Mark Twain on Religion: What is Man, The War Prayer, Thou Shalt Not Kill, The Fly, Letters from the Earth (Forgotten Books) [Paperback]

Mark Twain (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1605060364 | ISBN-13: 978-1605060361 | Publication Date: November 21, 2007

Book Description:

Mark Twain talks about his personal views on religion, the Bible and God, in these five writings.

Table of Contents:

Publisher’s Preface; What Is Man? And Other Essays Of Mark Twain; What Is Man?; The Death Of Jean; The Turning-point Of My Life; How To Make History Dates Stick; The Memorable Assassination; A Scrap Of Curious History; Switzerland, The Cradle Of Liberty; At The Shrine Of St. Wagner; William Dean Howells; English As She Is Taught; A Simplified Alphabet; As Concerns Interpreting The Deity; Concerning Tobacco; The Bee; Taming The Bicycle; Is Shakespeare Dead?; The War Prayer; Thou Shalt Not Kill; The Fly; Letters From The Earth

About the Publisher:

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org

Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

About the Author:

"Samuel Langhorne Clemens... better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is also known for his quotations. During his lifetime, Clemens became a friend to presidents, artists, leading industrialists and European royalty.

Clemens enjoyed immense public popularity, and his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. American author William Faulkner called Twain 'the father of American literature.'" (Quote from wikipedia.org)

Product Details

• Paperback: 435 pages
• Publisher: Forgotten Books (November 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605060364
• ISBN-13: 978-1605060361
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Twain but the title is a bit misleading, August 25, 2010

By 

Maximzodal (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mark Twain on Religion: What is Man, The War Prayer, Thou Shalt Not Kill, The Fly, Letters from the Earth (Forgotten Books) (Paperback)

I agree, you can't go wrong with Twain. There are 16 stories/articles before getting to the four "religious" articles so the title is not exactly accurate.

"What is man" is way too long.
"At the Shrine of St. Wagner", is laugh-out-loud funny.
"Is Shakespeare Dead?" very reasoned and interesting.
"Letters From Earth" was as I remembered from years ago.

"Letters . . ." was the main reason to get this book, so the other writing I consider a bonus.

BTW, much, if not all, of Twain's works are on the net.
My main gripe is that when a story cites figures, or notes, they are not included in the text.

4.0 out of 5 stars OVERALL, A PRETTY GOOD READ ( YOU CAN'T GO WRONG BY TWAIN), June 9, 2010

By 

Ernest Mirras "Taso" (Fort Collins, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mark Twain on Religion: What is Man, The War Prayer, Thou Shalt Not Kill, The Fly, Letters from the Earth (Forgotten Books) (Paperback)

For the MOST part, I enjoyed this book, although it covers more than religion. It covers a broader range, noting his (Twain's) opinions on a variety of subjects. Still, a good read. The 1st or 2nd chapter "What is Man" is a bit long and I got the point early on, but that's OK, what the heck I'm reading Twain. I personally and especially liked "Letters From The Earth", "The Fly", "Thou Shalt Not Kill", "The War Prayer", and "Is Shakespeare Dead" was dead on so to speak! I thought the story "Taming the Bicycle" was quite cute as was "Concerning Tobacco" although really not about religion. I also liked "As Concerns the Diety" and thought "How to Make History Dates Stick" was an interesting teaching method and a method he personally used to instruct his own children, which made him only more real in my eyes.

Aside from His Genius, Twain was still only Human (as we ALL are), and had a variety of opinions on a variety of subjects (as we all do). This book is about religion (a good part of it anyway) , but it is also about his personal philosophy and opinions and thoughts on a variety of other subjects that for the most part I found quite interesting and entertaining.

Overall, I Enjoyed the Book. Of course, I think Mark Twain was the greatest literary genius in our country's history. I think this because his genius was more than just writing, he was a person of conviction and opinion (often, actually very often, against the grain and not too popular during his time). I think he was certainly a philosopher, of sort, and certainly a man of many talents. Wouldn't it have been great to have Twain around during our time to listen to and read his opinions on more recent, especially political and religious matters. You can only Dream!!!!!!

10 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cheap offset print, poor choice of typeface, November 25, 2009

By 

Chinook (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mark Twain on Religion: What is Man, The War Prayer, Thou Shalt Not Kill, The Fly, Letters from the Earth (Forgotten Books) (Paperback)

The disclaimer on page ii alone is enough reason not to buy this edition:

"Forgotten Books takes the uppermost care to preserve the wording and images from the original book. However, this book has been scanned and reformatted from the original, and as such we cannot guarantee that it is free from errors or contains the full content of the original."