Funny enough, The Diaries of Adam and Eve are less about religion than much of his other stories, which is quite ironic since you'd think it would be one of the ultimate religious stories. Twain's Diaries are more about love and, in my opinion, the relationships between men and women in general. Twain clearly loved Olivia and was amused by stereotypical womanly personality traits, such as chattering incessantly. Adam claims to be annoyed by Eve but he eventually admits that life is more fruitful (get it?!) with Eve in his life, obnoxious as she can sometimes be. The pair contrasts yet complements. Their diaries, in typical Twain style, are also true to Man and Woman form: Adam writes concisely and not as often whereas Eve's diaries are wordy and ornate with copious amounts of often erroneous details. Both have an immense amount of subtle humor.
The stories of Adam & Eve also has my absolute favorite line ever written by Twain: "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden." I don't think anyone has ever written such a powerfully romantic line. I believe that Twain was talking about Olivia in that line, for she was his very own Eden.
I really enjoyed The Diaries of Adam and Eve as well. The contrast Twain was able to achieve between Adam's writing and Eve's writing is, indeed, hilarious and brilliant. I think the Diaries really show a lot about how Twain felt about men and women. I also agree that "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden" is a very romantic line. Every time I read it I can't help but feel good. (I didn't even re-type it in my comment because I felt it was needed, I just wanted to type it).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in the differing stereotypes. I think that women and men are much different and that Twain sees this and feeds off of it for his story. Without throwing in the differences in the character of a man and woman, this story would be nothing.
ReplyDeleteAs far as his love for Olivia, you are absolutely correct. You can see it in his writings. When he was falling in love with Olivia, his voice changed slightly to less cynical and his stories were more upbeat and less about how terrible this world is (by Twain's standards at least) and then when she died, a large portion of him died as well. He no longer had any hope for this world and believed that we were nothing but dirt.