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Mark Twain
- A Life
- Narrated by: Ron Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
In Mark Twain, Ron Powers consummates years of thought and research with a tour de force on the life of our culture's founding father, re-creating the 19th century's vital landscapes and tumultuous events while restoring the human being at their center. He offers Sam Clemens as he lived, breathed, and wrote, drawing heavily on the preserved viewpoints of the people who knew him best (especially the great William Dean Howells, his most admiring friend and literary co-conspirator), and on the annals of the American 19th century that he helped shape. Powers's prose rivals Mark Twain's own in its blend of humor, telling detail, and flights of lyricism. With the assistance of the Mark Twain Project at Berkeley, he has been able to draw on thousands of letters and notebook entries, many only recently discovered.
Critic reviews
- 2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Biography/Memoir
- National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, Biography or Autobiography, 2005
"A masterful biography of interest to both general readers and academics." (Booklist) "Unlike Twain, whose prose Powers characterizes as "wild and woolly", the biographer is lucid and direct while maintaining a steady hand on the tiller of Twain's life as it courses a twisty path as wide and treacherous as the Mississippi itself. Powers, a wise, if loquacious captain, takes us on a wonderful journey from beginning to end." (Publishers Weekly)
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some very good some very bad
- By peter on 10-30-10
By: Matthew Goodman
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Careless People
- Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of the Great Gatsby
- By: Sarah Churchwell
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby has become one of the world's best-loved books, delighting audiences across the world. Careless People tells the true story behind F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, exploring in newly rich detail the relation of Fitzgerald's classic to the chaotic world he in which he lived. Fitzgerald set his novel in 1922, and Careless People carefully reconstructs the crucial months during which Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald returned to New York in the autumn of 1922.
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Fascinating study of the Fitzgeralds and Jazz Age
- By Sand on 06-11-14
By: Sarah Churchwell
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The Voice is All
- The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac
- By: Joyce Johnson
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Voice Is All, Joyce Johnson - coauthor of the classic memoir Door Wide Open, about her relationship with Jack Kerouac - brilliantly peels away layers of the Kerouac legend to show how, caught between two cultures and two languages, he forged a voice to contain his dualities. Looking more deeply than previous biographers into how Kerouac's French Canadian background enriched his prose and gave him a unique outsider's vision of America, she tracks his development from boyhood through the phenomenal breakthroughs of 1951 that resulted in the composition of On the Road.
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Kerouac's Voice
- By Robert L. Stofel on 09-26-12
By: Joyce Johnson
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So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
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Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
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The Gilded Age
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1873, The Gilded Age is both a biting satire and a revealing portrait of post-Civil War America - an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peacetime optimism. With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, attack the greed, lust, and naiveté of their own time in a work that endures as a valuable social document and one of America's most important satirical novels.
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Great Story, but Audio Quality Not Always Good
- By BethGA on 02-27-24
By: Mark Twain
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And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
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Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
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House of Dreams
- The Life of L.M. Montgomery
- By: Liz Rosenberg, Julie Morstad - illustrator
- Narrated by: Susan Hanfield
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon a time, there was a girl named Maud who adored stories. When she was fourteen years old, Maud wrote in her journal, "I love books. I hope when I grow up to be able to have lots of them." Not only did Maud grow up to own lots of books, she wrote twenty-four of them herself as L. M. Montgomery, the world-renowned author of Anne of Green Gables. For many years, her lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression, her "year of mad passion" and her difficult married life were buried deep within her unpublished personal journals....
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Home’o’dreams
- By Steve G. on 02-25-20
By: Liz Rosenberg, and others
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Prairie Fires
- The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of fans of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls - the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true story of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography.
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Don’t read if you don’t want your fond memories...
- By NMwritergal on 11-24-17
By: Caroline Fraser
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The Last Love Song
- A Biography of Joan Didion
- By: Tracy Daugherty
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
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Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
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Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.
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Perfect pair
- By Philip on 03-25-08
By: Charles Dickens
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The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
- The Complete and Authoritative Edition
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 24 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone, here, for the first time, is Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography, in its entirety, exactly as he left it. This major literary event offers the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain’s authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave, as he intended.
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Not what I was expecting...
- By SHolland10 on 01-30-11
By: Mark Twain
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Mark Twain
- By: Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns
- Narrated by: Bill Meisle
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Meet the man behind the biggest persona either side of the Mississippi, in this audio companion to the Ken Burns film of the same name. Burns, Geoffrey Ward, and Dayton Duncan pull together a treasure trove of information on the man formerly known as Samuel Clemens, using published and unpublished sources. Also, browse all Mark Twain titles.
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Re read
- By G. Robert on 01-29-03
By: Geoffrey C. Ward, and others
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Mark Twain: Man in White
- The Grand Adventure of His Final Years
- By: Michael Shelden
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden illuminates Mark Twain’s twilight years in this brilliant account of the legendary author’s life. Drawing heavily on Twain’s own letters and journals, Mark Twain: Man in White recounts both Twain’s private family experiences and his larger-than-life public image.
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Fantastic book
- By Tad Davis on 08-23-10
By: Michael Shelden
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Ernest Hemingway: A Life from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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From the bullfights of Spain to safaris in East Africa; from being a war correspondent in war zones around the world to surviving multiple airplane and car crashes, Hemingway’s life is a riveting story worth exploring in and of itself.
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Quick and materially dense. Good read!
- By John C on 09-30-20
By: Hourly History
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Mark Twain Collection
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 28 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Here are three of the most celebrated works of Mark Twain collected in a single volume. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court bring you an interesting array of exciting characters and entertaining adventures that have been precious to readers for years.
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Twain is great, but...
- By C. Wood on 04-13-19
By: Mark Twain
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Mark Twain - The Complete Novels
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Lee Howard
- Length: 58 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Here you will find the complete novels of Mark Twain: 1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Starts at Chapter 1, 2. The Prince and the Pauper Starts at Chapter 37, 3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Starts at Chapter 70, 4. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Starts at Chapter 113, 5. The American Claimant Starts at Chapter 158, 6. Tom Sawyer Abroad Starts at Chapter 184, 7. Pudd'nhead Wilson Starts at Chapter 197, 8. Tom Sawyer, Detective Starts at Chapter 219, 9. A Horse's Tale Starts at Chapter 230, 10. The Mysterious Stranger Starts at Chapter 245.
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Content; GREAT! Performance.. .not so much😁
- By brian deis on 01-09-20
By: Mark Twain
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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
- The Complete and Authoritative Edition
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 24 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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-
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The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone, here, for the first time, is Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography, in its entirety, exactly as he left it. This major literary event offers the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain’s authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave, as he intended.
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-
Not what I was expecting...
- By SHolland10 on 01-30-11
By: Mark Twain
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Mark Twain
- By: Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns
- Narrated by: Bill Meisle
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the man behind the biggest persona either side of the Mississippi, in this audio companion to the Ken Burns film of the same name. Burns, Geoffrey Ward, and Dayton Duncan pull together a treasure trove of information on the man formerly known as Samuel Clemens, using published and unpublished sources. Also, browse all Mark Twain titles.
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Re read
- By G. Robert on 01-29-03
By: Geoffrey C. Ward, and others
-
Mark Twain: Man in White
- The Grand Adventure of His Final Years
- By: Michael Shelden
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden illuminates Mark Twain’s twilight years in this brilliant account of the legendary author’s life. Drawing heavily on Twain’s own letters and journals, Mark Twain: Man in White recounts both Twain’s private family experiences and his larger-than-life public image.
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Fantastic book
- By Tad Davis on 08-23-10
By: Michael Shelden
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Ernest Hemingway: A Life from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
From the bullfights of Spain to safaris in East Africa; from being a war correspondent in war zones around the world to surviving multiple airplane and car crashes, Hemingway’s life is a riveting story worth exploring in and of itself.
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Quick and materially dense. Good read!
- By John C on 09-30-20
By: Hourly History
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Mark Twain Collection
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 28 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Here are three of the most celebrated works of Mark Twain collected in a single volume. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court bring you an interesting array of exciting characters and entertaining adventures that have been precious to readers for years.
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-
Twain is great, but...
- By C. Wood on 04-13-19
By: Mark Twain
-
Mark Twain - The Complete Novels
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Lee Howard
- Length: 58 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here you will find the complete novels of Mark Twain: 1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Starts at Chapter 1, 2. The Prince and the Pauper Starts at Chapter 37, 3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Starts at Chapter 70, 4. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Starts at Chapter 113, 5. The American Claimant Starts at Chapter 158, 6. Tom Sawyer Abroad Starts at Chapter 184, 7. Pudd'nhead Wilson Starts at Chapter 197, 8. Tom Sawyer, Detective Starts at Chapter 219, 9. A Horse's Tale Starts at Chapter 230, 10. The Mysterious Stranger Starts at Chapter 245.
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Content; GREAT! Performance.. .not so much😁
- By brian deis on 01-09-20
By: Mark Twain
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The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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These stories display Twain's place in American letters as a master writer in the authentic native idiom. He was exuberant and irreverent, but underlying the humor was a vigorous desire for social justice and a pervasive equalitarian attitude.
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Great but incomplete
- By Tad Davis on 03-23-10
By: Mark Twain
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Khrushchev
- The Man and His Era
- By: William Taubman
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 34 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive biography of the mercurial Soviet leader who succeeded and denounced Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev was one of the most complex and important political figures of the twentieth century. Ruler of the Soviet Union during the first decade after Stalin's death, Khrushchev left a contradictory stamp on his country and on the world.
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Remarkable story That very few people know of
- By Zaidan on 03-21-23
By: William Taubman
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The Mark Twain Complete Collection
- All 12 Novels; The Complete Short Stories; Travel Writing; Essays; and Chapters from My Autobiography
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood, Ian Porter, Kenneth Jay, and others
- Length: 175 hrs
- Unabridged
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This audiobook, read by Audie award-winning narrators, includes unabridged recordings of all Mark Twains's greatest works: 12 novels; over 120 of his beloved short stories; Chapters From My Autobiography; 5 pieces of short non-fiction; and 6 pieces of his groundbreaking, wide-ranging travel writing.
By: Mark Twain
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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 26 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Twain's complete, uncensored Autobiography was an instant best seller when the first volume was published in 2010, on the centennial of the author's death, as he requested. Published to rave reviews, the Autobiography was hailed as the capstone of Twain's career. It captures his authentic and unsuppressed voice, speaking clearly from the grave and brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions. The eagerly awaited second volume delves deeper into Twain's life, uncovering the many roles he played in his private and public worlds.
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The way it should be done.
- By Ian on 10-16-13
By: Mark Twain
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The Autobiography of Mark Twain
- By: Mark Twain, Edited by Charles Neider - editor
- Narrated by: Michael Anthony
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is one of the great autobiographies of the English language - exuberant, wonderfully contemporary in spirit, by a man twice as large as life who—he said so himself—had no trouble remembering everything that had ever happened to him and a lot of things besides.
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The story of a man centuries ahead of his time.
- By Ebor on 02-18-16
By: Mark Twain, and others
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The Innocents Abroad
- Or, The New Pilgrim’s Progress
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In June 1867, Mark Twain set out for Europe and the Holy Land on the paddle steamer Quaker City. His enduring, no-nonsense guide for the first-time traveler also served as an antidote to the insufferably romantic travel books of the period.
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Twain's Hidden Gem
- By Cynthia Franks on 05-08-12
By: Mark Twain
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Emerson
- The Mind on Fire
- By: Robert D. Richardson
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 26 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord.
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Finally!
- By Douglas on 08-15-14
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Confucius
- And the World He Created
- By: Michael Schuman
- Narrated by: Steven Menache
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Confucius is perhaps the most important philosopher in history. Today his teachings shape the daily lives of more than 1.6 billion people. Throughout East Asia, Confucius' influence can be seen in everything from business practices and family relationships to educational standards and government policies. Even as Western ideas from Christianity to Communism have bombarded the region, Confucius' doctrine has endured as the foundation of East Asian culture.
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Reader Was Badly Chosen
- By Phillip W. Dennis on 10-20-22
By: Michael Schuman
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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 24 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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When the first volume of Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography was published in 2010, it was hailed as an essential addition to the shelf of his works and a crucial document for our understanding of the great humorist's life and times. This third and final volume crowns and completes his life's work. Like its companion volumes, it chronicles Twain's inner and outer life through a series of daily dictations that go wherever his fancy leads.
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Worth waiting for
- By Tad Davis on 12-09-15
By: Mark Twain
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Bob Neufeld
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840 in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel, Tom Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn. Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best selling of any of Twain's works during his lifetime. Although overshadowed by its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the book is considered a masterpiece of American literature.
By: Mark Twain
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Mao
- The Unknown Story
- By: Jung Chang, Jon Halliday
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 29 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before, and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him, this is the most authoritative biography of Mao ever written.
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Fills many gaps! Very good..but!
- By Jene on 08-07-06
By: Jung Chang, and others
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The Guns of August
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of Kings and Kaisers and Czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along with war. How quickly it all changed...and how horrible it became.
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Wonderful
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-28-08
What listeners say about Mark Twain
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Darren Sapp
- 05-19-21
Concise
Twain fans will love this concise biography filled with plenty of details of this amazing writer.
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- Marlies Quinn
- 04-27-23
Abridgment Is The Only Negative
I enjoy the Read & Listen feature of Audible. I bought “Mark Twain: A Life” ebook and when I saw the author was the narrator I bought the Audiobook too. I NEVER buy abridged. I usually check but this time I missed it. Because of Abridgment I gave an overall 4 stars rather than 5.
Aside from that I found Samuel Clemens’s life story told by Ron Powers utterly enjoyable. Having pictured Clemens as a white haired old gent on a stage entertaining an audience with his humor, it was an eye opener to read about his young self being so wild, rowdy, and hedonistic out West during the Civil War years.
Ron Powers’s narration was excellent, especially his Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain voice.
I came to this book after reading Ron Chernow’s biography “Grant” and learning about his friendship with Clemens. Now on to some of Twain’s writings, “The Innocents Abroad” first!
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- Adlen Hosier
- 06-01-16
Who really knows anyone?
You can never really know anyone completely and it's probably hardest to know someone in the public eye.
Over the years many people have tried to capture the life of Mark Twain with varying levels of success. Some tried to protect his image, some wanted to emphasize this or that aspect for their own reasons.
Ron Powers seems to want us to know him fully and as much as you can in writing and so many years after his passing. I really enjoyed the attempt at balance. The generally chronological approach was easy to follow. I liked that Mr. Powers included the sweet and almost always funny with the unfortunately, too often bitter.
The end result for me was a desire to revisit Mr. Twain's works and find those books I haven't read especially his political and religious essays and stories.
Mr. Power's reading was great. I loved how he imitated what Mr. Twain might have sounded like when recounting what Twain wrote.
I recommend this highly.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Charlie
- 11-19-18
An amazing life frustratingly abridged
I've listened to the abridged version and read the original book. Both are good. Neither is perfect. The original could be the most thorough, complete Twain biography. Read it if you really want to dig into his whole life. But, it could have used an editor, because the information wasn't laid out as smoothly and selectively as one would hope. Powers slavishly recorded details that didn't seem to add anything, and he brought in a baffling parade of people that only appear once or twice. However, when it was abridged for audio the editor kept most of Twain's coming-of-age story and writing, as well as most of the really colorful adventures that shaped his legend. But, it gutted his marriage and family life. The connecting passages - We skip ahead in our story several years. Twain is now married and has a daughter - made clear that real meat had been cut as well as the fat (and it had been.) I wish there was a happy median which sliced out all the dry sentences and kept the full personal story intact.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- W.Denis
- 10-22-05
Buy the Book
I have read much both by and about Mark Twain and this would be a very good addition had the author not tried to do his subject's voice. Toward the end, the listening became very difficult.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Tad Davis
- 01-05-12
Excellent
I held off listening to this for a long time because it's abridged. I prefer unabridged when it's available, and I particularly wish this title was unabridged. (I took one star off the "Story" rating for this.) But it's a good abridgement: there's still plenty of detail and plenty of terrific yarns (and generous quotations from Twain's own letters and writings), and there are no jarring or incoherent gaps in the narrative.
There's lots of material here about Twain's boyhood, his mining expeditions out West, his trips to Europe, his crush on Laura Wright, his marriage, his kids, and his books: a good discussion, both biographical and critical, of most of the travel books, of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, of the later political essays. And there are some wonderful turns on the banjo to mark transitions.
I do wish the producers had allowed more time for Powers to discuss A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which gets a full discussion in the unabridged text, but here gets only a couple of sentences. The period from 1888-1898 is, in general, the period that gets the shortest shrift in this abridgement.
As all biographies of Twain are bound to do, the work becomes sadder and darker as Twain passes into old age. He outlived his wife, two of his daughters, his brothers, and many of his friends. When the end came, he was more than ready to go. Powers' description of this period in his life is poignant and moving. (For a partial antidote to the gloom here, I recommend Michael Shelden's Mark Twain: Man in White, narrated by Andrew Garman.)
Ron Powers is an excellent reader of his own work. Without batting an eye he slips from his own voice into Twain's drawl, and sometimes even from there into spirited exchanges between Twain's characters. I'm quite surprised at the comments on his narration in other reviews. For my part, once I made the decision to listen to it, I couldn't stop.
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Overall
- Carol
- 01-11-06
Boring
I am a huge Mark Twain fan. I was eagerly anticipating reading this biography. As I listened, I didn't become engrossed, but I became completely bored. Actually reading the book instead of listening to this narrative might have produced better results. Very disappointing.
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