7. Following the Equator a global travelogue in the Twain style, declares his war on imperialism at home and abroad. On a lecture tour between 1895 and 1896, Twain travels the world, both to cut into his debt-ridden finances and to generate material for his next book. In Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, he finds oppression, superstition, racial animus, and sheer ignorance. For all his critiques of foreign cultures and customs, he was just as leery, at the dawn of the American century, of our own presumption in exporting our values to “lesser” peoples.
8. The Mysterious Stranger posthumously published, is a culmination of Twain’s musings on man’s dual nature and the ongoing battle between God and Satan for control over our poor, damned souls. By the end of his incredibly active and productive life, Twain was beaten down by age and loss, concluding that we are but flawed creatures; life is a game of dominoes leading inexorably to the end. Even when the title character observes that “Every man is a suffering-machine and a happiness-machine combined,” working in harmony, you can’t help thinking that the suffering portion of Twain’s own life had triumphed and was slowly drowning out what little joy remained to him.
9. Eve's Diary among his last works, don't miss the illustrated edition of this one, Twain’s heart-felt and emotional tribute to the first woman and his late, lamented wife, Livy. Lester Ralph’s controversial nude drawings of Adam and Eve (which got the book banned in at least one New England public library) beautifully complement the lost innocence encountered in the garden and we are left with a bittersweet, ineffable sense of loss.
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