Mark Twain

I like to think that I am well-read. I look at my book shelves and see the quantity and variety of my library and confirm my 'well-readness', sometimes even thinking (pompously) that I have read almost all that is worth reading....And yet I am constantly surprised by new authors, or old authors who show me how much I am missing.

Case in point this weekend. My son had got Tom Sawyer from the library (we have a copy of Huck Finn from my youth, but somehow we never aquired Tom Sawyer.) He also borrowed the Prince and the Pauper and a collection of short stories of Mark Twain. (I guess he is on a Mark Twain kick.) I have read Huck Finn, but not much else of Twain.

The short stories are a bit of a pleasant surprise. Last night I entertained Mrs. Curley and my oldest son and daughter with the reading of Twain's Diary of Adam and Eve. (The laughter was heavy.)

Of course Mr. Twain has a totally different perspective of what pre-fall life was like for these two in the Garden of Eden than Catholics do-but I suspect he was simply trying to point out the oddities and differences between man and woman had their origins from the beginning. (And perhaps he didn't appreciate women as much as he should have.) Here's a sample from Adam:

The new creature (Eve) eats too much fruit. We are going to run short, most likely...She fell in the pond yesterday when she was looking at herself in it, which she is always doing...Built me a shelter against the rain, but could not have it to myself in peace. The new creature intruded. When I tried to put it out, it shed water out of the holes it looks with, and wiped it away with the back of its paws, and made a noise such as some of the other animals make when they are in distress. I wish it would not talk; it is always talking...... (and after the fall) She accuses me of being the cause of our disaster!

From Eve:

All week long I tagged after him and tried to get acquainted. I had to do the talking, because he was shy, but I didn't mind it....