In 1866 Clemens set out for the trip from San Francisco to Honolulu with Pacific Steamboat Company. He worked on a ship as a correspondent for “The Sacramento Union”. Later he became traveling correspondent for California’s largest paper “Alta California”. His letters were immediately popular. He visited Isthmus of Panama, Europe, Holy Land etc. In 1869 he produce his letters as “The Innocence Abroad”. The book showed that Mark Twain had found a method of writing about travel. He described serious passages history, statistics, technical parameters etc.
In 1870 he met Olivia Langdon of Elmira. He fell in love. On February 2, 1870 they were married in New York. In September 1871 they moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Here Twain built a large house in which he and his family would live for next 20 years. They had three daughters. Much of his best work was written in the 1870s and 1880s in his house in Hartford or during the summers at Quarry Farm. It was the happiest and most productive period of his life.
In 1884 he formed the firm Charles L. Webster and Company to publish his books. He invested to the automatic typesetting machine and it led to the firm’s bankruptcy. Then he suffered big financial losses, he took his family to Europe where living was cheaper. He soon paid off his debts. In 1903 he and his family settled near Florence, Italy. Two of his daughters and wife died six month later and his health was undermined. This experience very influenced his next work. He was bitterish. He died, when Halley’s Comet appeared in the night sky. Before his death he said: “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again this year, and I expect to go out with it.”
He wrote “Roughing It” (1872), it is about his early adventures as a miner and journalist; “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”(1876) is perhaps his best book for a juvenile audience. It is situated in a small Mississippi River town. The main character is Tom Sawyer. He is a ordinary young boy with typical young boys’ problems. The book has happy end. This is very important for small readers. “A Tramp Abroad” (1880) describes a walking trip through the Black Forest of Germany and the Swiss Alps. “The Prince and the Pauper” (1882), is a children's book situated to the England; “Life on the Mississippi (1883) is about 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) is about England. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884), the sequel to Tom Sawyer, is considered as his masterpiece. This book I’ll describe in the next part of my essay.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
He wrote lots of books and I choose one of the most popular The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It is a story of young man named Huckleberry Finn and about his black friend Jim, we can find here also the figure named Tom Sawyer. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer inspires this book. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a free sequel to The Adventure of Tom Sawyer. Huck is relatively rich young boy who lived with a widow Douglas. She adopted him. He was rich, because he found the treasure in cave. He was very bored of a life with the widow Douglas. He had to be very proper. But it was very horrible for him. On this farm he met Jim. He was a black slave. He worked for widow Douglas. He had family, who worked for widow Douglas too. One day Tom said that they would find the gang. But there were very horrible rules. If somebody left the club and betrayed the secret, he and his family would be killed. Their activity would be to hold up passengers in coaches. It was crazy idea, but everybody agreed. Their idea of stealing wasn’t successful finished. They were as Don Quito, mainly Tom Sawyer. They imagined the enemy in various common things. A few weeks later the gang was canceled. One day Huck’s father came and took Huck from the widow Douglas. His father was a drunkard. He was very evil. Huck worried about his money.
Zaujímavosti o referátoch
Ďaľšie referáty z kategórie