--- product_id: 34299777 title: "Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays: Volume 2: 1891-1910 (Library of America)" price: "301.26 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 10 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/34299777-mark-twain-collected-tales-sketches-speeches-and-essays-volume-2 store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # 80+ restored Twain pieces Authoritative, archival text Chronological literary evolution Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays: Volume 2: 1891-1910 (Library of America) **Price:** 301.26 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 📖 Own a piece of literary legend—where wit meets wisdom in timeless style! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays: Volume 2: 1891-1910 (Library of America) - **How much does it cost?** 301.26 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/34299777-mark-twain-collected-tales-sketches-speeches-and-essays-volume-2) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Archival Excellence:** Enjoy the most authoritative text available, with expert editing, detailed notes, and a comprehensive chronology for deep contextual understanding. - • **Chronological Clarity:** Experience Mark Twain’s literary evolution with a carefully arranged timeline that reveals his growth from personal tragedy to iconic cultural figure. - • **Collector’s Quality:** Part of the prestigious Library of America series, featuring premium acid-free paper, sewn bindings, and cloth covers designed to last centuries. - • **Timeless Twain Treasury:** Dive into 80+ meticulously restored stories, essays, and speeches from 1891-1910, showcasing the wit and wisdom of America’s greatest humorist. - • **Cultural & Political Insight:** Explore Twain’s sharp political satire and unorthodox views on imperialism, religion, and society—perfect for the intellectually curious professional. ## Overview This volume of Mark Twain’s collected works (1891-1910) offers over 80 restored writings, including stories, speeches, and essays, arranged chronologically to highlight his literary evolution. Published by the Library of America, it features authoritative texts, extensive notes, and premium archival-quality materials, making it a must-have for collectors and serious readers seeking Twain’s sharp political satire and profound humor. ## Description This Library of America book, with its companion volume, is the most comprehensive collection ever published of Mark Twain’s short writings—the incomparable stories, sketches, burlesques, hoaxes, tall tales, speeches, satires, and maxims of America’s greatest humorist. Arranged chronologically and containing many pieces restored to the form in which Twain intended them to appear, the volumes show with unprecedented clarity the literary evolution of Mark Twain over six decades of his career. This volume contains eighty pieces from the years 1891 to 1910, when Twain emerged from bankruptcy and personal tragedy to become the white-suited, cigar-smoking international celebrity who reported on his own follies and those of humanity with an unerring sense of the absurd. Some stories display Twain’s fascination with money and greed, such as “The Esquimau Maiden’s Romance” and “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.” Other stories, written after the death of his daughter Susy in 1896, explore the outer limits of fantasy and psychic phenomena, including “Which Was the Dream?” “The Great Dark,” and “My Platonic Sweetheart.” The United States military involvement in Cuba, China, and the Philippines turned Twain’s attention to political satire and invective. “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” “The United States of Lyncherdom,” “The Czar’s Soliloquy,” and “The War Prayer” are biting denunciations of European and American imperialism. Other political issues inspired articles and stories about the Jews, the notorious Dreyfus case, and vivisection. Twain’s increasingly unorthodox religious opinions are powerfully, often comically, expressed in “Extracts from Adam’s Diary,” “Eve’s Diary,” “Eve Speaks,” “Adam’s Soliloquy,” “A Humane Word from Satan,” “What is Man?” “Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven,” and “Letters from the Earth.” “Against the assault of laughter,” he said, “nothing can stand.” Twain’s brilliant inventiveness continues to shine in such later comic masterpieces as “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” “Italian Without a Master,” “Hunting the Deceitful Turkey,” and “My First Lie and How I Got Out of It.” A posthumous collection of proverbs and aphorisms (“More Maxims of Mark”) is included as an appendix. The publishing history of every story, sketch, and speech in this volume has been thoroughly researched, and in each instance the most authoritative text has been reproduced. This collection also includes an extensive chronology of Twain’s complex life, helpful notes on the people and events referred to in his works, and a guide to the texts. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries. Review: Beautiful compilation - This is a university-level text, lovingly compiled. I have seen similar books for other authors that looked like stapled-together photocopies, but this one has been edited together masterfully. I can literally find no faults with it, which is why I purchased it. This book may have too much information for someone that's just interested in Mark Twain, but if you want to collect as many of the man's witty essays and more forthright personal views as possible, then look no further. Review: Although listed condition was 'GOOD', Book was in excellent condition - Like the title says this book was like new, looked like it had never been opened and was in perfect shape. ## Features - Used Book in Good Condition ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #248,071 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #164 in Political Humor (Books) #498 in American Fiction Anthologies #615 in Humor Essays (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 37 Reviews | ## Images ![Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays: Volume 2: 1891-1910 (Library of America) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Hmf3vxy5L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beautiful compilation *by J***N on January 4, 2013* This is a university-level text, lovingly compiled. I have seen similar books for other authors that looked like stapled-together photocopies, but this one has been edited together masterfully. I can literally find no faults with it, which is why I purchased it. This book may have too much information for someone that's just interested in Mark Twain, but if you want to collect as many of the man's witty essays and more forthright personal views as possible, then look no further. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Although listed condition was 'GOOD', Book was in excellent condition *by W***M on June 3, 2021* Like the title says this book was like new, looked like it had never been opened and was in perfect shape. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Essential *by B***E on July 25, 2010* Most people know Mark Twain as a writer of humorous tales, Mississippi bildungsromans, travelogues, and historical romances. This approximates his career through the early to mid-1890s, but he then took a drastic turn that lasted until his 1910 death. A combination of personal tragedies (the deaths of his wife, several children, and close friends as well as bankruptcy) and tragic political events (American imperialism, oppression in Russia and the Congo, the Dreyfus affair, etc.) made him very bitter, cynical, and angry. This is reflected in his late writings, many of which went unpublished because they were too politically, theologically, or morally radical. Few writers have been so savagely misanthropic or irreverent; these works are hard reading for anyone with faith in humanity. That said, Twain was always deeply contradictory, and the era also saw him become unprecedentedly political. Showing a strong humanitarian streak, he risked a carefully built reputation to defend the oppressed - racial minorities, women, the politically despised, and others. Perhaps most remarkably, unlike nearly all artist, Twain was not only perhaps more prolific than ever in old age but also at least as great. Those who treasure his light-hearted humor or vivid antebellum South depictions may be disappointed. Some may even be shocked; this is certainly not the Twain turned into cartoons and family films. His unparalleled satire remained, but he moved beyond burlesque into theology, philosophy, politics, and other weighty areas, making clear that he was a formidable intellect and man of deep conscience. Anyone alive to his genius will find much to appreciate in his late work. This book is a fantastic collection covering the era - 80 pieces over nearly 1,000 pages. The title page's "Collected" somewhat overstates things, as the book excludes Twain's late novels and a significant amount of shorter pieces and speeches, but the inclusiveness is remarkable. The works are given chronologically, which is fascinating. The first few are the kind of light-hearted fare for which Twain was famous, but the works get darker and darker until they are nearly unbearable. Twain's anger at humanity and God knew no bounds, and he refused to spare anyone. However, though often incendiary and always insightful, he is never didactic and rarely noticeably heavy-handed. More importantly, the quality is astonishingly consistent; I long ago decided that even Twain's grocery list would be worth reading, and these pieces certainly are. Whether writing about heavy subjects like politics and religion or discoursing on tobacco and turkey hunting, he is entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking - and, yes, often funny. The pieces also have a remarkable variety of subjects and forms. The title is somewhat misleading in that few works are tales in any conventional sense, though those that are ("The One Million Pound Banknote," "The $30,000 Bequest," "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg," "A Dog's Tale," "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven," etc.) are among his best. There are also only a few speeches. Many selections can be broadly called essays, including some of his most brilliant: "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," "The United States of Lyncherdom," etc. Some, such as "The War Prayer," are somewhere between tale and essay. Most are hard to classify, basically being speculative non-fiction in semi-fictional form, including masterworks like "The Czar's Soliloquy," "King Leopold's Soliloquy," and "Letters from the Earth." There are even a few (surprisingly good) poems and several dialogues, notably What Is Man? The book closes with several dozen unparalleled maxims, including some very famous ones. The collection has some of Twain's greatest works, many of which deserve to be as famous as his best-known. There is nothing here unavailable elsewhere, but the book is extremely convenient in collecting pieces spread over a dozen or so collections. The edition is also extremely fine. There is a significant number (over 30 pages) of endnotes, though there probably should be more. We also get substantial detail about each piece's publishing history and the most extensive biographical outline (48 pages!) that I have seen out of hundreds or thousands of books. The book itself is also very high quality; the binding is very durable, and we even get a built-in bookmark. All told, this is essential for anyone interested in Twain. His most famous works should be read first, but this should follow immediately. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/34299777-mark-twain-collected-tales-sketches-speeches-and-essays-volume-2](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/34299777-mark-twain-collected-tales-sketches-speeches-and-essays-volume-2) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-11-10*