首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A Brief Introduction of Mark Twain Twain, Mark, pseudonym(笔名)of Samuel Langhorne Clemens(1835-1910), American writer and hum
A Brief Introduction of Mark Twain Twain, Mark, pseudonym(笔名)of Samuel Langhorne Clemens(1835-1910), American writer and hum
admin
2013-06-02
21
问题
A Brief Introduction of Mark Twain
Twain, Mark, pseudonym(笔名)of Samuel Langhorne Clemens(1835-1910), American writer and humorist, whose best work is characterized by broad, often irreverent(不敬的)humor or biting social satire. Twain’s writing is also known for realism of place and language, memorable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy and oppression.
Early Years
Born in Florida, Missouri, Clemens moved with his family to Hannibal, Missouri, a port on the Mississippi River, when he was four years old. There he received a public school education. After the death of his father in 1847, Clemens was apprenticed to two Hannibal primers, and in 1851 he began setting type for and contributing sketches to his brother Orion’s Hannibal Journal. Subsequently he worked as a printer in Keokuk, Iowa; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and other cities. Later Clemens was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River until the American Civil War (1861-1865) brought an end to travel on the river. In 1861 Clemens served briefly as a volunteer soldier in the Confederate cavalry. Later that year he accompanied his brother to the newly created Nevada Territory, where he tried his hand at silver mining. In 1862 he became a reporter on the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada, and in 1863 he began signing his articles with the pseudonym Mark Twain, a Mississippi River phrase meaning "two fathoms deep." After moving to San Francisco, California, in 1864, Twain met American writers Artemus Ward and Bret Harte, who encouraged him in his work. In 1865 Twain reworked a tale he had heard in the California gold fields, and within months the author and the story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," had become national sensations.
Years of Maturity
In 1867 Twain lectured in New York City, and in the same year he visited Europe and Palestine. He wrote of these travels in The Innocents Abroad (1869), a book exaggerating those aspects of European culture that impress American tourists. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon. After living briefly in Buffalo, New York, the couple moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Much of Twain’s best work was written in the 1870s and 1880s in Hartford or during the summers at Quarry Farm, near Elmira, New York. Roughing It (1872) recounts his early adventures as a miner and journalist; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) celebrates boyhood in a town on the Mississippi River; A Tramp Abroad (1880) describes a walking trip through the Black Forest of Germany and the Swiss Alps; The Prince and the Pauper (1882), a children’s book, focuses on switched identities in Tudor England; Life on the Mississippi (1883) combines an autobiographical account of his experiences as a river pilot with a visit to the Mississippi nearly two decades after he left it; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) satirizes oppression in feudal England.
About His Masterpiece
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the sequel to Tom Sawyer, is considered Twain’s masterpiece. The book is the story of the title character, known as Huck, a boy who flees his father by rafting down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave, Jim. The pails adventures show Huck(and the reader)the cruelty of which men and women are capable. Another theme of the novel is the conflict between Huck’s feelings of friendship with Jim, who is one of the few people he can trust, and his knowledge that be is breaking the laws of the time by helping Jim escape. Huckleberry Finn, which is al most entirely narrated from Huck’s point of view, is noted for its authentic language and for its deep commitment to free dom. Huck’s adventures also provide the reader with a panorama of American life along the Mississippi before the Civil War. Twain’s skill in capturing the rhythms of that life help make the book one of the masterpieces of American literature.
Turning Point
In 1884 Twain formed the firm Charles L. Webster and Company to publish his and other writers ’works, notably Personal Memoirs(two volumes, 1885-1886)by American general and president Ulysses S. Grant A disastrous investment in an automatic typesetting machine led to the firm’s bankruptcy in 1894. A successful worldwide lecture tour and the book based on those travels, Fallowing the Equator(1897), paid off Twain’s debts.
Twain’s work during the 1890s and the 1900s is marked by growing pessimism and bitterness-the result of his business reverses and, later, the deaths of his wife and two daughters. Significant works of this period are Puddinhead Wilson (1894), a novel set in the South before the Civil War that criticizes racism by focusing on mistaken racial identifies, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), a sentimental biography. Twain’s other later writings include short stories, the best known of which are "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" (1899) and "The War Prayer" (1905); philosophical, social, and political essays; the manuscript of "The Mysterious Stranger," an uncompleted piece that was published posthumously in 1916; and autobiographical dictations.
His Influence
Twain’s work was inspired by the unconventional West, and the popularity of his work marked the end of the domination of American Literature by New England writers. He is justly renowned as a humorist but was not always appreciated by the writers of his time as anything more than that. Successive generations of writers, however, recognized the role that
Twain played in creating a truly American literature. He portrayed uniquely American subjects in a humorous and colloquial, yet poetic, language. his success in creating this plain hut evocative language precipitated the end of American reverence for British and European culture and for the more formal language associated with those traditions. His adherence to American themes, settings, and language set him apart from many other novelists of the day and had a powerful effect on such later American writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, both of whom pointed to Twain as an inspiration for their own writing.
Later Years
In Twain’s later years he wrote less, but be became a celebrity, frequently speaking out on public issues. He also came to be known for the white linen suit he always wore when making public appearances. Twain received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1907. When he died be left an uncompleted autobiography, which was eventually edited by his secretary, Albert Bigelow Paine, and published in 1924. In 1990 the first half of a handwritten manuscript of Huckleberry Finn was discovered in Hollywood, California. After a series of legal battles over ownership, the portion, which included previously unpublished material, was reunited with its second half, which had been housed at the Buffalo and Erie County (New York) Public Library, in 1992. A revised edition of Huckleberry Finn including the unpublished material was released in 1996.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
B
解析
从文章第二段可知在马克·吐温的父亲1847年去世,也就是他12岁的时候,他就开始做工了,因此谈不上有良好的教育。他作品的基础是他丰富的生活经验。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/laB7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
PartyRandomThoughtsLastnight,pressuredbywdl4ntentionedfriends,forthefirsttimeinmonths,Icameoutofwriter’s
RisingbrightandearlyonaSaturdayusedtobeamatterofsurvivalinGermany.【S1】the1990smostshopsclosedfortheweekend
TheScienceofInterruptionsIn2000,GloriaMarkwashiredasaprofessorattheUniversityofCalifornia.Shewouldarrive
Itwasgoingtohaveroughlytheeffectofaneutronbombattackonhighstreetsandshoppingmalls.Thebuildingswouldbeleft
A、Theinternationalinsuranceinherhomecountry.B、Thestudenthealthinsurance.C、Bothoftheinternationalinsuranceandthe
Peoplebornintheautumnlivelongerthanthoseborninthespring.Andtheyarelesslikelytofall【B1】______illwhentheyare
A、ManyarchitectsstudiedwithWright.B、WrightstartedthepracticeofEnvelopeBuilding.C、WrightusedelementsofEnvelopeBu
A、Becauseeveryspeciesbecomesextinct.B、Becausehumansbeingsarepowerfulenoughtokillotherspecies.C、Becauseofover-po
A、Governmentfunded.B、Political.C、Private.D、Noneoftheabove.C细节题。由文章中“Theprivateorganizationknownas“ChildHopeU.S.
A、Itsscarceproteins.B、Itsterribletaste.C、Itsmanyvitamins.D、Thedifficultyoffindingit.BWhatisoneofthedrawbacks
随机试题
公文在机关内部从形成到运转处理所必须经过的一系列环节叫做()
男性,32岁,急刹车致方向盘挤压上腹部16小时,上腹部持续胀痛,伴恶心、呕吐。查体:体温38.4℃,上腹部肌紧张明显,有压痛,反跳痛不明显,无移动性浊音,肠鸣音存在。本例最可能受损伤的脏器是
职业性有害因素对妇女产生的异常妊娠结局不包括
患者停经42天,阴道出血2天,色深红,质稠,伴口苦,烦渴,失眠,尿黄便秘等症,舌红,苔薄黄,脉滑数。妊娠试验阳性。最佳治法是()
中江贸易。(香港)有限公司系中江国际贸易(公司)派驻香港的全资子公司,受总公司的委托为天津中江服装饰品厂对外签约订货。本提单之运输工具于2001年1月16日向天津海关申报进口。“单价”栏应填()。
如果到11月份交割的时候,假设现货豆价跌到2000元/吨,11月合约期货价格跌至2100元/吨,此时农场主在期货市场平掉空头持仓,盈亏毛额为()元
(2015年)大华公司是上海证券交易所上市公司,总股本10亿元。公司董事长赵某通过自己控股的华星公司持有大华公司51%的股份。网商公司是一家有限责任公司,股东钱某持股90%、孙某持股10%。网商公司最近3年的净利润分别为2亿元、—1亿元、3000万元。
在介入初期和中期,过程评估的工作重点有()。
《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要(2010-2020年)》的工作方针是()。
胡世宁,字永清,仁和人。弘治六年进士。性刚直,不畏强御,且知兵。除德安推官。岐王初就藩,从官骄,世宁裁之。迁广西太平知府。太平知州李浚数杀掠吏民,世宁密檄龙英、知州赵元瑶擒之。母丧归。服阕赴京。道沧州,流寇攻城急,世宁即驰入城,画防守计。贼攻七日
最新回复
(
0
)