Mark Twain's Major Works

• The Innocents Abroad (1869) is the story of a cruise to Europe and the Holy Land in 1867. Mark Twain wrote humorous accounts of the trip in letters to newspapers. Later these were brought together into this travel book. The book is insightful, funny, witty and tireless. It satirizes the timeless cultures of such places as Italy and Egypt, and offers insights that remain fresh even today.

• Roughing It (1872) has the recollections of Mark Twain's life in the West in the 1860s. He lived and worked in Nevada and San Francisco during that time. A large portion of the book covers a trip he made to Hawaii during this time. The narrative is also an important social history on the mining camps and towns in this part of the country.

• Tom Sawyer (1876) is a story of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, his friend Huckleberry Finn, and his girlfriend Becky Thatcher in the small Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. The novel is considered autobiographical because the characters and setting were based on Mark Twain's boyhood experiences. The main plot developed when Tom and Huck witnessed a murder in the cemetery. Tom revealed that the murderer was Injun Joe. Later Tom and Becky were lost in a cave where Injun Joe was hiding. Tom Sawyer is one of Mark Twain's best loved novels.

• A Tramp Abroad (1880) told of travel by Twain and his family in Europe in the 1870s. The book is humorous, but was not as well received as some of his other creations.

• The Prince and the Pauper (1881) is the story of a prince and a poor boy who switched places. Set in England in the 1500s, this novel is a satire on the social norms and pretensions of the time. The main characters were Edward VI, a boy who was king of England, and Tom Canty. The two were quite similar in appearance.

• Life on the Mississippi (1883) was written as a part of a Mississippi River cruise by Mark Twain and friends in 1882. For background material Twain also had his years as a pilot on the Mississippi in the years before the Civil War. Life on the Mississippi was well received and showed Twain to be more than a humorist. Material gathered for the book led to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been considered by many to be Twain's greatest work.

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is a story of young Huckleberry Finn and a runaway slave named Jim. They floated down the Mississippi River from Missouri and had numerous adventures. Huckleberry was running from his drunken father and also Widow Douglas who had tried to teach him manners. The story is a social commentary on pre-Civil War life along the Mississippi River valley. It shows the moral choices that face a young boy. During the course of the novel, Jim and Huckleberry slowly grow to respect each other and develop a strong bond of friendship. This is arguably Mark Twain's best novel, and is considered by some to be the greatest American novel.

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)--The story of a man from Connecticut who travelled back in time to the court of King Arthur in England. The book was an attempt to contrast the harsh living conditions of the poor with the pettiness and snobbery of the aristocrats of that time. The story is humorous and insightful about the human condition. The Connecticut Yankee played the master manipulator. He patronized the foolish knights and knaves while building an empire of technology under their very noses.

• Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) was the story of a murder trial in Missouri in the 1830s. The work is significant in that it deals with slavery and the damage it causes to the human spirit.

• Following the Equator (1897) was the record of a lecture tour around the world in the 1890s. Both the lecture tour and book helped to pay debts from business losses by Mark Twain.