Letters from the Earth

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.

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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: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixed bag
Review: This book is probably not what you are expecting. If you are looking for a free-wheelin' adventure story along the lines of Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, you will not only be disappointed, but most probably shocked. However, if you are looking for an entire book of irrevent writings - as I was - then that's not what you're getting, either. Something less than half of the book (say, roughly, 1/3) consists of deliciously irrevent writings, drained from Mark Twain's pen of bitter ink. The best among these is the title section, "Letters From The Earth", in which Satan writes back to archangels Gabriel and Michael about his visit to earth and the "human race experiment", after his banishment from heaven. In these letters, Mark Twain points out various absurtities and illogical assertions and beliefs about human religions, and unflinchingly describes the vanity and hypocrisy of many of its adherents. I was under the impression that the entire book consisted of these letters; however, I was wrong. It is merely the first section of the book, occupying some 30-50 pages. For people who are highly into this kind of writing, however - as I am - it is worth the price of admission alone. There are several other pieces in the book along this line - including the famous essays Was The World Made For Man? and The Lowest Animal - which display not only Mark Twain's essential pessimism, but his very rational mind and hilarous wit. These pieces are an absolutely essential read for the lover of satire: few better examples are to be found anywhere in literature. The rest of the book, however, is a mixed bag. It consits of various pieces from the "Mark Twain Papers" - a collection of his writings (mostly unfinished) the he decreed to have published sometime after his death. Among these are a few interesting pieces (most of them various satires, several on religious topics), while others are more broadly ranging: everything from a completely improvised tale that he used to put his two children to bed to an unfinished fantasy piece that the editor seems to attach rather a lot of importance to, but whose actual virtue is somewhat more questionable. These pieces range from vaguely interesting to mildly funny to downright boring. Several would've probably been better served by being included in other volumes, while several should probably have been left unpublished. Still, there are definitely some essential writings in this volume that any fan of Mark Twain - or satire, or irrevent writings, for that matter - will want to read.