DWD's Reviews

Originally published in 1884 (U.K.) and 1885 (U.S.) This audiobook version published in 2008 by Tantor Audio. Read by William Dufris. Duration: 9 hours, 44 minutes. Unabridged. I would feel silly writing a synopsis of this book. This is the book that Ernest Hemingway said is the source of all modern American literature. It is almost universally recognized as not only "a" Great American Novel, but is oftentimes acclaimed as "THE" Great American Novel. So, I will skip all of that discussion and just move on to a review of the audiobook presentation and what I thought of the book. The audiobook reader was William Dufris (1958-2020),  a celebrated voice over actor and the reader of dozens and dozens of audiobooks. He did a fantastic job of creating voice after voice after voice. It was quite impressive. An original illustration by E.W. Kemble from the 1884 printing of this book As for the novel, well that was less impressive than I remembered. I read this book in eleme...

Published by Oasis Audio in 2013. Read by Dean Gallagher. Duration: 4 hours, 58 minutes. Unabridged. Brian Zahnd is an American pastor of a megachurch in Missouri. I had never heard of him before I ran across this book. I was intrigued by the topic because the election of President Trump has been an interesting experience for this lifelong member of a religiously conservative church. Over time, Zahnd has become convinced that pacifism is the way that Jesus would have us go. It is not a popular opinion, but Zahnd makes a strong argument for it. Zahnd's message is essentially that the church is at its best when it acts like the Old Testament prophet Nathan in 2nd Samuel chapter 12. Nathan comes to David to tell him he had done a great wrong and call him on it. Now, according to Zahnd, t he church went from being the accuser of wrong-doing - the one that holds it to a high standard - to being the defense attorney of the government. Zahnd describes it as  the church is the chapla...

The commentary is actually more interesting than the story Mark Twain (1835-1910) Literary critic Edward Wagenknecht called 1601 "the most famous piece of pornography in American literature." Just to be clear, it's not really pornography, at least not by modern standards. Rather, it's a short story featuring Queen Elizabeth I, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Shakespeare, the Duchess of Bilgewater, Sir Walter Raleigh and a few other people all in a closet talking about passing gas and sex. Sound strange? Well, it is and only so-so funny. 3/4 of this download is a fairly interesting commentary on the history of the story and about the characters. We learn that Twain wrote this as a diversion after the publication of Tom Sawyer (while he was working on Huckleberry Finn) during a time of writer's block. Twain showed it to some friends who published a few copies and then it snowballed. Twain's 1601 went "viral" before there was an intern...

Not Twain's best work. Mark Twain (1835-1910) Twain says that On the Decay of the Art of Lying was an essay written in 1885 for a $30 prize for the "Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford". Twain notes that he did not win a prize for this essay. The essay focuses on the lost art of lying. Twain discusses different kinds of lies, situations in which people lie and why all lies are not bad. The essay is sometimes funny but mostly sounds like an old stand up routine about good lies and bad lies. The Kindle version is very short - only 86 locations which equals about 12 regular pages. I rate this essay 3 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: On the Decay of the Art of Lying by Mark Twain. Reviewed on May 28, 2009.

Story of a trip by Mark Twain to Bermuda - starts fairly weak and ends strong Mark Twain (1835-1910) The title of this essay has it right - these are just a series of stories about a trip that Twain and some friends took to Bermuda from New York City. Twain wrote this for "The Atlantic" in 1877 and his wry style makes him an excellent travel companion. In reality, Twain's story of the trip is the story of the people he meets along the way. Most of the stories are humorous, some are duds and about an equal number are quite funny. I won't forget the story about the town with the cat situation for quite a while. Twain on Bermuda: " We never met a man, or woman, or child anywhere in this sunny island who seemed to be unprosperous, or discontented, or sorry about anything. This sort of monotony became very tiresome presently, and even something worse. The spectacle of an entire nation groveling in contentment is an infuriating thing ....

For being such a short story, I found The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg to be a slow, fairly tedious morality story that just did not do it for me. Disappointing because I have just read two Twain essays that I enjoyed thoroughly for their sarcasm and wit. This one was, in the end, just a story with about as much humor and interest for me as The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. A morality play, nothing more, nothing less. Mark Twain (1835-1910) The story is set in the town of Hadleyburg - a town known far and wide for its impeccable honesty. But, a stranger passing through was offended at some point in time by the residents of Hadleyburg and decides to ruin their reputation with an elaborate plot and the promise of a fortune. Hidden truths are exposed as the town falls for the trap. I rate this short story 3 stars out of a possible 5 stars. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg . Reviewed July 12, 2010.

Nearly 20 years ago I saw the movie The Last of the Mohicans . I knew it was probably not too much like the books, but I was inspired to read James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales I; The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie , a collection of his work featuring Natty Bumpo (Hawkeye) and I found them to be horrible. Not just bad, but darn near unreadable. Note that I am a top reviewer at Amazon. I love books. I hate this author even though I love American history (I am a history teacher), I love frontier stories and I was certainly pre-disposed to like his works. But, I've always kept my opinions to myself, despite the fact that he had one sentence that lasted more than two pages describing a banquet table that featured a near endless string of semi-colons. James Fenimore Cooper Until now. If Mark Twain, the quintessential American writer finds Cooper wordy, clunky and darn near unreadable (to be specific, Twain calls his work "a crime agains...

Before reading this brilliant essay you must be familiar with Percy Bysshe Shelley , a 19th century English poet and perhaps, nowadays, most famous for being married to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein . His most famous bit of poetry in modern times is: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Before reading this essay, read a short online biography about Mr. Shelley so that you can follow along with some knowledge of the basics. Twain's essay is actually a long review of a biography of Shelley by Edward Dowden: Life of Shelley , a book that is extremely dismissive of Harriet Shelley, Percy Shelley's first wife - the one he left pregnant and with a child at home so that he could run away to Europe with Mary. In no way is Twain's essay fair towards Percy Shelley - it does not try to be and I do not think that it should be. It's hard to defend a man who leaves his pregnant wife for a teenag...