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Mark Twain

31 free books by Mark Twain. 29 you can read right here.

Born 1835 in Florida · Died 1910 in Redding

writer, novelist, non-fiction writer, journalist · United States

Notable works: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

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Facts from Wikidata (Q7245), retrieved 2026-09-26.

Also by Mark Twain: read here

Short stories and shorter works by Mark Twain

Quotes from Mark Twain’s books

Verified word for word in the text: each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. How RedLectern is built.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

From Project Gutenberg e-text #76 (public domain in the USA).

You can’t pray a lie—I found that out.

Chapter XXXIRead in context →

You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.

Chapter IRead in context →

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The Prince and the Pauper

From Project Gutenberg e-text #1837 (public domain in the USA).

The world is made wrong; kings should go to school to their own laws, at times, and so learn mercy.

— Spoken by a character · XXVII. In Prison

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“Rise, Sir Miles Hendon, Knight,” said the King, gravely--giving the accolade with Hendon’s sword--“rise, and seat thyself. Thy petition is granted. Whilst England remains, and the crown continues, the privilege shall not lapse.”

— the King · XII. The Prince and his Deliverer

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Life on the Mississippi

From Project Gutenberg e-text #245 (public domain in the USA).

The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book--a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.

9. Continued PerplexitiesRead in context →

In the South, the war is what A.D. is elsewhere: they date from it.

45. Southern SportsRead in context →

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Roughing It

From Project Gutenberg e-text #3177 (public domain in the USA).

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be?—it is the same the angels breathe.

Chapter XXIIRead in context →

No Californian gentleman or lady ever abuses or oppresses a Chinaman, under any circumstances, an explanation that seems to be much needed in the East. Only the scum of the population do it—they and their children; they, and, naturally and consistently, the policemen and politicians, likewise, for these are the dust-licking pimps and slaves of the scum, there as well as elsewhere in America.

Chapter LIVRead in context →

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete

From Project Gutenberg e-text #74 (public domain in the USA).

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.

Chapter IIRead in context →

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