No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger (Mark Twain Library)
by Mark Twain
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mark TwainEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-10
ISBN: 0520242068
Number of pages: 212
Publisher: University of California Press
Book Reviews of No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger (Mark Twain Library)
Book Review: Utterly unexpected!
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine a situation where you and twelve other people are hiding in a cave from terrorists. However, there is a child crying and revealing the location of the group. If you choose to kill the baby by suffocating him, the group will be saved, but if you choose to not kill him, the group will be discovered and everyone will be killed. What do you do?
This kind of morality question comes to play within the Mark Twain's "Mysterious Stranger". Moral sense, an overall issue within the tale, is debated throughout the novel, with Twain criticizing it as a major human flaw.
Set in the small Austrian village of Eseldorf, the story begins with Theodore, the protagonist of the story and Twain's depiction of mankind, and his friends encountering an angel named Satan. Satan, the representation of Mark Twain's cynical views, performs an array of miracles to entice the kids, while shocks them with his sadistic murder of unruly clay figures that he had brought to life. Later, to display the widespread and universal problem of humanity, Satan takes young Theodore over a course of three trips ranging from France to China to India. As a result, the naïve Theodore begins to doubt himself at the controversial conclusion of the story.
Additionally, all sorts of symbols are scattered throughout the novel. The clay figurines that Satan creates symbolize a microcosmic view of mankind. Time and money both are presented as superficial since neither serves any useful purpose. Furthermore, the stones that the town pellets at an innocent lady represent the natural tendency of humans to conform to the mob mentality. Listed only are a few of the many symbols that Twain assimilates into his story.
The story was incomplete at the point of Mark Twain's untimely death, ultimately leaving a gaping hole to the story. But many scholars have contributed their endings to the novel, trying to seal the tear to the story.
In all, the story is truly an epic, integrating dark romantic and anti-transcendental elements with experiences from his life into the novella. It also presents a completely different fundamental approach to the world, regarding everything as nothing but a mere illusion and criticizing all of humankind for their innate moral flaws.
Summary of No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger (Mark Twain Library)
Mark Twain's fantastical last novel took him twelve years--and three long drafts--to complete. Based on boyhood memories of the Mississippi River Valley and of the print shops of Hannibal, the story is set in medieval Austria at the dawn of the printing craft. It is a psychic adventure, full of phantasmagoric effects, in which a penniless printer's apprentice--a youthful, mysterious stranger with the curious name 44--gradually reveals his otherworldly powers and the hidden possibilities of the mind. Ending on a startling note, this surprisingly existential novel reveals a darker side to the author's genius.This long-overlooked work appears here as Mark Twain intended it and replaces the bogus 1916 edition published by Albert Bigelow Paine, which relied on the first, instead of the final, draft, deleted one-fourth of the words, added a character, and misrepresented the ending. In addition, for the first time in the Mark Twain Library edition, a glossary of printer's terms is featured along with expert notes and commentary.
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