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72nd out of 833 books
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The Diary of Adam and Eve
by
Mark Twain
Written in diary form, The Diary of Adam and Eve is an ingenious, witty, and ultimately delightful retelling of the dawn of human creation with many a grain of truth for today's gender disputes. Master storyteller Mark Twain hilariously recreates the very first days, portraying Adam as something of a recluse, and a man who is ill prepared for the arrival of Eve, a talkativ...more
Paperback, 112 pages
Published
July 1st 2002
by Hesperus Press
(first published 1905)
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~ la inceput, teribil de amuzanta. noroc ca eram singura in birou. [da, am inceput'o intr'o pauza la servici, dar nu a fost chip sa o las din mana. oricum, in mai putin de o ora se termina..:]. stropul de inceput:
Luni. Creatura asta noua cu parul lung ma cam incurca. Imi da mereu tarcoale si ma urmareste. Nu prea'mi place asta fiindca nu's obisnuit cu societatea. Mai bine statea cu celelalte animale...Azi e timp noros, bate vint de la rasarit. Cred ca o sa vina ploaia peste noi.."...more
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I'd say this was the original Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and would have been annoying bullshit if Mark Twain weren't so wry and humane. Apparently, his out-of-time insight into the construct of racial differences didn't carry over into gender. Adam wants to build stuff. Eve wants to talk all day. Adam wants his space. Eve just wants to relate. Anyway, after the Fall, Adam came to the conclusion that his lost connection to Eden was retained in his connection to Eve. Hence, all this ...more
Okay, so I actually listened to this on tape on a long drive back home rather than read it, but I am actively hunting a printed copy.
I loved this. I think you will too. Twain is a genius. I am incredibly jealous of his ability after this.
The basis of the book is a collection of "diary entries" written by Adam and Eve. They're very funny in parts, since they're both trying to form an idea and theory of the world around them out of only their observations and pers...more
I loved this. I think you will too. Twain is a genius. I am incredibly jealous of his ability after this.
The basis of the book is a collection of "diary entries" written by Adam and Eve. They're very funny in parts, since they're both trying to form an idea and theory of the world around them out of only their observations and pers...more
While Twain plays on and derives humor from some familiar gender stereotypes, this is in no way a one-joke piece. If anything, the book’s “gimmick”--the translation of previously undiscovered texts direct from the Garden of Eden--provides it with the fuel for genius. The man and the woman, while playing their traditional, stereotypical roles to perfection, also happen to be the first of their sexes. As a result, Adam and Eve are able to play out the battle of the sexes unhampered by the cultural...more
Tamra
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who wants to laugh, but especially Twain fanatics
This version contains the artwork published in the 1904 and 1906 editions of Extracts from Adam's Diary and Eve's Diary, respectively. The artwork that goes along with Extracts from Adam's Diary is HILARIOUS! Done in caveman-type etchings, by Adam himself. Can you get better than that? No. You can take or leave the artwork from Eve's Diary. Some of it's funny, but mostly it's just cute.
I also enjoyed the insights offered by other authors on the significance of Mark Twain (like ...more
I also enjoyed the insights offered by other authors on the significance of Mark Twain (like ...more
Allison
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
YAs & Up
Recommended to Allison by:
Banned Book
Pick it up. Read it. Enjoy it fully. It is hard to imagine that one wouldn't - even if one isn't a fan of Twain.
I really enjoyed this book - much more than I thought I would or even could after my unpleasant feelings about Huck Finn. I really thought I'd never be able or even willing to read Twain again. This being an Oxford Edition, it comes with an interesting Preface and Afterwards and Notes.
What was so great about these two books, that are published together for the firs...more
I really enjoyed this book - much more than I thought I would or even could after my unpleasant feelings about Huck Finn. I really thought I'd never be able or even willing to read Twain again. This being an Oxford Edition, it comes with an interesting Preface and Afterwards and Notes.
What was so great about these two books, that are published together for the firs...more
I bought this for the Diaries of Adam and Eve specifically, since Twain sets them in Niagara Falls, my own backyard pretty much. I was a little disappointed in the title stories, especially since I was expecting a lot out of them. But because of that, I was also pleasantly surprised in the short stories that came afterward.
Particularly, I laughed a lot during "The $30,000 Bequest" and found "Was It Heaven? Or Hell" pretty thought provoking. Both of those, while not really ...more
Particularly, I laughed a lot during "The $30,000 Bequest" and found "Was It Heaven? Or Hell" pretty thought provoking. Both of those, while not really ...more
(copied from my blog review of this short story)
Lately, I’ve been doing a little self-inflicted intervention to treat my addiction to fantasy novels. In the attempt, I’ve been trying to read such things as Aristotle, my old German grammar textbooks, Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, and works from author’s that everyone reads but I just haven’t gotten to. So, I checked out a collection of short stories by Mark Twain on my last trip to the library. I’d read the Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer stuf...more
Lately, I’ve been doing a little self-inflicted intervention to treat my addiction to fantasy novels. In the attempt, I’ve been trying to read such things as Aristotle, my old German grammar textbooks, Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, and works from author’s that everyone reads but I just haven’t gotten to. So, I checked out a collection of short stories by Mark Twain on my last trip to the library. I’d read the Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer stuf...more
It has been a while since I read anything by Twain, and I’d forgotten just how delightful it is to read his stuff.
Folks who are pretty hung-up on political correctness will find it disturbing that Twain crafts his Adam and Eve characters around pretty common stereotypes of males and females. I wasn’t bothered by this at all, and found it quite interesting that the stereotypes from 150 years ago seem so consistent with our stereotypes from today.
This is a very quick read, but ...more
Folks who are pretty hung-up on political correctness will find it disturbing that Twain crafts his Adam and Eve characters around pretty common stereotypes of males and females. I wasn’t bothered by this at all, and found it quite interesting that the stereotypes from 150 years ago seem so consistent with our stereotypes from today.
This is a very quick read, but ...more
Eva: la prima scienziata della storia!
Meravigliosa la figura della prima donna (l'esperimento, come lei stessa si definisce) secondo Mark Twain: entusiasta, curiosa, fantasiosa, socievole, fiduciosa, inconsapevolmente poetica, ma soprattutto coraggiosa.
Coraggiosa perché non ha paura di fare esperimenti per cercare di capire come funzionano le cose nell'Eden, coraggiosa perché non ha paura di scoprire nuovi sentimenti, anche se sono dolorosi, coraggiosa perché non le importa se ma...more
Meravigliosa la figura della prima donna (l'esperimento, come lei stessa si definisce) secondo Mark Twain: entusiasta, curiosa, fantasiosa, socievole, fiduciosa, inconsapevolmente poetica, ma soprattutto coraggiosa.
Coraggiosa perché non ha paura di fare esperimenti per cercare di capire come funzionano le cose nell'Eden, coraggiosa perché non ha paura di scoprire nuovi sentimenti, anche se sono dolorosi, coraggiosa perché non le importa se ma...more
After reading Lori's review yesterday I took this off the shelf and put it "on deck." However, it kept looking at me and I couldn't help myself and picked it up...flashforward a few hours later and it was done!
It was a quick read to be sure. But, it was more so because it was engaging. Twain's style simply grabs hold of you and doesn't let you go until you are done.
I really enjoyed his characterizations of Adam and Eve, but my favorite part, albeit a short part,...more
It was a quick read to be sure. But, it was more so because it was engaging. Twain's style simply grabs hold of you and doesn't let you go until you are done.
I really enjoyed his characterizations of Adam and Eve, but my favorite part, albeit a short part,...more
Kyle Wright
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Mark Twain fans
Recommended to Kyle by:
Cami Bennion
The title stories were pretty interesting, but short. I would have very much liked to have seen them expanded upon with further character development as well as seeing these characters in various scenarios. The rest of the short stories were decent, but nothing too spectacular. My favorites were "The $30,000 Bequest" and "Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale". "The $30,000 Bequest" was an interesting take on how money, or even the perceived notion of wealth, c...more
Hilarious and very insightful. Mark Twain brilliantly explores what it could have been like for two very different people to discover the odd world around them. He does a great job at poking fun at the difference in men and women's perspectives. For example, when a baby is introduced to their world Adam thinks that it is a furless bear cub. He knows its not a fish because when he put it in a pond it just sank until Eve dived in to get it. Adam is also bewildered by Eve's compulsion to name ever...more
What a beautiful love story! Told with Twain's usual humor, he still shows the reader (or listener, in my case) the great love story - that did not immediately happen - for our first humans.
With a forward and extras read by Walter Cronkite and Mandy Patinkin giving voice to Adam and Betty Buckley as Eve, the story of our first ancestors quickly takes shape. From fear at first meeting to arguments over naming rights all the way to the end, Twain creates the first love story with wit...more
With a forward and extras read by Walter Cronkite and Mandy Patinkin giving voice to Adam and Betty Buckley as Eve, the story of our first ancestors quickly takes shape. From fear at first meeting to arguments over naming rights all the way to the end, Twain creates the first love story with wit...more
Boof
rated it
Shelves:
biography-memoirs,
classics,
comfort-reading,
historical,
read-in-2010,
victorians,
middle-east
What a lovely little book. Twain explores what it could have been like for two very different people to discover the odd world around them and he does it with much humour. Watching both Adam and Eve play their sterotypical roles to perfection is redemed by Twain’s humour; Adam wanting to do nothing but build things and Eve wanting to do nothing but talk (much to Adam’s dismay) is both funny and lovable. Eve wants to discover everything; she names all the animal and mothers them all, she delights...more
This is Mark Twain in his most distilled form. Grumpy, sarcastic, and drenched with truth.
I originally learned of Twain's disdain for the foibles of women in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Twain bang-shang-a-langed (thank you Stephen King for that excellent phrase) on Sandy's habits until I was heartily tired of it.
But let us consider Twain's feelings in context: In 1870, he married a woman of stature who pressured him to become a more 'respectable' writer...more
I originally learned of Twain's disdain for the foibles of women in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Twain bang-shang-a-langed (thank you Stephen King for that excellent phrase) on Sandy's habits until I was heartily tired of it.
But let us consider Twain's feelings in context: In 1870, he married a woman of stature who pressured him to become a more 'respectable' writer...more
Mark Twain's humor captivates me, and he has never disappointed me. I read this book of stories at about age fifteen, while studying in my school's library; I was targeted by the librarian, queen of silence, because I kept giggling.Twain, master of satire, kept getting me in trouble. His characters, the first humans, are delightfully unsophisticated. Adam is brooding, and relishes his time alone, after God presents him with a companion who won't stop talking.
This book is ingenious fun...more
This book is ingenious fun...more
Brilliant! I was so impressed with it, that I told all my friends (who enjoy reading) to give it a try. At least one was enthusiastic about it.
This was not just "funny". It was a "laugh til you cry and someone comes in to see what's wrong with you" funny. But then I read excerpts to my husband and he didn't laugh at all, so maybe it's just my kind of humor. Written as Twain's idea of what Adam and Eve must have thought of each other. I laughed as I read the beginning and middle. Then I cried at the sweet tender ending (supposedly a tribute to his own beloved wife.) A quick read, it took me about an hour to rea...more
I really enjoyed this read...it was cute concise and quick. Definitely the pick-me-up needed post my last, wayyyyy more intense read. If you are only going to read part of the book, I highly recommend the Adam entries (they are cute, humorous and almost true today).
I was a bit disappointed in the Eve entries...between her seemingly endless diatribes, representation as overly emotional and wrought with though to the fact that she never mentions the "children" she discovers...more
I was a bit disappointed in the Eve entries...between her seemingly endless diatribes, representation as overly emotional and wrought with though to the fact that she never mentions the "children" she discovers...more
Perhaps a lesser known Mark Twain tale chronicling the relationship between Adam and Eve via their diary entries. It is a very humorous account, but in the end a very toching and heartfelt emotional rendering. The afterword that follows clarifies Mark Twain's state of mind in writing this book, shedding light on why it is so different than his typical works. Mark Twain essentially portrays himself in the character of Adam and his wife Livy in the character of Eve. As humorous as the book is in t...more
Hilarious! I'd love to see this on stage.
Lovely read. Something to read in an evening or an hour or so. I am always in awe of Mark Twain's uncanny ability to transcend time in his writing. That being said, this is one of the few times where I felt my modern perception of feminism put a damper on the first read through. It was not until my second reading, where I sat back and just took what he was writing for WHAT HE WAS WRITING and nothing more, that I truly enjoyed this book. Also, reading the bio at the end of the book gave more...more
AN AMERICAN ICON SHOWS HOW ITS DONE
Short and very sweet. The Diaries present a charming and enlightened view of the relationship between the First Humans. Written late in Twain's life, the Diaries are considered his most personal work. Contain typical Twain wit, iconoclastic thinking and sardonic good will. Adam's later entries are believed to reflect Twain's feelings for his beloved, deceased wife, Livy. Adam and Eve's love for each other and Adam's grief for Eve moved me to tears...more
Short and very sweet. The Diaries present a charming and enlightened view of the relationship between the First Humans. Written late in Twain's life, the Diaries are considered his most personal work. Contain typical Twain wit, iconoclastic thinking and sardonic good will. Adam's later entries are believed to reflect Twain's feelings for his beloved, deceased wife, Livy. Adam and Eve's love for each other and Adam's grief for Eve moved me to tears...more
Michelle
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Married Adults, preferrably with children
Recommended to Michelle by:
We found it wandering aimlessly at Borders?
I had never before given any thought to the world as seen through the first peoples' eyes. Though Twain exploited tired old comparisons between the sexes for laughs, he kindly and thoughtfully crafted true love and character. He used gentle humor and thought-provoking situations to really involve the reader. Twain conveyed sincere respect for these people and made me even grateful for the final chapter, wherein Adam reassures us that the glance of a mother's love is eternally constant in a wor...more
Bought this at the used book store today, and read in the car between grabbing lunch and christmas shopping.
I haven't read Twain since middle school; I have a hazy recollection of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer getting into mischief. I was not sure what to expect, but what I expected was far inferior to what I read.
Twain breathes life into Adam and Eve in a way that I've known only one other author to do (David Maine - in his biblical fiction novels).
Begin...more
I haven't read Twain since middle school; I have a hazy recollection of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer getting into mischief. I was not sure what to expect, but what I expected was far inferior to what I read.
Twain breathes life into Adam and Eve in a way that I've known only one other author to do (David Maine - in his biblical fiction novels).
Begin...more
I am still sorting out my feelings about this odd compilation of Twain's published writings from the perspectives of Adam, Eve, and Satan. The pieces that are actually called "Adam's Diary" and "Eve's Diary" are very funny. It was a little jarring to read the other pieces right after the diaries, because they are sort of the same thing ("Eve's Autobiography", e.g.) rather than continuations of the story told in the diaries. Some things are consistent between the "...more
This was a quick read, with a diary entry on the right-hand side of the page and an illustration on the left. I enjoyed Twain's humor as he attempted to capture the true nature of male and female, but was disappointed that Twain did not fully explore in Eve's diary things he mentioned in Adam's. For example, he talks about the birth of Cain and Abel in Adam's diary; in Eve's doesn't even mention them.
Generally, I would have thought Twain a much better and thorough writer.
Generally, I would have thought Twain a much better and thorough writer.
Perhaps my favorite piece (or rather pieces) by Clemens. It illustrates wonderfully the misunderstandings and well-intentioned (usually) blunders of the sexes when they come together. Most of all though, I love it because, for me, there comes a point where I stop hearing Adam's voice (figuratively) and instead am hearing Clemens speaking of his wife Livy who had recently died. "Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden." From Eve's Diary (Adam speaking at her grave)
I'm not always a fan of Twain, but I just adore this book for some reason--maybe because it seems so different from his other writings. As the title suggests, it shows the story of Adam and Eve from their separate diary accounts.
Yes, there is much satire as with any of Twain's
writings, and some might say that there is overexaggeration of the differences between men and women; but I also think there is a remarkable
heartfulness shining through. And I think it shows
beau...more
Yes, there is much satire as with any of Twain's
writings, and some might say that there is overexaggeration of the differences between men and women; but I also think there is a remarkable
heartfulness shining through. And I think it shows
beau...more
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Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).
Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a...more
More about Mark Twain...
Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a...more
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“After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.”
—
229 people liked it
“Wheresoever she was, there was Eden.”
—
43 people liked it
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