After reading a Time Magazine article on the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain's death, I ordered Mississippi Writings out of curiosity and to see how much I would remember from reading these stories as a child. I was not disappointed. His writing is contemporary, the language is typical of his day (so don't be offended), and I was reminded again of how he really started the modern novel. Although I knew how the stories would turn out, I had forgotten a lot of the details that had enthralled me when I read it the first time so many years ago, and when I put myself in Tom's place and wished I had a friend like Huck. This is a nice package that provides an insight into life along the Mississippi in the early days and will provide a fishing bucket full of nostalgia.

Pudd'nhead Wilson is, in my opinion, Mark Twain's most underappreciated book. It's a "mystery" in structure, so I don't intend to summarize the story at all. It's also Twain's most powerful assessment of the effects of slavery and racism in America, but once again I don't want to spoil the development except to say that Twain "felt" the horrors of Jim Crow more than any other white intellectual of his era.

Twain has been demonized in some places because of his use of language in Huckleberry Finn and other books, which would be considered hateful and racist today. Well, friends, it was hateful and racist in Twain's time also, and Twain consistently uses it in such a way that its insensitivity and hatefulness is revealed. Huckleberry Finn is not a book aimed at children; it's rowdy and complex and it requires a kind of detachment that only a mature frontal cortex can manage. What makes HF such a great book is precisely the reliance and friendship that evolves between the runaway white boy and the runaway slave. No other book before Twain portrayed such an intimacy.

I have a personal "investment" in Pudd'nhead Wilson, the character, which I needn't explain, except to say that large numbers of African-Americans and European-Americans might find themselves equally invested by the miracle of DNA testing.

This Library of America publication is first-rate. If you haven't read Huckleberry Finn at least twice in your life, you ought to read it now. And if you haven't read Pudd'nhead Wilson, you'll be both entertained and stimulated by it.

One of the most entertaining books I have read in a long time. Truly, "a page turner". Enlightening insight into southern society in smalltown Missouri during the 1840's.

I doubt that anyone reading these reviews is trying to decide whether or not they will enjoy reading the stories in this volume - most likely they've read them already and want to know if this is an edition worth buying. This is definitely worth buying. The printing is crisp. The paper is lightweight, smooth-surfaced, and acid-free; over 1100 pages are only 1 and 1/8 inches thick. The dimensions are perfect. The binding appears to be strong yet limber - the book opens easily with good visualization of all margins. Library of America, the publishers, seems dedicated not only to preserving American writings, but doing so with style. I plan to put more of their books on my wish list - Melville and Hawthorne perhaps. My only regret is that I already own the complete writing of Poe from another publisher.

If pressed to mention a series of books I love more than all others, I would have to cite Library of America; this is not because I am a fan of stictly American literature, but because I have never seen a series so dedicated--and so good at--a mission of preserving and presenting a body of literature of such greatness in such a worthy manner. Perhaps some day there will be a Library of Russia, Library of France, Library of England, etc.

Twain is a delight and underrated by modern critics; here lies a good collection of some of his fine works. Especially good are Life on the Mississippi and Pudd'nhead Wilson, along with the indesposable Huckleberry Finn. Also contained is Tom Sawyer, which I cannot praise, but I cannot deny its position as a classic and its deservence to be included in this volume.