Mark Twain's collected essays and short stories in Letters From the Earth never published until 1965 due to they were blasphemy for some.
The book consists of two parts: first section gathers Mark Twain's plays on Biblical themes dealing with God and Christianity, and second section contains his unpublished manuscripts.
"He [man] thinks he is the Creator's pet. He believes the Creator is proud of him; he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes, and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to Him, and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea? Fills his prayers with crude and bald and florid flatteries of Him, and thinks He sits and purrs over these extravagancies and enjoys them. He prays for help, and favor, and protection, every day; and does it with hopefulness and confidence, too, although no prayer of his has ever been answered. The daily affront, the daily defeat, do not discourage him, he goes on praying just the same. There is something almost fine about this perseverance. I must put one more strain upon you: he thinks he is going to heaven!"
Related to: Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger
DOC Version (379 KB):
http://www.mediafire.com/?nmdkdkn3mz0
PDF Version (1.56 MB -Thanks to psybermonkey for conversion to .pdf):
http://www.mediafire.com/?3mmgyhhzdmn
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3 comments:
I re-uploaded it as a PDF with a sizeable cover for those who want it.
here's the link: http://rapidshare.com/files/246094731/Mark_Twain_-_Letters_From_The_Earth.pdf
this book made an agnostic out of me. I love mark twain so much and I just couldn't imagine god punishing him. That god would be cruel. He had been through enough sufferings in his life and I thought that he had every right to ridicule the impotence and idiocy of the idea: god. Mark Twain is one of my literary heroes.
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