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An essay in which Mark Twain destroys the pretensions of the interpretation of divine will in the world. He argues against the apparent ease and certainty of interpreting divine communications.

Mark Twain’s essay "The Bee" has a comical twist. It deals with the natural pressure on one bee assure that her colony survives. "After the queen, the next bee in importance to the hive is the virgin. All work is done by them. The males do not work, the queen does no work, unless laying eggs is work."

Winesburg, Ohio is a short story cycle by Sherwood Anderson. The plot revolves around the life of George Willard, from his childhood to him leaving the town as an adult. The work comprises 22 stories, with the first, "The Book of the Grotesque", serving as introduction. The book is considered a pioneering work of modernist literature due to the prominence giving to the psychological insight of the characters and the simple prose style.

The greedy Tom Walker, a selfish miser, worships money. When he takes a walk in the swamp, he meets the devil (referred to as "Old Scratch"). Old Scratch makes a deal with Tom Walker, offering a treasure hidden in the swamp in exchange for a great price. One day, the payment becomes due....

A Scrap of Curious History is an essay by Mark Twain dealing with the fictional history of abolitionism in a Missouri town. It was originally published as part of the What Is Man? And Other Essays collection.

William Howells was a friend of Mark Twain’s for 44 years and spent many hours in the company of this giant of late 19th century American literature. Clements’s views on slavery, literature, religion, and many sketches of home and family life emerge in this account of a truly great man.

This essay by Mark Twain is an amusing portrait of pupils through actual exam answers. Twain blamed the situation on the education system.

While Mark Twain was visiting Austria, Empress Elisabeth travelled to Geneva, where she was killed by an anarchist. Mark Twain, who had known the Empress, was shocked and outraged. This essay includes a description of the funeral and Twain’s thoughts about the assassin’s mind.

Mark Twain attended the performance of operas like Parsifal at Bayreuth. He enjoyed the instrumental parts but didn’t like the singing, as he recounts in a humorous way. He called it "the wailing, screeching of third-rate obscurities, palmed off on us in the interest of economy".

This is Mark Twain's passionate eulogy for his eldest daughter, who died from spinal meningitis aged 24. It provides an intimate portrait of his daughter and attempts to present what he experienced as her unique character.

"What Is Man?", the 1906 essay by Mark Twain, is a dialogue between a young man and an older man involving ideas of destiny, free will, and egoism. The old man asserts that the human being is merely a machine, but the young man objects and asks him to go into particulars and provide the reasons for his attitude.

In this short essay, Mark Twain discusses the patriot William Tell, the city of Interlaken, and the Jungfrau mountain. He describes the beauty of the landscape with great admiration.

Twain describes how he and his friend, Joe Twichell, tried to learn how to ride a bicycle in May of 1884. The bicycle was a new invention, and it proved to be more difficult than riding a horse. According to Twain, it was a painful and short-lived experience.

This 1899 essay describes Mark Twain's method of teaching historical dates to his children. It was first published posthumously in Harper's Monthly Magazine in December 1914.

In this brief, semi-autobiographical work, Mark Twain explores the controversy over the authorship of the Shakespearean literary canon. Applying satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation, he uses the debate over Shakespeare's real identity to satirize prejudice, intolerance, and self-importance.

The tale is told from the standpoint of a household pet. When a fire breaks out in the nursery, the dog risks her life to drag the baby to safety. In the process, her motives are misunderstood and she is cruelly beaten by the father of the family before the truth of the situation is discovered and she receives no end of praise. Later her puppy is killed by the father of the family to prove his opinion on optics to his scientist peers.

Twain reflects on the defining moment of his childhood. The incident occurred when a measles epidemic was raging in his hometown; fear was everywhere, and Twain was confined to the house for months. The turning point was when he left the house as he concluded that taking brave action was better than being smothered by fear.

"The Californian's Tale" is the story of a man, Henry, waiting for his wife to come home. The narrator, a stranger to the town, knows nothing of the circumstances. He discovers the tragic truth at a party thrown by Henry’s friends at his house.

A couple was promised a $30,000 inheritance from a rich relative on condition that it remains a secret. Through the years, they invest money, accumulating sizable assets, until they lose it all in a stock market crash. One day, they find out that the relative had died penniless, which means they yearned for an illusion their whole life long.

Mark Twain relates how he broke the news when he was still unknown. He was in Honolulu when the survivors from the harrowing open sea voyage of the clipper-ship Hornet arrive. He stayed up late to get the accounts of the sailors’ trials, writes through the night and relays a detailed account when the other reporters only had an outline report.