The Mysterious Stranger - By Mark Twain

Everyone should read or reread this classic and see the parallels with our sophisticated "modern" society. I just read an online post on the NextDoor site damning and casting stones at beggars at our local whole foods - the beggars were accused of child exploitation , lying, cheating, laziness and more. This in a community w an average annual income of $133,000 per year, rents and food sky high. Some, but not a majority had empathy for the beggars. Most wanted to have the children put in custody and them banned. I saw the stoning coming next..of course the mysterious stranger has many tales about human nature and our pious ignorance. May we all receive guidance from Angels.

Mark Twain was a tragic figure, I have discovered. Mysterious Stranger (the story) was written during his "dark" period they say; anti-God, and anti-a lot, it seems. M.S. is an interesting and even captivating tale which gets more and more "Hary Potteresque" as it moves along to a surprising ending. Twain did not actually finish this manuscript but the California issue is probably the best you'll find. Never did think Twain was very funny and now I know why; after seeing a bio of him on TV, he had a hard life and deserves some pity. Did you know he smoked 40 cigars a day?! That's not in the book, however, but was in the bio. Then later in life, much too late, he cut down to 4 cigars a day. As I say, a tragic figure. Read his bio before you read the book and you will appreciate the story much more and will begin to read between the lines where some stuff is found.

Twain has given the modern atheist some remarkable "talking points" in this dark little fable. Satan comes off looking rather heroic and God is left on the mat. Still, Mark Twain's genius is evident. I hope this was Twain at his lowest.

The note at the beginning states that Twain never finished this book and the editors did. I can see the difference between the styles. Too bad it couldn't have been finished by him. Might have been a whole other, better story. Maybe Twain wasn't planning this dark hateful story.