马克·吐温，原名塞缪尔·朗赫恩·克莱门斯。美国幽默大师、小说家、著名演说家，19世纪后期美国现实主义文学的杰出代表。作品风格以幽默与讽刺为主，既富于独特的个人机智与妙语，又不乏深刻的社会洞察与剖析。主要的代表作品有《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》（长篇）、《百万英镑》（短篇）等。

他被称为美国文学史上最知名人士之一，被推崇为“美国文坛巨子”，擅长写具有讽刺意义的小说。海伦·凯勒曾言：“我喜欢马克·吐温——谁会不喜欢他呢？即使是上帝，亦会钟爱他，赋予其智慧，并于其心灵里绘画出一道爱与信仰的彩虹。”威廉·福克纳称他为“第一位真正的美国作家，我们都是继承他而来”。他是美国乡土文学的集大成者，海明威曾经说过“一切当代美国文学都起源于马克·吐温一本叫《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》的书”。

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel."

Mark Twain's wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers. Twain was born shortly after a visit by Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it," too. He died the day following the comet's subsequent return. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age," and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature."

马克·吐温经典短篇小说《百万英镑》下载 >>

【名人名言】

1、The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

取得进展的秘诀就是开始；开始的秘诀就是将令人窒息的复杂任务，细化成可操作的任务，然后开始做第一件。

2、Every one is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

人人都是月亮，都有决不让人知道的阴暗面。

3、Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.

没有东西能抵抗欢笑。

4、Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

勇气是对恐惧的抵抗和控制，而非恐惧的消失。

5、When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old.

当你的朋友开始恭维你看起来多么年轻时，这是个确凿的信号说明你已经开始老了。

6、There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.

没有什么事物是比一个年纪轻轻的悲观主义者更可怜的了。

7、A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

一个人的性格可以到他交谈中使用的形容词中去了解。

8、Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.

真正伟大的人让你产生你也能伟大起来的感觉。

【经典幽默】

车票

马克吐温一次乘车外出，火车开得很慢。当查票员过来查票时，马克吐温递给他一张儿童票。查票员调侃道：“我还真没看出您还是个孩子呢！” 马克吐温回答：“现在我已经不是孩子了，但我买票上车时还是个孩子哩。”

登记

马克吐温有一天来到一个小城市，他想找一家旅馆过夜。旅馆服务台上的职员请他将名字写到旅客登记簿上。 马克吐温先看了一下登记簿，他发现很多旅客都是这样登记的，比如：拜特福公爵和他的仆人……这位著名的作家于是也写道：“马克吐温和他的箱子。”

吃一条鲸鱼

马克·吐温收到一封信。这是一位青年人写来的，他想向马克·吐温请教成为大作家的诀窍。信中说：“听说鱼含大量的磷质，而磷是有利于脑子的。看来要成为一个大作家，一定要吃很多鱼吧？但不知道你究竟吃的什么鱼，又吃了多少呢？”马克·吐温回信说：“看来，你得吃一条鲸鱼才行。”