It was a fun read with a few bits of gold but slower than I expected overall.

I got this book primarily for the "Letters from the Earth," so the four stars go for that. The book as a whole gets three. The rest of the book was made up of stories that had mostly been printed elsewhere. I was surprised and a little disappointed that the scope of the book was limited to Twain's feelings on The Fall and Heaven. It is apparent from some of the appendices that his religious opinions ranged wider than that, so I'm not sure why they weren't included. The "Letters" were great though, as scathing and well-argued as I had hoped. And the biographical information evident throughout the rest of the book and its introductions was of great interest as well.

@pointblaek

I can see why many parts of this book were previously unpublished. I found some of it amusing, as to Mark Twain's Outlook, very modern but clearly not his best writing. Many of the writings lacked Twain's customary wit.

satire about the bible, such as excerpts from Adam's and Eve's diaries

This is basically a rehashing of the Adam and Eve story but with a TON of background information. It helped me a lot with my recent term paper.

O brilhantismo de Mark Twain é aqui levado ao máximo na sua versão satírica de personagens da bíblia, reunindo neste volume todos os textos escritos sobre este tema. Do Diabo a Adão e Eva, o humor e o humanismo passeiam de mãos dadas.

Holy crow folks!
This man's humor is absolutely timeless!

If you're someone who takes the bible lightly, then you'll get a kick out of this!

Letters from the Earth is a brief, witty, and remarkable funny series of reports from Satan about certain behaviors of man (and God) that he has been observing over time. Because it isn’t very long, it is generally published together with other short, irreverent writings from Twain (often including the equally hilarious Diaries of Adam and Eve). The version I own is part of a book entitled The Bible According To Mark Twain, edited by Howard G. Baetzhold and Joseph B. McCullough. I cannot recommend this volume highly enough.

Letters from the Earth begins with a short introduction of how the Creator fashioned the universe out of nothing. A conversation then follows between Michael, Gabriel, and (the then still heaven-dwelling and angelic) Satan, about what it all might mean; this new place where new living beings are being introduced. They have only been informed that it is meant to be some kind of experiment.

Satan shortly finds himself banished to the earth, as punishment for making snide remarks about the character and actions of the human race he has been watching with growing interest. He’s especially interested in how the Creator has instilled in them an entire spectrum of inconsistent traits. And once on earth, he begins to write letters back to his archangel friends, and these notes comprise the bulk of the book.

All throughout, Twain deftly satirizes both God and Man simultaneously, such as in this excerpt describing their dysfunctional relationship:

He requires his children to deal justly—and gently—with offenders, and forgive them seventy-and-seven times; whereas he deals neither justly nor gently with any one, and he did not forgive the ignorant and thoughtless first pair of juveniles even their first small offense… He elected to punish their children, all through the ages to the end of time… He is punishing them yet. In mild ways? No, in atrocious ones. You would not suppose that this kind of Being gets many compliments. Undeceive yourself: the world calls him the All-Just, the All-Righteous, the All-Good, the All-Merciful, the All-Forgiving, the All-Truthful, the All-Loving, the Source of All Morality. These sarcasms are uttered daily, all over the world. But not as conscious sarcasms. No, they are meant seriously; they are uttered without a smile.

What I find so striking about the book is the clarity with which Twain seems to see the inhumanity and idiocy of Christian Bible, and the ease with which he exposes it. It is satire writ very large, lean, and focused.

A considerable portion of Letters from the Earth is devoted to details of the flood story that, not surprisingly, never found their way into scripture. Since every Christian, from childhood, has been immersed in images of pairs of giraffes, zebras, and lions striding majestically up the boarding plank, Satan narrates instead how special lodgings were arranged (within the bodies of the humans on board) to house the multitudes of sundry parasitic, microbial, and viral species: those essential organisms needed to propagate all the terrible diseases (that God so carefully created) into the post-diluvian world. Detailed arrangements were also made for flies, including one that was forgotten and required a voyage of sixteen days to retrieve. We learn that this vector of so many diseases is indeed God’s favorite pet; his darling.

The book builds to its final crescendo with a scathing attack on another portion of the old testament: specifically, the some of the horrific abuses recounted in the book of Numbers. His take on the story that begins Numbers 25:

“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”

Does that look fair to you? It does not appear that the “heads of the people” got any of the adultery, yet it is they that are hanged…
Very well then, we must believe that if the people of New York should begin to commit whoredom with the daughters of New Jersey, it would be fair and right to set up a gallows in front of city hall and hang the mayor and the sheriff and the judges… It does not look right to me.

From here Twain moves on to the infamous genocide of the Midianites from Numbers 31, and begins to work himself into a bit of a rage. The book ends suddenly and with little warning. One gets the impression that Twain is so angry at this point that he cannot stand to consider the matter any further. And that would certainly be understandable. Sometimes we seem to have grown so familiar with the stories, and numb to the nonsense, that it almost seems… normal. The gift that Letters from the Earth offers is that it so effortlessly exposes contradictions at the core of Christianity. The sudden ending is necessary, because any more would be redundant. But despite the fact that you can practically see the old master’s formidable eyebrows scrunching down in an ever fiercer scowl as you go on, what I always think of with this book is how much it made me laugh. Make room on your freethinking bookshelf for this one; you will enjoy many times. I promise.

truly one of my favorites --- my grandfather had the first edition --- to this day I'll never understand why he let me borrow it and then keep it ---- for sure the nicest and truest gift I've ever and will ever receive

Through diligent editing, Baetzhold and McCullough have forged Twain’s ancillary work on religion and theology into a (more or less) organized narrative. By structuring these pieces into the three parts of Eden/Flood, Heaven, and Satan’s letters, they have also codified Twain’s evolving taste in how exactly to tackle religion – from humor to satire to outspoken antagonism. The inclusion of a substantial (100+ page) section of editorial notes and letters from the author shows both an intellectual concern with Twain’s motivations and ambitions, and a dedication to the casual and professional readers of Twain’s work.

The “translations” of Adam and Eve’s diaries are certainly the most endearing of all the works herein compiled because of their playful, poking humor and their day-in-the-life content, while *Letters from the Earth* stands out as the most biting criticism of “God’s Plan and Creation” because of Twain’s use of Satan as a blunt and spurned narrator. The meditations on Heaven work well placed between these two poles, as their dream-like plots give them enough room to become more satirical than the concrete Diaries, and yet do not possess the authoritative perspective required to be as scathing as the *Letters*.

Some of my personal criticisms of these pieces would be the portrayal of Eve as having no purpose other than to serve at Adam’s side, Eve’s realization that she only loves Adam because he is masculine, and what I consider a lack of tightness in Stormfield’s narrative.

As great as this book is, I can't give it 5 stars, because much of this is unfinished material that isn't quite up to snuff.

*note* For those interested, this obviously includes *Letters from the Earth*, so don't go out spending extra money on that little volume if you get this book (like I did).

This book, containing as it does, a variety of Mark Twain's writings about a variety of Biblical subjects over many years of time, is difficult to rate as a whole.

Personally, I found his Adam and Eve stories not more than mildly interesting. His tale of Captain Stormfield's visit to Heaven was much more engaging, perhaps because it read almost like science fiction and it threw in some interesting takes on old ideas.

Mr. Twain's last work, Letters from the Earth, was of an entirely different character. His earlier works are satiric and humorous, but "Letters" comes off as a raving attack against God, believers and Christianity. Strangely he reminded me of a rabid evangelist pounding his own particular pulpit.

There is little humor to be found in "Letters", but much acidic sarcasm. He had some legitimate points to make but instead of applying his sharp, humorous wit, he buried them all in scathing rants.

I see no way to rate "Letters" alongside any of his earlier works with Biblical themes.

Hilarious take on the tales in the Bible ;-)