Letters from the Earth

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe no one has reviewed this book.
Review: "Mark Twain? He is not a philosopher.
His writings are not seriously accepted as a Philosophy!
...P>I dislike this words. I accept him as the serious philosopher.
In "Letters from the Earth", he opens his doubt freely.
He do not believe God is merciful, thoughtful.

He picked up Medians in the old testament,
and there he saw God's cruel attitude towards men.

....
I respect him. I adore him as he did for Jeanne d'Arc.
Twain saw mercy only in the death. ...

Rating:
Summary: For the militant skeptic and the Twain follower...
Review:

Much of this book deals with concepts of God, Heaven, and the Bible which were popular during Mark Twain's time. I thought that parts of the book were excellent, and others were far less so.

"Letters from the Earth" are written by Satan to Michael and Gabriel, and report on his Earthly investigations into the human-race experiment. There are other such writings, e.g., "Letter to the Earth," "Something about Repentance," and "The Damned Human Race," which are intelligent and entertaining.

Also entertaining is "Cooper's Prose Style," a sequel to MT's "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," and "From an Unfinished Burlesque of Books on Etiquette."

The rest of the pieces I wouldn't miss had they been omitted. "Papers of the Adam Family," wherein Adam and Eve write about Eden and each other, deals with themes that MT treats better in other writings. "Official Report to the I.I.A.S." merely states that something is hard to prove under the rules for proving facts, and easy to prove under the rules for establishing miracles.

Like most of MT's writings, half is beautiful genius, and the other half is merely tedious.

Rating:
Summary: Way ahead of his time
Review: As much as I enjoyed his more famous books, it is actually this work that makes him even more genius to me. I was totally taken aback. His opinions on religion and the hypocrosy of it all were almost exactly as mine as I read along. I thought that no one was like that... let alone back then... but indeed he was. To know that such a great man felt the same way as I did regarding the Bible and human behavior brings me great comfort.

I only wish he were alive so I could personally thank him.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Mark Twain wit in small, unrelated bite-sized pieces
Review: I bought this book expecting it to be entirely filled with letters from Adam and Eve. Though this is only one-third of the book, it is great to see Twain's true blasphemous side for once. He was well known for his anger at God and disbelief in religion, and this book is a great testament to that fact in classical Twain wit. The remainder of the book is just random stories he told his children and comments on authors and such, of which some are definitely worth the read and others could be skipped. If you are interested in seeing the author in his true form, though not in a cohesive format, you should buy this book. He did not intend to submit it for publication in his lifetime, so his honesty about what he thinks of the world and religion finally comes out.

Rating:
Summary: A great book!!
Review: I recently read this book, and i thought it was very interesting. on the back cover, it says "bible-belter's will blush" which couldn't be a more true statement. Many of the thoughts published by Twain in this book actually refer more to Satanism (a.k.a LaVeyan satanism)rather than christianity. It is full of dark comedy that points out the farce called the human race, and the major faults in one of the right hand path religions-- Christianity. I think it would be particularly interesting to not only Mark Twain fans, but also those who realize the stupidity of the human race, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Read on...
Review: I was introduced to "Letters" in a college American Literature class in the early 70s. Until then I had struggled through the assigned readings, but from the moment I began reading "Letters from the Earth" Mark Twain became a favorite. Perhaps my favorite Twain piece is a short critical essay entitled "The Literary Transgressions of Fennimore Cooper" that may be read in one sitting, provided too much time isn't taken up laughing. Of course you'll have to find a copy and that can be difficult.

Rating:
Summary: Satan's side of the story
Review: Letters from the Earth is an assortment of unpublished-for-60-years writings by Mark Twain. They cover a wide span of subject matter ranging from critiques of the prose style of another writer to the author's construction of the Old Testament and God from the perspective of Satan. In addition to Letters From Earth (Satan's), the contents includes Papers of the Adam Family, The Damned Human Race, Something About Repentance, Was the World Made For Man, In the Animal's Court, The Intelligence of God, The Lowest Animal and others.

Readers who are offended by careful examinations of the meaning and implications of holy or sacred writings of the Old Testiment will not enjoy this book. The author, whatever his actual religious beliefs, probably wasn't an Old Testiment Christian. In this series of short writings he takes specific stories from the OT and holds them into the light away from the long traditions that accompany them in most of our minds. He examines the evidence of the stories for hints of what sort of creature God must be if the OT is true. He extropolates what Satan might be.

I'm an admirer of this author and I believe everything he ever wrote is worth reading and digesting. I put this book alongside his best. But I also admit that if I harbored a microbe of religious fanatic somewhere inside me I'd be hard-pressed to enjoy reading Letters From the Earth.

Rating:
Summary: Satan's side of the story
Review: Letters from the Earth is an assortment of unpublished-for-60-years writings by Mark Twain. They cover a wide span of subject matter ranging from critiques of the prose style of another writer to the author's construction of the Old Testament and God from the perspective of Satan. In addition to Letters From Earth (Satan's), the contents includes Papers of the Adam Family, The Damned Human Race, Something About Repentance, Was the World Made For Man, In the Animal's Court, The Intelligence of God, The Lowest Animal and others.

Readers who are offended by careful examinations of the meaning and implications of holy or sacred writings of the Old Testiment will not enjoy this book. The author, whatever his actual religious beliefs, probably wasn't an Old Testiment Christian. In this series of short writings he takes specific stories from the OT and holds them into the light away from the long traditions that accompany them in most of our minds. He examines the evidence of the stories for hints of what sort of creature God must be if the OT is true. He extropolates what Satan might be.

I'm an admirer of this author and I believe everything he ever wrote is worth reading and digesting. I put this book alongside his best. But I also admit that if I harbored a microbe of religious fanatic somewhere inside me I'd be hard-pressed to enjoy reading Letters From the Earth.

Rating:
Summary: Razor-sharp Irreverence
Review: Mark Twain is an ancestor of mine, and I cannot help but glow with pride in that fact. If you're looking for Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, this is not for you. "Letters from the Earth" is the epitome of Twain's extremely irreverent and sardonic perceptiveness, absolutely shattering to countless long-held religious tenets. In displaying the inanity of tradition for tradition's sake, LFTE is right on par with Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," though with an entirely different approach.

Indispensible for questioning souls, but not at all recommended for the rigid-minded.

Rating:
Summary: Bitter, but funny, on-the-nose cynicism
Review: Mark Twain shows his dark side in this book of short stories that was not published until years after his death. It was thought by his family that his fans would be disturbed by the absolute departure from the usual topics and flavor of his work. It is definitely worth reading. "Letters From the Earth", the title story, (and my favorite) is witty and observant but disturbing in it's darkness. If Mark Twain was alive now he would have a field day with the current social moral standards and hypocrisy.