Mark Twain

An excellent read.

BIG book, but extremely interesting and well-written

Excelente libro. En muy buen estado. Ojalá vinieran más protegido para evitar manchas o raspones.

Great book that captures Samuels life in minute details. Meant for avid readers only as it's over 1k pages. I forgot matter will not be able to write about myself with such fineness and details. Though I received book with torn cover still book deserves a perfect rating.

Anyone who has ever read a Chernow biography knows to expect comprehensive treatment of the subject that covers all phases and every aspect of their lives. The ability to pull all of those aspects of life into a single volume is what makes Chernow the premier biographer of the twenty-first century. Most people know Twain for his literary accomplishments, but he was many other things too. He was a political pundit with a wide-ranging influence and held positions that may make some modern Americans a little uncomfortable. Political commentary is often best conveyed with biting sarcasm or humor and Twain was certainly able to leverage his literary talents to this end. Chernow is very good at brining these different aspects to life, and he does it well with Twain, whose life straddled many areas. In this book, Chernow expands his bibliographic profile, embracing a subject who is not primarily a political or financial figure, but an artist who influenced his world less through policies but through cultural influence. Chernow may be accused of too much detail, but readers should keep in the mind is that his aim is author a nuanced biography that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. He doesn’t engage in hagiography nor assassination. He writes biographies built on facts worked into a narrative replete with sound historical analysis. Facts and data must be interpreted and that is nature of historical writing. Chernow leverage nuance to build a comprehensive narrative. He interacts with the reader, he does not merely dump information on them. Looking at the manufacturing quality, this book has been elegantly put together. It has a fine matte finish on the dust jacket (much better than glossy!), and exquisite and inviting interior design and font, and is generously supplemented with photos. The spine is stitches and not glued, so readers can be assured the book will be durable. Chernow’s writing is clear and crisp, not bogging down. That may be surprising for a book of this length, but style has little to do with length. The writing is either engaging or it isn’t. This book will make a great summer read and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.