Ron Chernow's biography of Mark Twain presents a stark contrast between the author's public persona and his troubled personal life. While Twain's writings showcase his wit and wisdom in critiquing societal flaws, his real-life character reveals a man who was gullible and prone to financial scams. Twain's struggle to reconcile his literary genius with his personal shortcomings prompts readers to reflect on the paradox of a brilliant mind entangled in foolishness, illustrating the tension between artistic success and personal failure.
By the time Twain began writing in his last, most pathetic years, he threw himself behind the crackpot theory that the true author of Shakespeare's plays may have been Francis Bacon.
Twain wrote that critics had built 'an Eiffel Tower of artificialities rising sky-high from a very flat and very thin foundation of inconsequential facts' about Shakespeare.
Ron Chernow's Mark Twain reveals a contradiction: a genius aware of human fallibility yet unable to manage his own life, leaving it a total shambles.
Yeats wrote, 'perfection of the life, or of the work,' and Twain ultimately chose to create brilliant work while his personal life fell apart.
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