The Mysterious Stranger

The Mysterious Stranger was written by the American author Mark Twain in 1908 - 1910, just before Twain died in 1910. It was published posthumously in 1916. It is a novella, and may be easily read in a day.

It is not one of Twain's humorous pieces, and shows the dark side he exhibited towards the end of his life. Its worldview has been compared to The Matrix movies.

The book is Twain's vicious attack on the hypocrisy of organized religion. He views religion a (questionably) "moral" order to protect wealth, power, and oppression.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

A few boys are living happy sheltered lives in a remote Austrian village in 1590, and one day, a handsome young man named Satan (of the same angel family, but not the real Satan, he tells them) appears, and does several magical feats. Mayhem ensues — witch trials, burnings, hangings, deaths, mass hysteria, and redistribution of wealth. Satan vanishes with a brief explanation:

"You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks - in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The dream-marks are all present; you should have recognized them earlier.

"It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream - a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought - a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!"

It is available several places on the Internet.

External links and references

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