List $19.99

Written by Mark Twain - Audio book performed by Jonathan Kent - Unabridged Fiction - 1 MP3 COMPACT DISC - 7 hours

Publisher, Tantor Media (June 2005)

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"It was in 1590—winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief in Austria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was so taken, and we were all proud of it. I remember it well, although I was only a boy; and I remember, too, the pleasure it gave me." —Excerpt

Twain's last novel took twelve years to finish and is unlike anything else he wrote. This dark story, set in medieval Austria, hinges on unearthly and hidden mental powers. It also gives an insight to the author's psyche during his final days.

About the Author: Mark Twain is considered the greatest humorist of 19th Century American literature. His novels and stories about the Mississippi River, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, won him a worldwide audience and are still popular with modern readers. Sensitive to the sound of language, Twain introduced colloquial speech into American fiction. In Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway wrote, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn."

As Halley's comet reached its perihelion--its closest point to the sun--Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. His father, John Marshall Clemens, was a moderately successful lawyer, a justice of the peace, and a stern disciplinarian of his children. Samuel's mother, Jane, had a natural sense of humor and was greatly affectionate, especially to people down on their luck. The combination of parental personalities would later be found in several of the characters in his novels. After his father's death in 1847, Clemens became an apprentice to a printer and wrote for his brother's newspaper. From 1857-1861, he worked as a licensed Mississippi riverboat pilot.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Clemens chose not to get involved and moved to Carson City, Nevada. After an unsuccessful attempt at gold and silver mining, he joined the staff of a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. Clemens wrote his first popular story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County in 1865 under the pen name, "Mark Twain" (meaning "two fathoms" in riverboat-talk). He continued to travel as a correspondent for various newspapers, and in 1869 his travel letters from Europe were collected into the popular book, The Innocents Abroad. Twain married Olivia Langdon and settled down in Hartford, Connecticut to his most productive years as a writer. Between 1873 and 1889 he wrote seven novels, including his Mississippi River books, The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earnings in financial speculations and his own struggling publishing firm. His financial failures extended to his family, and he suffered through illnesses and deaths of those whom he loved. Twain's comment that "the secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow" became painfully realized, and by the end of the nineteenth century, Twain's writings reflected his dark view of life. On April 19, 1910, some 75 years after its last appearance, Halley's comet again reached its perihelion. Two days later, Mark Twain died in his home near Redding, Connecticut.