Federman's story is woven of fragments, branching out over a lifetime. His narrative spirals into a temporal abyss as he rummages in old memories marked with cabbages, plump breasts and the Final Solution. Aunt Rachel's Fur is aswirl with the narrative innovations that distinguish Federman as a leading experimental surfictioneer."--BOOK JACKET.

Aunt Rachel

Get ready to delve into a compelling story of love, betrayal, and redemption in this captivating book. Follow the journey of an older woman who relocates to a far-off city to escape the ghosts of her past, only to return years later as a bitter, unpleasant person. However, with the help of a young couple deeply in love, the misunderstandings that caused her pain in the past are finally exposed, leading to a heartwarming resolution that will leave you feeling uplifted. Don't miss out on this powerful tale of forgiveness and second chances.

Mark Twain once claimed that he could read human character as well as he could read the Mississippi River, and he studied his fellow humans with the same devoted attention. In both his fiction and his nonfiction, he was disposed to dramatize how the human creature acts in a given environment—and to understand why. Now one of America’s preeminent Twain scholars takes a closer look at this icon’s abiding interest in his fellow creatures. In seeking to account for how Twain might have reasonably believed the things he said he believed, Tom Quirk has interwoven the author’s inner life with his writings to produce a meditation on how Twain’s understanding of human nature evolved and deepened, and to show that this was one of the central preoccupations of his life. Quirk charts the ways in which this humorist and occasional philosopher contemplated the subject of human nature from early adulthood until the end of his life, revealing how his outlook changed over the years. His travels, his readings in history and science, his political and social commitments, and his own pragmatic testing of human nature in his writing contributed to Twain’s mature view of his kind. Quirk establishes the social and scientific contexts that clarify Twain’s thinking, and he considers not only Twain’s stated intentions about his purposes in his published works but also his ad hoc remarks about the human condition. Viewing both major and minor works through the lens of Twain’s shifting attitude, Quirk provides refreshing new perspectives on the master’s oeuvre. He offers a detailed look at the travel writings, including The Innocents Abroad and Following the Equator, and the novels, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Pudd’nhead Wilson, as well as an important review of works from Twain’s last decade, including fantasies centering on man’s insignificance in Creation, works preoccupied with isolation—notably No. 44,The Mysterious Stranger and “Eve’s Diary”—and polemical writings such as What Is Man? Comprising the well-seasoned reflections of a mature scholar, this persuasive and eminently readable study comes to terms with the life-shaping ideas and attitudes of one of America’s best-loved writers. Mark Twain and Human Nature offers readers a better understanding of Twain’s intellect as it enriches our understanding of his craft and his ineluctable humor.

Published in 1884, Huck Finn has become one of the most widely taught novels in American curricula. But where did Huckleberry Finn come from, and what made it so distinctive? Shelley Fisher Fishkin suggests that in Huckleberry Finn, more than in any other work, Mark Twain let African-American voices, language, and rhetorical traditions play a major role in the creation of his art. In Was Huck Black?, Fishkin combines close readings of published and unpublished writing by Twain with intensive biographical and historical research and insights gleaned from linguistics, literary theory, and folklore to shed new light on the role African-American speech played in the genesis of Huckleberry Finn. Given that book's importance in American culture, her analysis illuminates, as well, how the voices of African-Americans have shaped our sense of what is distinctively "American" about American literature. Fishkin shows that Mark Twain was surrounded, throughout his life, by richly talented African-American speakers whose rhetorical gifts Twain admired candidly and profusely. A black child named Jimmy whom Twain called "the most artless, sociable and exhaustless talker I ever came across" helped Twain understand the potential of a vernacular narrator in the years before he began writing Huckleberry Finn, and served as a model for the voice with which Twain would transform American literature. A slave named Jerry whom Twain referred to as an "impudent and satirical and delightful young black man" taught Twain about "signifying"--satire in an African-American vein--when Twain was a teenager (later Twain would recall that he thought him "the greatest man in the United States" at the time). Other African-American voices left their mark on Twain's imagination as well--but their role in the creation of his art has never been recognized. Was Huck Black? adds a new dimension to current debates over multiculturalism and the canon. American literary historians have told a largely segregated story: white writers come from white literary ancestors, black writers from black ones. The truth is more complicated and more interesting. While African-American culture shaped Huckleberry Finn, that novel, in turn, helped shape African-American writing in the twentieth century. As Ralph Ellison commented in an interview with Fishkin, Twain "made it possible for many of us to find our own voices." Was Huck Black? dramatizes the crucial role of black voices in Twain's art, and takes the first steps beyond traditional cultural boundaries to unveil an American literary heritage that is infinitely richer and more complex than we had thought.

The Horatio Alger MEGAPACK® presents 70 Classic Works by the great 19th century author. Here are: ADVENTURES OF A TELEGRAPH BOY DIGGING FOR GOLD MARK THE MATCH BOY BOB BURTON ANDY GORDON THE BACKWOODS BOY A BOY'S FORTUNE A DEBT OF HONOR BERNARD BROOKS' ADVENTURES WAIT AND HOPE MARK MASON'S VICTORY ROBERT COVERDALE'S STRUGGLE BEN, THE LUGGAGE BOY RUFUS AND ROSE THE YOUNG ADVENTURER THE YOUNG MINER THE TIN BOX TOM, THE BOOTBLACK A COUSIN'S CONSPIRACY IN A NEW WORLD LUKE WALTON THE ERIE TRAIN BOY THE YOUNG OUTLAW SAM'S CHANCE BEN'S NUGGET SLOW AND SURE THE YOUNG BANK MESSENGER THE TELEGRAPH BOY CHESTER RAND FROM FARM TO FORTUNE THE YOUNG ACROBAT OF THE GREAT NORTH AMERICAN CIRCUS RAGGED DICK FAME AND FORTUNE RANDY OF THE RIVER YOUNG CAPTAIN JACK FRANK AND FEARLESS ADRIFT IN NEW YORK PAUL THE PEDDLER PHIL, THE FIDDLER JOE THE HOTEL BOY THE ERRAND BOY FRED SARGENT'S REVENGE THE SMUGGLER'S TRAP THE CASH BOY PAUL PRESCOTT'S CHARGE BRAVE AND BOLD DRIVEN FROM HOME CAST UPON THE BREAKERS FROM CANAL BOY TO PRESIDENT ANDY GRANT'S PLUCK MAKING HIS WAY FACING THE WORLD JOE'S LUCK BOUND TO RISE RISEN FROM THE RANKS HERBERT CARTER'S LEGACY FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS WALTER SHERWOOD'S PROBATION NOTHING TO EAT HELPING HIMSELF TRY AND TRUST DO AND DARE HECTOR'S INHERITANCE THE YOUNG MUSICIAN STRUGGLING UPWARD ONLY AN IRISH BOY JACK'S WARD THE STORE BOY FRANK'S CAMPAIGN TIMOTHY CRUMP'S WARD If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!