Audiobook · read by volunteers
Extracts from Adam's Diary
Mark Twain (1835–1910)
Read by Mr. Baby Man · 5 chapters · 28 min
About the book
What was the first day of the world really like? Adam, the first man, would be happy to tell you, though he does not always understand what he is seeing. In this short humorous piece, Mark Twain imagines Adam keeping a diary from the moment he is placed in the Garden of Eden. He puzzles over the odd new creature who has arrived beside him, who talks too much and names everything. He records the arrival of the animals and the strange noises of a baby whose nature puzzles him for some time. Twain's comedy is gentle, quick and surprisingly tender, and the humour of its domestic scenes is as fresh as ever. In five short chapters and about half an hour, this is a perfect small package of wit.
Introduction
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens, who was born in 1835 and died in 1910. Author of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he was one of the most celebrated American humorists and a famous lecturer, and a master of the comic sketch. His work often takes a familiar story and turns it upside down in order to say something about human nature.
Extracts from Adam's Diary was first published in 1893 and was later issued together with its companion, Eve's Diary, in a single volume. It is one of several occasions on which Twain used the story of Genesis for comic effect. He presents Adam as a plain-spoken, slightly bewildered man, wedded to routine and suspicious of change, and he lets this innocent voice comment on a world he does not understand. The result is gentle satire of a certain kind of male self-importance, of the habits of couples, and of the way people try to explain what they cannot grasp. Beneath the jokes there is something more serious: a sense of wonder and of loss.
This recording, read by LibriVox volunteers, is divided into five short chapters and lasts about thirty minutes. It is easy to enjoy on a commute, on a coffee break or as a light companion to a longer book.
Why listen? Because it is short, funny and warm, and because it reminds us that Twain's sharpest humour often had a soft centre.
Public domain
Mark Twain died in 1910: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text