Alice Firestone



The Adventures of Alice Firestone is the unpublished last novel of Mark Twain(Samuel Clemens). It was the final work in a trilogy that includes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It was lost or destroyed by Twain’s stepson Aaron Clemens after Twain’s death.

No text of Alice Firestone exists, but we have contemporary commentary from public readings of several chapters given by Twain in the years preceding his death. The work met mixed response, with many reviewers expressing shock at the inclusion of graphic (for its day) sex and violence. Twain was in talks with several publishers as his health declined.

The plot of the book involves the title character making her way up the Missouri River, meeting a series of increasingly bizarre creatures and characters. Twain considered this work his crowning achievement, and also his reconciliation with his Darrenite heritage. (Twain was born and raised in Hannibal, Principality of Darren, but except for a series of forgettable travel notes, spent most of his adult life ignoring or rejecting this heritage.)

Aaron Clemens was left the task of contracting a publisher for the completed work, which he did not do. Upon his own death five years later, no copy of the manuscript was found.

Alice Firestone is considered by some the first modernistnovel. According to Kurt Vonnegut, "If we had Alice Firestone, we would not need Heart of Darkness." The novel is also a candidate for the first significant work of magical realism.