Letters from the Earth

The blackest of black humor, but like most good humor there’s much truth in there. Be warned if you’re a Christian fundamentalist you’re likely going to feel insulted. But like I said - much truth in this small volume.

Love the book..

I remember reading this book 20 yrs ago by Mark Twain called "Letters From Earth" A room mate handed to me and she said. "I know you don't believe in God, you might enjoy this book.I ordered it and just got it today. Let me describe the general premise.The Devil was sent to Earth to observe Man. It's a collection of 11 or 12 letters Satin sends to God to describe his observations on mans behavior and religious beliefs. It wud be incredibly hilarious if it wasn't so insanely true.My sister picked it up and read the first few pages, she closed it and set it down and had a worried confused look on her face. I don't like this book. I told her, Mark Twain was an atheist and he pretty much dissects the bible and mans beliefs. I told her its not for people with closed minds.Oh I have an open mind. Then why did you put the book down?I read it in about 2-3 hrs tonight. It's brilliant, who has ever took the time to use reason and intellect to see the insanity of it all? Only Mark Twain.If you have any doubts about your religious beliefs, this book cud very well be the brain opener that you need.

I found his writing witty and cynical. He does a good job pointing out hypocrisy and comes up with ideas I would never think of. I took off 1 star because some parts were tedious to get through, but overall this was a short entertaining read. I found myself laughing out loud a couple times.

The prose is undoubtedly Mark Twain, but it's not an easy read given his complex writing style. The idea is that The Earth is writing letters to the reader so the point of view is unusual to say the least. The Earth is letting the reader know that the stories in the Bible are implausible and uses facts and brings up the absurd notions with sardonic humor. For instance, the Catch 22 that is God made mad, then man cannot be anything that God is not or that God didn't "allow" him to do. Or, when the "merciful" God decided to punish everyone for the sins of a handful of them with his 40 day and night flood, A) how is this merciful? and B) why did God tell Noah to include the Fly, and C) God must have allowed the most disgusting of all creatures, the hookworm, to travel in his human passengers, which, again, how is this hypocrisy allowable? Therefore, the Bible must have some mistakes in it.I enjoy the idea of this book and it makes a lot of sense in a technical circle. However, it's hard to read because of Twain's, ironically, omniscient POV for The Earth and his style of compound, complex sentence structure. If you can get around the difficulty of the "read" (a verb here), it's a fun little booklet for gathering tidbits for cocktail parties. 'Sheldon Cooper' would love it.

Twain writes a critique exposing the religious thinking of people abusing what religious practice should do, i.e. put people in touch more deeply with their human condition and the sacred mysteries!

Here is another sample of the older, irascible, cantankerous, irreverent Mark Twain. He gets more interesting with each sample of questioning the widely accepted (during his time) ideas and ideals of morality, religion and status quo. You probably never knew this Mark Twain existed. He questions the Bible,.perceptions of God, angels and just about everything else in scripture. He does this by having God sent his favorite angel, Lucifer (yes...the one who falls from grace and becomesSatan) to observe His latest experiment, man, to see how the experiment is coming along. Lucifer reports his findings to God through letters he writes from his observation post, Earth. Hence the title of one of the most keenand brutally critiqued actions of creation.

Classic Mark Twain. All of his works are great, but I do enjoy his non fiction and his commentaries on society.

Ce Letters from Earth est un vraie trouvaille pour ma part. Je suis tombé sur le livre très court en parcourant des listes de livres humoristiques. C'est donc avec beaucoup de surprise que je découvre le contenu extrêmement antireligieux de cet ouvrage que Twain n'a apparemment pas souhaité publier de son vivant de craintes de répercussions négatives. En le lisant on comprend pourquoi. L'écrivain tire à balles réelles sur le monothéisme chrétien qui pourtant domine absolument la société et l'époque dans laquelle il évolue. Mais Mark Twain reste Mark Twain et le ton ironique ainsi que le point de vue choisi, celui de Satan, rendent cette lecture très divertissante là où elle aurait pu être didactique.Au niveau de l'anglais, le champs lexical reste assez accessible et vu la faible quantité de page personne ne devrait être découragé.L'édition du livre en elle-même est très sobre mais propre avec une police plutôt grande.

I had expected this to be the paperback issued many years ago which contained Letters From The Earth and other of Twain's writings. This is ONLY Letters From the Earth. Disappointed.

hilarious and insightful