Selected Works of Mark Twain: Chinese-English Parallel Text

Author: Mark Twain | Translator
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Mark Twain (1835–1910) was an American writer. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. "Mark Twain" was his pen name. He was born into a poor country lawyer family in Hannibal, a small town on the Mississippi River. From a young age, he worked as an apprentice. He was a typesetter, a Mississippi River pilot, a Confederate soldier, and also ran businesses in timber, mining, and publishing. His effective work was as a journalist and writing humorous literature. Mark Twain was the founder of American critical realism literature and a world-renowned master of short stories. He experienced the development of the United States from "free" capitalism to imperialism, and his thoughts and works also reflected a progression from light-hearted humor to biting satire to pessimistic disillusionment. His early works, such as the short story "The Campaign for Governor" (1870) and "Rip Van Winkle" (1870), used a humorous and witty style to mock the absurdity of American "democratic elections" and the essence of a "democratic paradise." His mid-career works, such as the novel "The Gilded Age" (1874, co-written with Warner), the masterpiece "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1886), and "The Prince and the Pauper" (1893), used a profound and biting tone to satirize and expose the rampant speculation, gold fever, and dark, inhumane social realities and brutal racial discrimination in the United States. Through the story of a white boy, Huckleberry Finn, traveling down the Mississippi River with an escaped slave, Jim, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" not only criticizes the barbarity of feudal family feuds and private punishments but also satirizes the hypocrisy and ignorance of religion, condemns the evils of slavery, praises the excellent qualities of the enslaved, and promotes the progressive idea that everyone, regardless of race or status, deserves freedom. The text is fresh and powerful, with a natural and unique perspective, and is considered a groundbreaking realist work in American literary history. In the late 19th century, as the United States entered the stage of imperialism, the critical and exposing significance of some of Mark Twain's travel writings, essays, and political commentaries, such as "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1897), the novella "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg" (1900), and "The Mysterious Stranger" (1916), gradually diminished, while a sense of despair and mystery grew. Mark Twain was hailed as the "Lincoln of American Literature." Most of his major works have been translated into Chinese.