Maxima Library

Hank Morgan finds himself transported back to England's Dark Ages — where he is immediately captured and sentenced to death at Camelot. Fortunately, he's quick-witted, and in the process of saving his life he turns himself into a celebrity — winning himself the position of prime minister as well as the lasting enmity of Merlin.

Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with the poetry and vigor of the American people, Mark Twain's story about a young boy and his journey down the Mississippi was the first great novel to speak in a truly American voice. Influencing subsequent generations of writers — from Sherwood Anderson to Twain's fellow Missourian, T.S. Eliot, from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner to J.D. Salinger — Huckleberry Finn, like the river which flows through its pages, is one of the great sources which nourished and still nourishes the literature of America.

Mark Twains glücklich wiedergefundene Meisternovelle «A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage» ist vergnügliche Abenteuergeschichte, irrlichterne Romanze und spannende Kriminalstory in einem. Die deutsche Erstübersetzung erscheint 125 Jahre nach der Niederschrift zeitgleich mit der amerikanischen Originalausgabe.

Titel der amerikanischen Originalausgabe:

«A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage»

Nachwort von Georg Klein

«La mayoría de las aventuras que refiero en este libro son reflejo de la realidad, una o dos me han ocurrido a mí mismo, el resto son anécdotas de otros niños, compañeros míos de la escuela. Huck Finn ha existido, Tom Sawyer también, si bien no se trata de un solo individuo, es una combinación de las características de tres chiquillos amigos. Es pues un trabajo arquitectónico de orden compuesto.

Las raras supersticiones de las que doy fe prevalecían entre los niños y los esclavos del Oeste en la época de este relato.

A pesar de que destino este libro a pasatiempo de muchachos, espero que no lo despreciarán los hombres ni las mujeres, ya que en parte está compuesto con la idea de despertar recuerdos del pasado en los adultos y exponer cómo sentían, pensaban y hablaban, y en qué raras empresas se embarcaban».

Tom Sawyer est un héros de fiction créé par Mark Twain qui apparaît en 1876 dans Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer. Inspiré de la jeunesse de l'auteur, c'est un personnage qui est devenu un symbole de liberté dans la culture populaire, mais que Twain a dépeint de manière contrastée et parfois critique.

Thomas Sawyer est un garçon orphelin, d'âge indéterminé, qui ne pense qu'à faire l'école buissonnière avec Huckleberry Finn et Joe Harper, à s'identifier aux personnages de ses romans d'aventures préférés et à jouer des tours à ses camarades. Amoureux de Becky, il n'a de cesse de l'impressionner, et lorsqu'il se retrouve perdu avec elle dans une grotte où ils sont bien près de mourir, il fait preuve de courage et fait tout son possible pour la consoler alors que lui-même est terrorisé.

Ce sont là les aspects du personnage qui ont donné de lui une image convenue d'enfant généreux, anti-conformiste, courageux et libre. Tom Sawyer représente ainsi aux yeux du public un certain idéal de l'enfant américain par ses qualités d'intelligence et de cœur.

Letters from the Earth is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. Initially, his daughter objected to its publication, probably because of its controversial and iconoclastic views on religion. The book consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. The title story consists of letters written by the archangel Satan to another archangel, Gabriel, about his observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of man's religions. Other short stories in the book include a bedtime story about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters, and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man. "Letters from the Earth." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 6 Nov 2007, 00:34 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 Nov 2007

One evening in Paris in 1879, The Stomach Club, a society of American writers and artists, gathered to drink well, to eat a good dinner and hear an address by Mark Twain. He was among friends and, according to the custom of the club, he delivered a humorous talk on a subject hardly ever mentioned in public in that day and age. After the meeting, he preserved the manuscript among his papers. It was finally printed in a pamphlet limited to 50 copies 64 years later. The speech satirically dealt with masturbation and the bane it is on our society. His remarks rubbed Victorian society the wrong way, and were censored for a century.

Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835–1910), quintessential American humorist, lecturer, essayist, and author wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Ce court recueil de nouvelles policières fait figure de «chef-d’œuvre inconnu» dans l’œuvre de Mark Twain. L’auteur s’y joue avec maestria des règles du genre en les moquant, en dépoussiérant les codes en vigueur dans l’ancien monde – celui que Sherlock Holmes incarne à merveille!

Et il se donne autant de prétextes pour afficher la fraîcheur, la force et la jeunesse du Nouveau Monde, le sien, et le lieu de cette aventure réelle.

An anthology of stories

The Devil is known by many names: Serpent, Tempter, Beast, Adversary, Wanderer, Dragon, Rebel. His traps and machinations are the stuff of legends. His faces are legion. No matter what face the devil wears, Sympathy for the Devil has them all. Edited by Tim Pratt, Sympathy for the Devil collects the best Satanic short stories by Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Stephen King, Kage Baker, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Kelly Link, China Mieville, Michael Chabon, and many others, revealing His Grand Infernal Majesty, in all his forms. Thirty-five stories, from classics to the cutting edge, exploring the many sides of Satan, Lucifer, the Lord of the Flies, the Father of Lies, the Prince of the Powers of the Air and Darkness, the First of the Fallen… and a Man of Wealth and Taste. Sit down and spend a little time with the Devil.

From the #1

New York Times

best-selling author of

God Is Not Great

, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages—with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices—past and present—that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they’re all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens—“political and literary journalist extraordinaire” (

Los Angeles Times

).

Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter:

The Portable Atheist

will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.

Was macht diesen Klassiker der Weltliteratur so unsterblich? Es sind die Abenteuer der beiden Jungen, dargestellt mit einer köstlichen und trockenen, humoristischen Erzählweise, die uns in einer wunderbaren Warmherzigkeit an den Ort des Geschehens führt, uns die Abenteuer packend und unvergesslich miterleben läßt...

Titelillustration und Innenillustrationen von Eckhard Freytag.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tri Noveloj by Washington Irving