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    Christian Science (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Unavailable
    Christian Science (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
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    Christian Science (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Ebook267 pages4 hours

    Christian Science (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

    By Mark Twain

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Mark Twain’s fear that Christian Science would control the American government within thirty years persuaded him to write this clever yet cutting piece on Christian Science and its founder Mary Baker Eddy. Twain focuses on the negative aspects of Eddy: her hunger for money and power, her self-dedication, and incoherent writing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarnes & Noble
    Release dateFeb 8, 2011
    ISBN9781411435629
    Unavailable
    Christian Science (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)
    Author

    Mark Twain

    Who Was Mark Twain? Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens (1835 -1910), was the celebrated author of several novels, including two major classics of American literature: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor. Early Life Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the tiny village of Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to nearby Hannibal, a bustling river town of 1,000 people. John Clemens worked as a storekeeper, lawyer, judge and land speculator, dreaming of wealth but never achieving it, sometimes finding it hard to feed his family. He was an unsmiling fellow; according to one legend, young Sam never saw his father laugh. His mother, by contrast, was a fun-loving, tenderhearted homemaker who whiled away many a winter's night for her family by telling stories. She became head of the household in 1847 when John died unexpectedly. The Clemens family "now became almost destitute," wrote biographer Everett Emerson, and was forced into years of economic struggle - a fact that would shape the career of Twain. Twain in Hannibal Twain stayed in Hannibal until age 17. The town, situated on the Mississippi River, was in many ways a splendid place to grow up. Steamboats arrived there three times a day, tooting their whistles; circuses, minstrel shows and revivalists paid visits; a decent library was available; and tradesmen such as blacksmiths and tanners practiced their entertaining crafts for all to see. However, violence was commonplace, and young Twain witnessed much death: When he was nine years old, he saw a local man murder a cattle rancher, and at 10 he watched an enslaved person die after a white overseer struck him with a piece of iron. Hannibal inspired several of Twain's fictional locales, including "St. Petersburg" in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. These imaginary river towns are complex places: sunlit and exuberant on the one hand, but also vipers' nests of cruelty, poverty, drunkenness, loneliness and soul-crushing boredom - all parts of Twain's boyhood experience. Sam kept up his schooling until he was about 12 years old, when - with his father dead and the family needing a source of income - he found employment as an apprentice printer at the Hannibal Courier, which paid him with a meager ration of food. In 1851, at 15, he got a job as a printer and occasional writer and editor at the Hannibal Western Union, a little newspaper owned by his brother, Orion. Steamboat Pilot Then, in 1857, 21-year-old Twain fulfilled a dream: He began learning the art of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi. A licensed steamboat pilot by 1859, he soon found regular employment plying the shoals and channels of the great river. Twain loved his career - it was exciting, well-paying and high-status, roughly akin to flying a jetliner today. However, his service was cut short in 1861 by the outbreak of the Civil War, which halted most civilian traffic on the river. As the Civil War began, the people of Missouri angrily split between support for the Union and the Confederate States. Twain opted for the latter, joining the Confederate Army in June 1861 but serving for only a couple of weeks until his volunteer unit disbanded. Where, he wondered then, would he find his future? What venue would bring him both excitement and cash? His answer: the great American West.

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    Reviews for Christian Science (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Twain turns his acerbic wit to examining what was then a new religion on the American scene. He uses Mary Baker Eddy's own words to demonstrate that Christian Science is vacuous, fatuous, and incoherent. Heavy use of irony could lead some concrete thinkers to assume that he admires the woman (at times), but those familiar with Twain's style will get the joke. There are many good moments, though some of the work lacks the charm of his other outings, though the anger he feels clearly shines through. Twain was wrong, however, in predicting that Christian Science would become the dominant religion in America and would be in full control of the government by the middle of the century.