The Oxford Mark Twain

If any one writer stands at the heart of American literature it is arguably Mark Twain.

He is certainly one of America's most popular writers, a teller of tall tales, a genial entertainer, a consistently quotable sage.

He is also a noteworthy satirist, who penned withering attacks on hypocrisy and corruption (he once said he wrote with "a pen warmed up in hell"). "The Oxford Mark Twain" is a facsimile of the first American editions of Twain's work, and includes the original illustrations, some of which were drawn by Twain himself, and many of which have not been seen since these editions went out of print.Moreover, in each volume containing art, Fishkin has commissioned an essay on that volume's illustrations and the artists responsible.

These illustrations add an extra dimension to the narratives that has been missing for a hundred years.

Each volume also includes, as its frontispiece, a selected photo of Twain around the age he was when he wrote the book at hand.

Colourful, irreverent, romantic, sceptical, a master of comic asides, a bittersweet humorist, and an unflinching critic of human pretensions, Mark Twain speaks to us across time with verve and wisdom.

Combining the works themselves, reflections on Twain by some of our leading writers and scholars, and the original illustrations, this 29-volume-set should be of value to everyone interested in Twain's work and American literature.