Life On the Mississippi || 'Then and Again W/O'. . .it's all good.
Written: Aug 30 '05 (Updated Aug 31 '05)
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Pros: Hey . . .it is Twain for gawd's sake..!
Cons: Long, convoluted, perhaps . . .'too much' for today's reader..??
The Bottom Line: Perhaps only the words of Twain, their adaptation to film, keep the dim memory of this era of America's history alive. It is a chapter worth exploring on your own.
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| sleeper54's Full Review: |
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Born in 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain, is the quintessential American author of the nineteenth century. Perhaps best remembered as the creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Twain published dozens of novels, non-fiction essays and short story collections over a forty year writing career.
Life On the Mississippi is perhaps his middle-aged, nostalgic look-back to the long gone days of his youth. Published in 1883, Twain looks back from a distance of twenty years, back to his days as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. From 1857 to 1861 Twain learned and worked and lived on steamboats traveling the river from St. Louis to New Orleans. Yet a mere twenty years later, he must have surely recognized that the 'glory days' of the steamboat on the Mississippi were already gone, for him and for his country.
Twain provides his reader no shortcuts to learning everything there is to know about the Mississippi River, steamboat travel, and about the life of a steamboat pilot on the river. His pride in remembering the years he spent piloting on the river is obvious:
"I now come to a phase of the Mississippi River life of the flush times of steamboating, which seems to me to warrant full examination--the marvellous science of piloting, as displayed there. I believe there has been nothing like it elsewhere in the world."
Life On the Mississippi is a long and challenging read, best sampled in small 'bites'. Many stories are strewn hither and yon.
Stories of the geological history and the discovery and exploration of the river by man.
Stories of Twain's early days as a boy on the river and the characters known and admired or censured from those early days.
Stories from his days living and working on the river, as a 'cub pilot', as a respected working pilot, and—returning twenty years later—as a visitor seeing for himself the changes wrought on the river.
Stories of the changes produced by the hand of man, straightening and deepening and channeling the river; changes forced by the development of tow-boats and railroads; changes perhaps best seen from the distance of time.
Some of the more interesting stories found in Life On the Mississippi have been distilled into a short film titled, amazingly, Life on the Mississippi. Indeed, the first third of this tome provides all of the stories told in that film. This book and that film complement each other very nicely.
Sadly, the grand era of Mississippi steamboating rose and fell in the blink of an eye. Twain notes:
"Mississippi steamboating was born about 1812; at the end of thirty years, it had grown to mighty proportions; and in less than thirty more, it was dead! A strangely short life for so majestic a creature. Of course it is not absolutely dead; neither is a crippled octogenarian who could once jump twenty-two feet on level ground; but as contrasted with what it was in its prime vigor, Mississippi steamboating may be called dead."
The Bottom Line
Perhaps only the words of Mark Twain, the adaptation of these words to film, and the few remaining 'tourist' steamboats still in existence keep the dim memory of this era of America's history alive. It is a chapter worth exploring on your own.
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Certified 'Lean-n-mean' review.
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Please feel free to read other reviews in pearannoyed's 'Then and Again' write-off. Fellow writers here at Epinions are comparing ". . .works that are based on previous works."
In my case, this review/book is the 'Then' product. The 'Again' product is my review of the adaptation of this Mark Twain work to film: Life On the Mississippi.
I would invite you to sample that review also. Numerous other 'Then and Again' reviews are available via the link above.
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"Just the facts, ma'am"
Title: Life On the Mississippi
Original publisher: James R. Osgood and Company, Boston
On-line adapted version: http://docsouth.unc.edu/twainlife/twain.html
Author: Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain
Copyright: Public domain
Original Publish date: 1883
Ages recommended: Teen through adult
Reference sites:
http://www.steamboats.com/index.html
More than you would ever want to know about the history of steamboats.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/twainlife/twain.html
One online version of the complete text, this of the 1883 Edition of James R. Osgood and Company. Complete with illustrations, footnotes, etc.
The Best Of Hal Holbrook In Mark Twain Tonight! - Hal Holbrook
Recommended:
Yes
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sleeper54
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Member: ...tom...
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Back-in-the-heartland...brief respite before real-world work begins. Hopefully less intensive than I imagine it will be..!!
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