Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain

Mark Twain is one of my favorite American authors and I was surprised upon reading this book that I had not heard of it before, even though I had read the classics by him, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and I loved those. Letters from the Earth is a short work, that basically takes religion and the hypocrisy of society to task.

Anti-Stratfordian Mark Twain, wrote "Is Shakespeare Dead?" shortly before his death in 1910. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The story is told from Satan’s point of view upon visiting earth. He is writing back to the other angels in heaven and reporting on what he sees on earth, how the humans behave and their beliefs. He does not hold any punches and still manages to be funny. It has many memorable lines and insights.

Letters From The Earth - Complete Edition

The commentary by Satan is very harsh and seems contrary to Twains, more humorous writings, but according to Wikipedia:

Letters from the Earth is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. The essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters.

If you don’t have a Kindle or eReader click to check them out: Kindle

One of the many quotes that I marked was:

“Adam and Eve entered the world naked and unashamed - naked and pure-minded; and no descendant of theirs has ever entered otherwise, All have entered naked, unashamed, and clean in mind. The have entered it modet. They had to acquire immodesty and the soiled mind; there was no other way to get it. A Christian mother’s first duty is to soil her child’s mind, and she does not neglect it. her lad grows up to be a missionary, and goes to the innocent savage and to the civilized Japanese, and soils their minds. Whereupon they adopt immodesty, they conceal their bodies, they stop bathing naked together.”

Download a sample and read some of Mark Twain’s most honest writings from a time when even America’s leading humorist could not publish such biting criticism.

See my other posts by Twain:
Tom Sawyer
Autobiography
Biography

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The Song of the Lark

Song of the Lark

By Willa Cather

Published 1915

Free on Kindle

I previously wrote about another novel by Willa Cather (1873-1947), The Professor’s House, and cover her history a bit more in that one. She is one of the best American novelists, considered in the top 10 and won the Pulitzer Prize for  One of Ours in 1922, a novel set in World War 1.

The Song of the Lark was written in 1915 and the story takes place in 1890s Colorado. The area is still being settled and there are many different groups of people living together during the frontier days. The story follows a young musician, Thea Kronberg, as she develops as an artists.

Novels that follow a character from early youth to adulthood are called Bildungsroman, a German term meaning a “novel of education.” Other notable Bildungsromans are A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and my favorite novel Of Human Bondage. See my post.

I have started work on my Master’s Thesis and I am writing about The Song of the Lark using a postcolonial theory lens to analyze characters. The idea for this paper came about because of readings I was doing for an American literature class on Modernism. Thats the early 20th century. I was reading the book when I started to get a real positive portrayal of the Mexican characters. This stood out because I had finished a previous novel, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, where the Mexican characters were portrayed or described very negatively. I kept reading the novel and got a more complex approach, in that some of the white characters insult the Mexican characters and other are looked down upon for being friends with them. I thought that Cather was doing something interesting with the race relations in the novel and wanted to explore that a bit more.  I wanted to do an analysis of the characters so that I could understand more about what was going on with them and what Cather was saying implicitly and through the narration.

Cather is a very skilled writer and can put two sentences together to give meaning and complicate ideas without having to say anything. She did not want to be limited in her interpretation so she leaves things unsaid, using silence to leave open the many possible interpretations of the text.

The Song of the Lark is the latest novel I have read by Cather and is currently my favorite. This is the second book in her “Prairie Trilogy,” following O Pioneers! and preceding My Antonia. Both of which are free in ebook. Download some samples and start reading some of the best American Literature.

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These Dreams of You

These Dreams of You
By Steve Erickson
Published January 2012


The latest work by Steve Erickson is different from his previous novels but contains some of the same great writing techniques. Erickson emphasizes repetition in his stories. He repeats certain lines and ideas often in different characters or scenes. He interweaves plot points that make it so that you know what is going to happen and you enjoy how he cleverly incorporates the repetition. Hes connected different novels by having a character from one novel be the main character in another. This novel is not post-apocalyptic American, like his usual books, but covers more contemporary and controversial topics.

Repetition is an important aspect of storytelling because readers and listeners can connect with what is being said and follow along. This is a recurring technique used for thousands of years. All stories are newer versions of other ones and how they are written and told is what makes them new and interesting.

In These Dreams of You Erickson manages to interweaves different fictions that can be a little confusing. You really have to pay attention and stay on track with the writer to follow along. That is not a problem with the great writing that you can expect from one of the best American Novelists and a Guggenheim fellow. He has been producing great novels now for over 20 years. Download a sample and enjoy this latest novel by Steve Erickson.

Check out Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited for $9.99 You can read an unlimited amount of books for a monthly fee. It’s like Netflix for ebooks.

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The Professor's House

Willa Cather
The Professor's House - $4.65
Published in 1925

Willa Cather was a Pulitzer Prize winning American writer. She was a very confident writer, working for years on novels to produce a very specific voice. She did not fit in with other women writers of her time and is said to have “regarded most women writers with disdain, judging them overly sentimental and mawkish.” She is now recognized as a major American writer and the foremost woman writer.

In undergrad, I had the pleasure of taking a Willa Cather course with a renowned Cather Scholar Dr. Margaret Doane. Dr. Doane has published over 60 articles and papers dealing with many themes in various Cather novels. We read several novels by Willa Cather and The Professor’s House was the one that made the most impact on me.

The novel is split into three parts. The first concerns the family of Professor Godfrey St. Peter and the midlife crisis he is experiencing after winning an award for his life’s work. He has lost his lust for life after publishing his life’s work and still having a life to live after. He has become estranged with his family and is mourning the death of a brilliant pupil, Tom Outland. The second part is the story of Tom Outland that the Professor is editing from Tom’s journals. The last part concerns the Professor trying to hang on to his old life while his family is away on a trip in Europe.

The novel, like most great novels, has inspired a wide array of readings. A common reading of the novel is that it’s a “story about the moral decline of a money driven society.” This was a popular reading of the novel for many years until the novel and Willa Cather began to be studied more widely. Dr. Doane was the first to do a feminist reading of The Professor’s House. Willa Cather was a woman writing a man’s view of women. Generally, the views of the male characters were viewed as her views. It wasn't until doing a feminist reading of the novel that you can see that “the Professor strongly feels women, particularly those in his family, are destructive and petty.” The Professor is always amazed with women even though he finds fault with them. Professor “St. Peter and other males’ --thoughts about women shows a perspective which is both prejudiced and insensitive.”

The readings of the novel range from societal critique to feminist readings and more recently homosexual readings. Whichever reading you choose to use, The Professor’s House is a novel worth reading. This is not her most famous novel or the one she won awards for, but it is the one that defines Willa Cather for me. Download a sample and check out the foremost American woman writer.

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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1876

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment - Free
First Published in 1866

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (also Dostoevsky) was a Russian writers who lived from 1821 to 1881. He is widely regarded as one of the best writers and psychologist in literature. His novels portray the psychology of characters living in troubled times.

Crime and Punishment takes place in Russia and follows a former student, Roskolnikov, through some tough times. He is very poor and is driven to commit a terrible crime with which he must suffer the aftermath. Dostoyevsky was a master of psychology and he paints a haunting picture of the criminal psyche. Roskolnikov must live with his conscience after the crime and becomes hollow version of himself.

Through desperation Roskolnikov commits a crime that forever changes him. He tries to rationalize his actions and ultimately fails to make sense of it all. The story follows his descent and the consequences that not only he has to live with but his family as well.

Dostoyevsky shows us a troubled Russia that is plagued with poverty and class warfare. Dostoyevsky was himself imprisoned for years and seems to try to show us some of his desperation through Roskolnikov.

Crime and Punishment is one of the best novels from one of the best writers. It is a classic in every sense of the word. Roskolnikov is a well developed character that you can empathize with and that will live on long after you finish the novel. This is a book with the power to change the way you view the world.

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Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness - Free
1899

Joseph Conrad left Poland at sixteen to enlist as a sailor in order to see the world. This is evident in his writings as many of his stories have to do with sailing. He did not become fluent in English until his mid twenties and his writing style has a foreign sensibility. He was able to incorporate a tragic feelings into his English prose that had not been seen before. He is now widely considered one of the best English language writers.

Heart of Darkness is number 67 in the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels. It is a novella originally published in three parts in Blackwood’s Magazine.

Marlow is the main character sent by the company to restore the company’s name by bringing back Kurtz. Marlow narrates most of the story. Kurtz has been down river in Africa trading for Ivory and he is giving the company a bad name. Marlow is appointed boat captain and goes down river to see what is happening. Conrad uses symbolism in the book to show man’s descent into savagery. As Marlow goes farther down river and time passes and gets darker he is getting closer to madness, closer to Kurtz.

The language in this book can be difficult at times. It has been called dense. But the language is not the only difficulty with this book. The themes and approach to imperialism have been points of discussion among literary scholars. Conrad at times is critical of imperialism.

“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.”

Yet, the book has been criticized for being a justification of imperialism. Chinua Achebe has written brilliant criticism of Heart of Darkness and even advocates that people not read this book. His novel Things Fall Apart is writing back to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s critique of imperialism has been challenged because the book can be seen as a justification for imperialism because it is can be read more as a warning. Conrad never gives voice to the africans in the book. He is warning against the shaming of europeans tactics and

“They were dying slowly--it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now,--nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.”

While he seems to be sympathetic to their plight, he still only writes about the european’s plight. Conrad was writing in a very different time when just writing about imperialisms imperfection was a form of criticism. Conrad wrote a terrific novel that was years ahead of its time. It is considered to be a precursor to modern literature. Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart can be read as authors in conversation. They are often studied together in Modern Literature courses.

Francis Ford Coppola made a great movie adaptation of Heart of Darkness in 1979 called Apocalypse Now. It places the story in Vietnam and has Kurtz as a rogue Army Colonel.

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Mark Twain

Archibald Henderson
Mark Twain Biography- Free
1911

I have been reading this really great biography on Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson. The biography was published a year after Twain’s death in 1910. Henderson personally knew Twain and wrote the biography from his experiences and from the interviews of people who knew Twain at important points in his life.

Henderson was a great admirer of Mark Twain, or Samuel Langhorne Clemens as he was born. He appreciated his humor and recounts many stories about Twain that relate to his writings. He recounts childhood stories from Twain’s life and ties them to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

“The cave, so graphically described in Tom Sawyer, was one of Sam’s favourite haunts; and his first sweetheart was Laura Hawkins, the Becky Thatcher of Tom’s admiration.”

Henderson also explains why Samuel Clemens chose the pen name Mark Twain. Twain was a river boat pilot for two and a half years. You have to mark “twain” regularly to find out the depth of the water so that the boat does not run aground. He chose Mark Twain because it was shorter than Samuel Clemens and because it meant nothing to 99% of Americans at the time. He was reporting for newspapers and didn't want to affect what people read by writing under a name that they knew already. In his last years, Twain commented that he liked that he added meaning to the name Mark Twain and that people all over the world now knew the name.

There are many great stories about Twain in the biography and the main reason for the book seems to be to argue that Mark Twain is not just a popular author but that his works are works of literature. Henderson compared Twain to Tolstoy and says that the main difference between the two is that Twain used humor to reach more people with his writings. Twain was considered a humorist but should be considered an important writer as well. Twain remains popular today, over 100 years after his death and is read and studied from elementary school through universities. Henderson was one of the first people to write about how important Twain was to literature and history seems to agree with him.

When studying literature it is always helpful to get a background on the author of the work. Knowing where and how the author is approaching writing helps to understand the themes presented in the work. For example, knowing that Twain was a humorist who makes light or pokes fun at serious issues will help to understand his use of the “N” word in Huckleberry Finn. He does not use the word because he was a racist, he puts the word in the mouth of a child and shows the disconnect between the word and meaning to a child. Huck Finn was using the word because society used the word but he was coming from a place of love for the run away slave. Society, at the time, was using the word as a racist label and Twain was being satirical in using it. Maybe, if people knew more about Twain’s intention, Huckleberry Finn will stop being banned in schools for the flagrant use of the “N” word.

Henderson argues that Twain is not just a great American writer but one of the most important writers in the world. Twain has certainly lived up to the hype. Mark Twain is one of my favorite authors and I know that I cannot praise him as much as I should. As Twain said himself, 

“he feels embarrassed accepting compliments because the complimenter never says enough!” 

This is a great biography for those that have not yet read the works of Mark Twain and also for those that have read a lot. This is the first in a series on Mark Twain posts. Stay tuned for the next one!

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The Road

Cormac McCarthy
The Road - $11.99
2006

Isn’t it always the case that the book is better than the movie? Has it become a cliche that everyone says that now? One book that comes to mind is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I loved the book when I read it and when I heard the movie was coming out I couldn't wait. I know that books are always better but some have turned into really good movies as well. When I finally saw the film version of The Road I wanted to love it. Yet, every scene would remind me of what they left out. The movie was good and if you didn't read the book you will really like it. What they always fail to include in the movies is the internal monologue of the characters. Even though there is almost none of that in The Road, you get a sense of what the characters are feeling by the lack of detail. The lack of details and communication gives you a sense of isolation and hopelessness, just like their surroundings.

The movie is dark and depressing. They did a great job staying true to the book. The main thing that is missing is the haunting feeling you get after reading the novel. For that you have to read the novel.

McCarthy is a master storyteller. He leaves the details for us to fill in. He shows us how the characters are feeling by what they do and how they interact with each other. He leaves so many things for us to fill in that the man and the boy are never named. It is up to us to fill in the faces and the names.

Cormac McCarthy has won numerous awards including the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for The Road. He is considered one of the best American writers and is being mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. McCarthy is a very private author but in the few interviews I found he is very opinionated. According to wikipedia:

In one of his few interviews (with The New York Times), McCarthy reveals that he is not a fan of authors who do not "deal with issues of life and death," citing Henry James and Marcel Proust as examples. "I don't understand them," he said. "To me, that's not literature. A lot of writers who are considered good I consider strange."

He sounds like a fascinating man. He is a great author and look for him to continue to write great books. If you haven’t read The Road yet, you definitely should. Download a sample and you will be hooked. This is one of the best books written in the last ten years, according to many sources. Check out the movie as well but make sure your read the book first!

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July 2012 Roundup

Cover of The Los Angeles Diaries

Kindle Literature had another great month in July. Our readership is increasing daily but we still have not received a review on Amazon. If you like the blog, you can leave us a review on the Kindle Literature Amazon page and that would really help with spreading the word about Kindle Literature. Also, check out our Kindle Literature Facebook Page to keep up with the latest news.

Here are the books covered in July.

Walden - An early American masterpiece by Henry David Thoreau. Walden was a social experiment by a very influential American philosopher.

Kindle Giveaways - A post about three Kindle giveaways in July. The giveaways have ended but they are sponsoring new giveaways for August.

The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane’s war novel about the American Civil War. A great classic that needs to be studied more.

The Giver - The award winning children’s book that has been banned. This is a great book that adults can also enjoy.

The Los Angeles Diaries - James Brown’s wonderful memoir about perseverance and coming to terms with life’s tragedies.

Animal Farm - George Orwell’s allegory about the Soviet revolution. Number 31 on the Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels.

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut’s most famous novel. The book blends metafiction and science fiction. A sheer pleasure to read. Number 18 on Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels.

You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed on your kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five - $5.70
1969

Kurt Vonnegut was an american novelist, satirist and POW in World War 2. He wrote numerous novels, short story collections, essays and screenplays. He is best known for his novel Slaughterhouse-Five which is number 18 in the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels.

So what is Slaughterhouse-Five? Is it a dark comedy, an anti war novel, a metafiction, or science fiction? Well, it is all these things, it is complex in structure yet simple to understand and a pleasure to read. You have to go along for the ride with Vonnegut. He has a way of finding humor in everything, even death; so much so that his writings are called Gallows Humor.

There is a recurring reference to death in the book, “So it goes.” Every time someone dies or there is any mention of death “So it goes” appears. This leads to some funny moments when he references inanimate objects and says “So it goes.”

“The Champagne was dead. So it goes.”

The novel begins with the narrator trying to write a war novel and quickly changes to science fiction. The narrator could be Vonnegut himself but that can also be a fiction. The story begins as a metafiction about writing a novel and ends with time travelling aliens. So it goes. For more on metafiction see my post here.

“All this happened, more or less. The war parts anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn't his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. I've changed all the names.”

Every person that I have recommended this novel to loves it. The story jumps around a lot but never to the point of being confusing. The humor comes at unexpected points that will keep you reading. This book has also been subject to numerous attempts at censorship, including a supreme court case specifically mentioning Slaughterhouse-Five.

Kurt Vonnegut was also quite popular appearing in many cameo roles in films, including a few of his novels adaptations. Slaughterhouse-Five was made into a film in 1972. Guillermo Del Toro has shown interest in remaking the 1972 movie adaptation. The novel is one of Vonnegut’s best work and an American masterpiece. This is modern literature at its best.

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Animal Farm

George Orwell
Animal Farm - $7.92
1945

Animal Farm is a novella first published in 1945. This story is included in many best novel list including Time Magazine's top 100, number 31 in the Modern Library’s list of 100 best fiction, and is included in the encyclopedia of Great Books of the Western World.

Novella n. A short novel or long short story.

Animal Farm has also been banned in many countries around the world for numerous reasons, including anthropomorphism and anti-government propaganda. The story gives many human traits to the animals that revolt to take over the farm and is a critique of communism.

Anthropomorphism n. Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.

Animal Farm is an allegory for the communist revolution in the Soviet Union. Orwell is using the story in Animal Farm to critique the communist socialist regime that had taken control of the Soviet Union.

Allegory n. A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.

It definitely helps to know some of the history of the Soviet Union and the rise and fall of communism to understand what Orwell is trying to say. The story is very entertaining but when you understand the satire being used you begin to understand the story and the moral in a more obvious way.

Satire n. The use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing,denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

Because the story is teaching a moral or lesson that can be learned from the communism in the Soviet Union it can be considered a fable.

Fable n. A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.

Orwell used many literary devices to criticize the communism in the Soviet Union and had a hard time finding a publisher. Since the Soviet Union was allied with Britain during WWII, the British publishers did not want to print a book that was critical of the Soviet Union.

Animal Farm is an allegory that follows the rise and fall of communism in the Soviet Union. The story uses the farm animals to tell the story of how the communist revolution came about and how it was corrupted by the leaders. The story is presented as being far fetched by the use of animals to represent the uprising of the people. The use of animals was also considered very offensive. Orwell uses pigs to represent the leaders of the revolution.

Animal Farm is very entertaining even though it is based on true events. Orwell does a great job with the satire to make this a must read for anyone interested in reading the classics. This book is taught in many high schools and universities. Their are two different film versions of the book. Download a free sample and see why everyone that reads this book agrees that it is one of the best novels ever written.

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The Los Angeles Diaries

James Brown
The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir - $9.99
2003

James Brown is an American novelist and English professor living in California. The Los Angeles Diaries was first published in 2003 and received many awards. The book is taught in many universities across the US, including Harvard. I first read this book as a freshman in college and could not put it down. I spent the next three years trying to take a class by Professor Brown and finally managed to in my last quarter as an undergrad. He is a natural storyteller that can make you laugh and cry at the same time. The Los Angeles Diaries is a memoir about his life as an addict. The difference between a memoir and an autobiography is that a memoir covers only a certain time period or events where an autobiography covers most of the authors life. This book focuses on events surrounding addiction in his family.

The stories major themes are family, drugs and addiction. This may seem like a very depressing book but the story is about perseverance. When the professor found out I had read his book he asked me what I thought. The only word that came to mind was Powerful. The story telling is powerful, the themes are powerful and the lessons learned are powerful.

James Brown is an intimidating figure due to his growing up in a dysfunctional family where his siblings committed suicide to his years as a drug addict all while trying to be a writer and teacher in a university. Brown revisits the idea that he is a fraud as a professor in his memoir, because of his personal demons, again and again. He is very self deprecating in person but he is a great story teller. In class he would tell us stories that were not included in his books. His class was one of the most memorable that I have ever had. He writes about being self conscious as a professor but this makes him a great professor. He tries very hard to help each of his students to learn and improve in their writing.

James Brown is almost a contradiction. He is a very successful writer and has overcome personal addiction and tragedy in his family, yet he is one of the nicest people to talk to. He appreciates life and goes out of his way to form personal connections with his students. Even though he is no longer a drug user, addiction is still an overwhelming theme in his writings and in conversation. He says regularly that he is lucky to be alive.

The Los Angeles Diaries is a wonderful memoir about perseverance and coming to terms with life’s tragedies. The book has just been reissued to coincide with his new book, This River. This River is a continuation from where The Los Angeles Diaries leaves off. I am looking forward to reading This River soon and will post a review when I finish.

Authors! we are currently accepting submissions for review in the following categories: general fiction, non-fiction and literary fiction. Books must be available in Kindle or ePub format and priced between $0.00 and $9.99. Please email queries to kindleliterature@yahoo.com

We have a new Facebook Page, check it out and Like us to keep up with the latest news about Kindle Literature. Please share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.