Resumen
Resumen de Vida en el Misisipi
Para quién es
For readers who love Twain's humor, American history and true tales of a vanished trade, and anyone who wants to understand the river behind Huckleberry Finn.
De qué trata este libro
Every boy in a sleepy river town wants the same thing: to climb aboard a steamboat and never come down. Mark Twain was one of them. Life on the Mississippi, published in 1883, follows Samuel Clemens from boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri, to an apprenticeship as a steamboat pilot, and then back to the river after more than twenty years away. It is funny, sharp and quietly sad. It explains where his pen name came from.
En este resumen
- 1The river is a restless giantFree
- 2A boy's one ambition: steamboats
- 3A pilot must know every mile
- 4Learning to read the water's face
- 5Pilots ruled like kings, then fell
- 6Returning to a changed river
- 7Towns, tall tales and the South's legends
- 8New Orleans, the upper river and home
- 9A patchwork book that still holds
Idea clave 1 de 9
The river is a restless giant
Twain opens with the Mississippi itself and treats it almost like a character. He piles up facts about its length, its muddy water and the huge land it drains, and he delivers each one with a showman's pleasure.
Then he turns to how the river behaves. It is crooked and keeps changing its bed. Sometimes the water cuts through a narrow neck of land, and towns once on the channel end up miles from the water. He even does mock arithmetic on how much shorter the river has grown.
The lesson is plain. Nobody commands this water, and everyone who works on it works at its mercy. That mix of awe and wariness prepares us for the boy who will want to master it.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Mark Twain
- The author and narrator recalls his apprenticeship as a pilot and revisits the places where he learned his trade.
- Bixby
- An experienced steamboat pilot, Bixby teaches young Twain to recognize the river’s shifting channels and hidden dangers.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 149,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 9 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Vida en el Misisipi
What is Life on the Mississippi about?
It is Mark Twain's memoir of learning to be a steamboat pilot before the Civil War, followed by an account of his return trip in 1882. It mixes personal story, river lore, history and tall tales.
Is Life on the Mississippi a true story?
Mostly yes. It is based on Twain's real years as a river pilot and a real trip in 1882, published in 1883. Like much of his work, it also includes exaggeration, borrowed material and tall tales.
Where does the name Mark Twain come from?
It is a call used on riverboats when measuring the water's depth. Mark twain is one of the depth calls heard by pilots. Samuel Clemens took it as his pen name, and the book touches on his river years.
Is Life on the Mississippi hard to read?
No. The language is plain and funny. The first half reads like a story, and the second half is looser and more episodic.
Who is Horace Bixby in the book?
Horace Bixby was a real steamboat pilot who taught the young Samuel Clemens to read the river. He appears as a demanding teacher in the first half, and Twain meets him again on his return trip.