A Million Pounds - World Literature Library

Author: Mark Twain
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The Million Pound Note is adapted from the same-named novel by the famous American novelist Mark Twain. It tells the story of a poor American boy, Henry Adams, who has an encounter in London. Two wealthy men in London make a bet, lending Henry an irredeemable million-pound note to see how he would fare in a month. By the end of the month, Henry not only didn’t starve or get arrested but became a millionaire and won the love of a beautiful young lady. The film recreates the satire and humor of the master’s novel with a slightly exaggerated artistic style, exposing the materialism of early 20th-century British society. The Million Pound Note is written in a very humorous and entertaining way, with joy spilling off the pages. The $30,000 Bequest contains satire, showing how money twists people’s thoughts and emotions, leading the protagonist to become dizzy with confusion and, in the end, "drowning in a dream of hazy regret and sorrow," realizing before death that "sudden, ill-gotten wealth is a trap." In The Gilded Man, Mark Twain puts away his smile, full of biting satire, stripping off the hypocritical masks of those "honest and proud" upright citizens, revealing their greedy faces of "both wanting to be a harlot and setting up a moral high ground." This can also be called "laughter," but it is a cold, sharp kind of laughter.