Mark Twain s gloriously funny Diary of Adam and Eve, which John Updike described as a paradigm of the relations between sexes, is presented here with a number of other Twain pieces on our two oldest ancestors, showing the writer s interest in this most famous episode of the Bible.

By giving a voice to Adam and Eve, and by hitting all the notes on the literary scale from the intimate to the comical, from the journalistic to the idyllic Twain displays the brilliance and wit for which he is rightly considered one of the greatest satirists of all time.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn began life as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but is now seen in its own right as one of the most important of all American novels. Rather than be 'sivilized' by the Widow Douglas, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, an escaped slave, set off to find freedom on the Mississippi. Their adventures teach them much about the society in which they live, and the book combines an exuberant sense of nostalgia with subtle undertones of adult melancholy.

With an afterword by Peter Harness.

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan...

One of the most irrepressible and exuberant characters in the history of literature, Tom Sawyer explodes onto the page in a whirl of bad behaviour and incredible adventures. Whether he is heaving clods of earth at his brother, faking a gangrenous toe, or trying to convince the world that he is dead, Tom's infectious energy and good humor shine through. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is Mark Twain's joyful and nostalgic recollection of tall tales from his own boyhood by the Mississippi some 'thirty or forty years ago', an instant success on first publication in 1876 and a delight to...