The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1904 1906) (The AOxford Mark Twain)

About this book

These witty and whimsical diaries reflect both Twains belief in womens equality and his irreverent views of conventional religion. Extracts from Adams Diary was published first in 1904 with Fred Strothmanns humorous cartoons of supposedly ancient stone carvings on every left-hand page. Here Twain has a field day with the story of Adam and Eve playfully placing the Garden of Eden at Niagara Falls "the honeymoon capital of the world." A companion piece Eves Diary was published in 1906 accompanied by the stunning line drawings of Lester Ralph; it was banned in Worcester Massachusetts because of its supposedly pornographic illustrations of a prelapsarian Eve. Eves Diary is both a love story and Clemens loving eulogy to his deceased wife: "Wheresoever she was there was Eden." The two diaries never appeared in one volume during Twains lifetime despite Twains desire that they be republished together someday as they are here in their entirety for the first time. Now readers can delight in comparing the decidedly different takes Adam and Eve have on the same memorable events.