What Is Man?

Locked in his desk for 25 years, What Is Man? was Twain's most serious, philosophical, and private work. The narrative appears in the form of a Socratic dialogue between a romantic young idealist and an elderly cynic. The pair debate issues of mankind, such as whether man is free to act or is more of a machine, whether personal merit is meaningless given how the environment shapes us, and if man truly has impulses other than to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. An unflinching critic of human affection, a bittersweet humorist, and a master of comic asides, Mark Twain speaks to us across time with verve and wisdom in this rare work. This recording is performed by comedy legend Carl Reiner, a recipient of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Public Domain (P)2001 Phoenix Books, Inc.

I'm 21, this shit was crazy. But I loved it.

This blew my mind. A real challenge to get through. it took a great deal of focus. I felt like a damn Japanese katana being folded onto itself hundreds of times over. It took me much more than just 3 hours to finish "What is Man" because it's concepts are just about as dense as a singularity. and yet, if you allow yourself to actively listen, you will because truly amazed too. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to study and learn more about Mark Twain, the jesting genuine genius.

Good performance.

No reflection on the narrator or (certainly not!) the author, it's just my personal aversion to dialectics I guess. So "not for me" the book, nor the dramatized narration style for that matter. In context, however, Carl Reiner delivers a professional piece of work.

Underwhelming

A work on the nature of man in the style of a platonic dialogue- but Twain, while a good novelist, is no Plato.

Narration mid.