The Devil's Race-Track: Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings

by Mark Twain, Richard A. Watson (Primary Contributor), John S. Tuckey (Introduction)

Mark Twain explores the darker side of life in these lesser-known later writings dealing with personal tragedies, nightmarish world events, and a doubtful cosmic order. He views his own situation as that of a ship trapped in a fearsome Bermuda Triangle-like region, the Devil's Race-Track. He sees history as a treadmill of endlessly and monotonously repeated events. And he conceives of a universal food chain, a vast round of devourers who in their turn become victims, humankind and God included. The tone of these writings is lightened considerably by Mark Twain's sagely ironic humor and his warmth, which together balance his tough-mindedness. And even when he shows the human race caught in some vicious circle, he may be seen courageously seeking a way out and at times believing he has found it.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, American, Religion, Collections, Literature, Classics

406 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caustic satires on humanity’s smug vanity and ugly greed. A deterministic universe full of suffering and devoid of justice.

[Cheryl]

"The Great Dark" is rec'd by Hauck (see) as philosophically "absurd."

[adam prometheus · Rating 3 out of 5]

an entertaining and thought-provoking collection. a window into Twains thoughts and an example of his far-reaching imagination. My favorites are "Little Bessie", about a little girl who asks difficult questions about God, etc, "Thoughts on God", which explores the question of the common housefly, "3,000 Years Among the Microbes", about a man who is transformed into a microbe inside a human body and finds microbe civilization to be strikingly similar to human civilization (this one is especially interesting, an elaborate metaphor of the microcosm/macrocosm and the role of the human in the greater universe, the souls of 'lower animals', etc.), and "The Yellow Scourge", a lovely fable about butterflies and bees (or is it angels and humans?) There are also political writings, and ship-voyages on treacherous seas and across a drop of water. Great bed-time reading.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life ain't all sunshine and roses, Sandy.

[Bjm Index]

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