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 Langhome Clemens ( 1835 - 1910 ), American writer an
A Brief Introduction of Mark Twain Twain, Mark, pseudonym(笔名) of Samuel Langhome Clemens ( 1835 - 1910 ), American writer an
admin
2010-01-26
21
问题
A Brief Introduction of Mark Twain
Twain, Mark, pseudonym(笔名) of Samuel Langhome 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 printers, 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; 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 pair’s 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 he is breaking the laws of the time by he]ping Jim escape. Huckleberry Finn, which is almost entirely narrated from Huck’s point of view, is noted for its authentic language and for its deep commitment to freedom. 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, Following 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 Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), a novel set in the South before the Civil War that criticizes racism by focusing on mistaken racial identities, 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 but 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 he 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 he 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.
In Mark Twain’s later years, what he mainly did was______.
选项
答案
making speeches in public
解析
从最后一段前两句我们可以得出这一答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/xVdK777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Pollutionhasbecomeaseriousprobleminalmostallthebigcitiesoftheworld.Citypeoplearebecomingmoreandmoreworried
Thecostofheatingyourhome,particularlyduringthecolderwintermonths,makesupabout60%ofenergybills.Ifyouneedan
Manypeoplesuspectthatcreditcardslurepeopleto______.Acreditcardusercancontrolhimselftotakebetteradvantageof
Howeveryouviewcreditcards,it’shardtoliveinthemodernworldwithoutone.Andifyouhaveone,youoweittoyourselfto
A、Sheiseagertobeacceptedbytheuniversity.B、SheiswaitingtoseeifshecouldgetthejobfromCole’s.C、Sheisexpectin
A、Theyareveryappealingwithinterestingarticles.B、TheymakemoneybyexposingreaderstoadvertisingC、Theydofreeadverti
Obviously,theboysinJonesboroandChicagodonothaveany______.Whatdoeshumansocietydependontomakeprogressaccordi
__________(我们一旦让他知道了真相),weexperiencethenightmare.
Anineyearoldschoolgirlsinglehandedlycooksupasciencefairexperimentthatendsupdebunking(揭穿真相)awildlypracticedm
随机试题
患者平日喜食油煎、辛辣和肥甘厚味之物,近日,口渴多饮伴有口臭、便秘、眩晕等症状,根据描述回答问题。久食油煎、辛辣之物会损伤()。
考生文件夹下存在一个数据库文件“samp2.mdb”,里面已经设计好“tEmp”和“tGrp”两个关联表对象及表对象“tBmp”和“tTmp”。试按以下要求完成设计:(1)以表对象“tEmp”为数据源,创建一个查询,查找并显示年龄大于等于40的职工的“编
喜剧具有的外在形式特征是()
与债务人有利害关系的第三人替代债务人履行债务的,若债务人提出异议,债权人______。
患者。女,27岁。产后第3周出现恶寒发热,右乳肿胀疼痛,体温38.7℃,体检见乳房肿大,皮色微红,无波动感。治宜
关于我国人民法院对民事案件的审理,下列说法错误的是()。
M2中不包括下面各项中的()。
危机管理策划是指为防止爆发危机或者危机发生后为减少消除危机带来的风险与损失,通过策划手段使人更有效地掌握事物和社会舆论及一些办法与措施的综合过程。根据上述定义,下列不属于危机管理策划的一项是()
云团_________地移动着,被吞没了多时的满月一下子跳出来,像一个刚出炼炉的银盘,辉煌灿烂,银光耀眼,把整个大地照得________的,荷叶上的青蛙,草丛里的蚂蚱和树枝上的小鸟,都被这突然_________的光明惊醒,欢呼、跳跃,高声鸣唱起来。填入划横
皮亚杰认为,思维起源于动作,而动作的本质是主体对客体的()
最新回复
(
0
)