登陆注册
5380500000091

第91章

She had doubts as to certain portions of it, and had the fullest faith in Howells's opinion.

It was a gratifying one when it came.Howells wrote: "I finished reading Tom Sawyer a week ago, sitting up till one A.M.to get to the end, simply because it was impossible to leave off.It's altogether the best boy's story I ever read.It will be an immense success.But I think you ought to treat it explicitly as a boy's story.Grown-ups will enjoy it just as much if you do; and if you should put it forth as a study of boy character from the grown-up point of view, you give the wrong key to it....The adventures are enchanting.I wish I had been on that island.The treasure-hunting, the loss in the cave--it's all exciting and splendid.

I shouldn't think of publishing this story serially.Give me a hint when it's to be out, and I'll start the sheep to jumping in the right places"--meaning that he would have an advance review ready for publication in the Atlantic, which was a leader of criticism in America.

Mark Twain was writing a great deal at this time.Howells was always urging him to send something to the Atlantic, declaring a willingness to have his name appear every month in their pages, and Clemens was generally contributing some story or sketch.The "proof" referred to in the next letter was of one of these articles.

To W.D.Howells, in Boston:

HARTFORD, Nov.23, '75.

MY DEAR HOWELLS,-- Herewith is the proof.In spite of myself, how awkwardly I do jumble words together; and how often I do use three words where one would answer--a thing I am always trying to guard against.

I shall become as slovenly a writer as Charles Francis Adams, if I don't look out.(That is said in jest; because of course I do not seriously fear getting so bad as that.I never shall drop so far toward his and Bret Harte's level as to catch myself saying "It must have been wiser to have believed that he might have accomplished it if he could have felt that he would have been supported by those who should have &c.&c.&c.)The reference to Bret Harte reminds me that I often accuse him of being a deliberate imitator of Dickens; and this in turn reminds me that I have charged unconscious plagiarism upon Charley Warner; and this in turn reminds me that I have been delighting my soul for two weeks over a bran new and ingenious way of beginning a novel--and behold, all at once it flashes upon me that Charley Warner originated the idea 3 years ago and told me about it! Aha ! So much for self-righteousness! I am well repaid.Here are 108 pages of MS, new and clean, lying disgraced in the waste paper basket, and I am beginning the novel over again in an unstolen way.I would not wonder if I am the worst literary thief in the world, without knowing it.

It is glorious news that you like Tom Sawyer so well.I mean to see to it that your review of it shall have plenty of time to appear before the other notices.Mrs.Clemens decides with you that the book should issue as a book for boys, pure and simple--and so do I.It is surely the correct idea.As to that last chapter, I think of just leaving it off and adding nothing in its place.Something told me that the book was done when I got to that point--and so the strong temptation to put Huck's life at the Widow's into detail, instead of generalizing it in a paragraph was resisted.Just send Sawyer to me by express--I enclose money for it.If it should get lost it will be no great matter.

Company interfered last night, and so "Private Theatricals" goes over till this evening, to be read aloud.Mrs.Clemens is mad, but the story will take that all out.This is going to be a splendid winter night for fireside reading, anyway.

I am almost at a dead stand-still with my new story, on account of the misery of having to do it all over again.We--all send love to you--all.

Yrs ever MARK.

The "story" referred to may have been any one of several begun by him at this time.His head was full of ideas for literature of every sort.

Many of his beginnings came to nothing, for the reason that he started wrong, or with no definitely formed plan.Others of his literary enterprises were condemned by his wife for their grotesqueness or for the offense they might give in one way or another, however worthy the intention behind them.Once he wrote a burlesque on family history "The Autobiography of a Damned Fool." "Livy wouldn't have it," he said later, "so I gave it up." The world is indebted to Mark Twain's wife for the check she put upon his fantastic or violent impulses.She was his public, his best public--clearheaded and wise.That he realized this, and was willing to yield, was by no means the least of his good fortunes.

We may believe that he did not always yield easily, and perhaps sometimes only out of love for her.In the letter which he wrote her on her thirtieth birthday we realize something of what she had come to mean in his life.

To Mrs.Clemens on her Thirtieth Birthday:

HARTFORD, November 27, 1875.

Livy darling, six years have gone by since I made my first great success in life and won you, and thirty years have passed since Providence made preparation for that happy success by sending you into the world.Every day we live together adds to the security of my confidence, that we can never any more wish to be separated than that we can ever imagine a regret that we were ever joined.You are dearer to me to-day, my child, than you were upon the last anniversary of this birth-day; you were dearer then than you were a year before--you have grown more and more dear from the first of those anniversaries, and I do not doubt that this precious progression will continue on to the end.

Let us look forward to the coming anniversaries, with their age and their gray hairs without fear and without depression, trusting and believing that the love we bear each other will be sufficient to make them blessed.

So, with abounding affection for you and our babies, I hail this day that brings you the matronly grace and dignity of three decades!

Always Yours S.L.C.

End Letters Vol.3

by Mark Twain VOLUME III.

MARK TWAIN'S LETTERS 1876-1885

同类推荐
  • 洞玄灵宝道士明镜法

    洞玄灵宝道士明镜法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 乙巳占

    乙巳占

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 朝真发愿忏悔文

    朝真发愿忏悔文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 送僧归国清寺

    送僧归国清寺

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 秘本诸葛神数

    秘本诸葛神数

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 故事会(2016年2月上)

    故事会(2016年2月上)

    《故事会》是上海文艺出版社编辑出版的仅有114个页码、32开本的杂志,是中国最通俗的民间文学小本杂志。《故事会》创刊于1963年,是中国的老牌刊物之一。先后获得两届中国期刊的最高奖——国家期刊奖。1998年,它在世界综合类期刊中发行量排名第5。
  • 唐昌观看花

    唐昌观看花

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 迷糊才女的古风穿越

    迷糊才女的古风穿越

    现如今任谁都穿了,姐姐不穿似乎太不厚道了吧?但是...只不过在上课小憩一下也会穿?好吧,我穿我穿我穿穿穿。可是,我的神啊,能不能让姐有点面子地穿?下次我不要被撂在屋顶上挂着啦~~~好歹人家在现代是个有头有脸的才女诶。什么什么,刚来不久就让我赶上诗赋盛宴?武林大会?这可是个结交美男的好机会啊!!美男,姐来了!谁要这个沉默是金的木头啊!就算我救了他,他也用不着以身相许呀!他不是姐的那盘菜...但是为什么当我以为遇到真爱后,我看这木头男越来越顺眼了呢?--------------------------------------------------本文纯属虚构~冷笑话居多~额外附赠侦探情节~喜爱者请收下,谢谢~某罹飘过小罹新文新坑《首席医师的咖啡女仆》:http://m.wkkk.net/a/262408/
  • 武当七女

    武当七女

    说到林绿华见崔晴与妖人大战,妖人势盛,崔晴似有不敌之势,越看越觉可虑。二人本是三生爱侣,况当大难临身,祸福相共之际,绿华关心情急,哪还再计利害。急喊得一声:“晴哥休慌,我来助你。”口中说话,人早朝前飞去。崔晴全仗飞剑法宝防身,人又机智,动作神速,一上来先把迎面飞来的妖党杀死。故事就此开始……
  • 断言死亡

    断言死亡

    如果善良的意志或邪恶的意志能改变世界的话,它只能改变世界的界限,而不能改变事实:不能改变用语言表现出来的东西。——维特根斯坦的《逻辑哲学论》6.43这几个日本人死的时候,天色蒙蒙亮,草原上大雾弥漫,四周静悄悄。没有目击者。查干布拉克桥消失了。我们只知道,这座木桥是在清朝光绪年间重新维修过的,几十年来,它已习惯于牛车、马队、羊群和间或出现的汽车。多少个晨昏日月滴入桥下的伊敏河,大浪淘沙间,英雄和美人的故事飘入风烟里,似芦花飞扬的季节,飘渺而朦胧了起来。
  • 宅女的任务系统

    宅女的任务系统

    平凡宅女齐星雨,普普通通生活了二十来年,直到一天晚上,一个她认为是梦中梦的神奇经历……
  • 用沟通代替争执

    用沟通代替争执

    这是个沟通的年代,两国的争端,不应该用打仗解决;夫妻有矛盾,不必破口大骂;这次生意不成,下次还可以合作;会议上“水火不容”,可以沟通后“共同改进”……只要我们有爱心、有耐心、有诚心地去沟通,这世界必能和谐,这社会必能进步!本书提出“用沟通代替争执”的理念,就是力图让每一位读者将本书提到的70个智慧运用到自己的生活中去,让生活变得和谐,让人生变得快乐!
  • 蛙鸣

    蛙鸣

    一部环保题材的长篇小说。在老师和科学家的关怀指导下,几个少年成立了爱蛙小组,保护青蛙、保护生态环境,对鼓励少年儿童从小树立环境保护意识具有积极意义。
  • 北伐战争

    北伐战争

    国民革命军北伐,是由中国国民党领导下的国民政府以国民革命军为主力于1926年至1927年间发动的统一战争。因其战争过程由南向北进行,故又常简称为“北伐”,或称“北伐战争”。
  • 冰封王座之纵横大陆

    冰封王座之纵横大陆

    玩魔兽把自己玩到异界去了并不希奇,希奇的是你见过这样的异界经历吗?埃尔罗伊虚空劈出一剑,跟前的木棍化成无数的碎片,哼道:“你会凌空劈么?”柔伊在掷出一个火球之后得意的说道:“你会玩魔法么?”依耶芙特则召唤出一只水元素,不屑的哼道:“你会召唤宠物么?”我在地上打了几个滚后吼了几声,叫:“你们会跳街舞么?会唱两只蝴蝶么?”前面的众人倒下一大片!“我会唱两只小蜜蜂!”络瑞斯在我身后傻傻的说到,前面的众人全倒!