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a literary masterpieces,written in 1876 by the famous author Mark Twain.Tom Sawyer is a mischievous young boy who lives in the small town on the Mississippi River called St.Petersburg.The story line is simple,the book reads like a biography or a memoir of a summer in Tom Sawyer's life.
Tom Sawyer seems to be the precursor of and the template for misfit kids such as Dennis the Menace,Malcolm in the Middle,and Calvin and Hobbs.What makes this story great is that Tom Sawyer represents everything that is great about childhood.The book is filled with Tom's adventures playing pirates and war with his friend Joe Harper.Tom has a trusted friend,Huck Finn,who few of the adults approve of.The book is filled with ideas of how the world works,such as how pirates and robbers work,that are so innocent,they could only come from a child.It is a story filled with action,adventure,ingenious ideas,love,and schoolyard politics.The whole story is seemingly a complication of what people did or wish they did during their childhood.
The book is a little difficult to read at first.Personally,it takes me a little while to get used to the 19th century dialect in the book.Other than referring to persons of African decent in derogatory terms (which I'm sure uses terms even young children already know),the book would be an enjoyable read for people of all ages.I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to feel young again,if just for a few hundred pages.
