"Extracts from Adam's Diary: Translated from the Original Ms." is a comic short story by the American humorist and writer

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

. The story was first published in ''The Niagara Book'' (1893), and was collected in Twain's 1903 book ''My Debut as a Literary Person with Other Essays and Stories''. "Extracts from Adam's Diary" was first published as a book in 1904 by Harper & Brothers, with numerous illustrations by Frederick Strothmann.

Plot

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

(based on Twain himself) describes how Eve (modeled after his wife Livy) gets introduced into the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (; ; ) or Garden of God ( and ), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31.. The location of Eden is described in the Book of Ge ...

, and how he has to deal with "this new creature with the long hair." Page 3, facsimile of the original 1st edition The piece gives a humorous account of the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

. It begins with the introduction of

Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

, described as an annoying creature with a penchant for naming things, which Adam could do without. It moves on to detail Eve eating the apple and finding Cain, a perplexing creature which Adam can not figure out. He devotes his ironically scientific mind to demystifying Cain's species, thinking it a fish, then a kangaroo, then a bear. Eventually he figures out it is a human, like himself.

Analysis

The work is humorous and ironic, and gives a new spin on Genesis: few people have considered what life must have been like for Adam, who is discovering everything anew. The work does not consider God's role at all, and eventually, despite his initial deep annoyance with Eve, Adam finds himself in love with her.

Publication history

* 1893, ''The Niagara Book''. Buffalo : Underhill and Nichols, pp. 93–109. * 1903, ''My Debut as a Literary Person with Other Essays and Stories''. Hartford, Connecticut: American Publishing Company, pp. 260–275. * 1904, ''Extracts from Adam's Diary''. New York and London: Harper & Brothers.

References

External links

* * * * 1904 American novels Novels by Mark Twain Fictional diaries Harper & Brothers books Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve 1893 short stories Short stories by Mark Twain Works based on the Book of Genesis {{1900s-epistolary-novel-stub