Book Two: In Court and Camp Book Two begins with the elimination of Joan's hindrances. With support from her Visions, Joan leaves the village at age 17 to request control of the army from the king. In Chapter IX, after Joan successfully defends herself in trial for witchcraft, the King appoints Joan -General-in-Chief of armies.- In Chapter X, Joan begins to organize her campaign, writing a letter to the English commanders at Orleans, demanding them to vacate France. The English refuse, and Joan attacks immediately and frankly despite the generals and counselors advice that France remain on...

Following the Equator (sometimes titled More Tramps Abroad) is a non-fiction travelogue published by American author Mark Twain in 1897. Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to a failed investment into a "revolutionary" typesetting machine. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt of $100,000 (equivalent of about $2.5 million in 2010) he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895, a route chosen to provide numerous opportunities for lectures in English. Themes The book is an account of Twain's travel published in 1897. It is a social commentary, critical of racism towards...

Following the Equator (sometimes titled More Tramps Abroad) is a non-fiction travelogue published by American author Mark Twain in 1897. Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to a failed investment into a "revolutionary" typesetting machine. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt of $100,000 (equivalent of about $2.5 million in 2010) he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895, a route chosen to provide numerous opportunities for lectures in English. Themes The book is an account of Twain's travel published in 1897. It is a social commentary, critical of racism towards...

Extract: I I have committed sins, of course; but I have not committed enough of them to entitle me to the punishment of reduction to the bread and water of ordinary literature during six years when I might have been living on the fat diet spread for the righteous in Professor Dowden's Life of Shelley, if I had been justly dealt with. During these six years I have been living a life of peaceful ignorance. I was not aware that Shelley's first wife was unfaithful to him, and that that was why he deserted her and wiped the stain from his sensitive honor by entering into soiled relations with...

The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress is a travel book by American author Mark Twain, published in 1869, which humorously chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City (formerly USS Quaker City), through Europe and the Holy Land, with a group of American travelers in 1867. It was the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, as well as one of the best-selling travel books of all time. A major theme of the book, insofar as a book can have a theme when assembled and revised from the newspaper columns Twain sent back...

Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid. He skips school to swim and is made to whitewash the fence the next day as punishment. He cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He then trades the treasures for Sunday School tickets which one normally receives for memorizing verses consistently, redeeming them for a Bible, much to the surprise and bewilderment of the superintendent who thought "it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises-a dozen would...

Las aventuras de Tom Sawyer, de Mark Twain (1876), novela que relata los sucesos de la infancia de Tom Sawyer, un nino que vive en las orillas del rio Mississippi, en el sur de Estados Unidos. La historia se desarrolla en la ciudad ficticia de San Petersburgo, que se inspira en Hannibal, Missouri, donde el autor de la novela, Mark Twain vivio. Tom Sawyer vive con su tia Polly y su medio hermano Sid. En una pelea callejera, Tom ropa sucia y se ve obligado a pintar la cerca al dia siguiente como castigo. Tom convence habilmente a sus amigos para intercambiar pequenos tesoros por el privilegio...

Roughing It is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature written by American humorist Mark Twain. He wrote it during 1870-71 and published in 1872, as a prequel to his first book The Innocents Abroad (1869). This book tells of Twain's adventures prior to his pleasure cruise related in Innocents Abroad. Roughing It follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the Wild West during the years 1861-1867. After a brief stint as a Confederate cavalry militiaman (not included in the account), he joined his brother Orion Clemens, who had been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory, on...

Plot summary The term gilded age, commonly given to the era, comes from the title of this book. Twain and Warner got the name from Shakespeare's King John (1595): "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and ridiculous excess." citation needed] Gilding gold, which would be to put gold on top of gold, is excessive and wasteful, characteristics of the age Twain and Warner wrote about in their novel. Another interpretation of the title, of course, is the contrast between an ideal "Golden Age," and a less worthy "Gilded Age," as gilding is only a thin layer of gold over baser...

The Mysterious Stranger, published posthumously in 1916 and belonging to Twain's "dark" period, belies the popular image of the affable American humorist. In this anti-religious tale, Twain denies the existence of a benign Providence, a soul, an after-life, and even reality itself. As the Stranger in the story asserts, "nothing exists; all is a dream."