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"The £1,000,000 Bank-Note" [1893] 68-88

Who are the main characters? (79, 86-87)
Henry Adams, the vest-pocket million-pounder eccentric stranger
Portia Langham, Henry's beloved
Mr. Langham, Portia's father
Abel Langham, brother of Portia's father
Lloyd Hastings, Henry Adams' business associate

What is the setting? (68)
San Francisco and London, late eighteen-hundreds

What is the plot?
Two elderly English gentlemen recognize Hal to be an intelligent and honest but impoverished stranger in London and choose him as the subject for a bet: can he survive a full month in London with no financial resources other than a £1,000,000 Bank-Note? Hal finds that a restaurant owner, then a clothing merchant, followed by other businessmen in London, will extend credit -- and respect as well -- when they realize he possesses a bank-note worth a fortune. During this adventure, Hal realizes that the ideal "situation" -- his reward for surviving -- is to become the son-in-law of the English gentleman who initiated the bet.

What is the theme?
Money is power.

What is Henry Adams' career in 'Frisco, and what is his educated guess about his financial situation in London? (stocks 68, going to be a crash 76)

What is a gentleman (69)? a "situation" (72, 73, 78)?
notoreity (77)? Punch (77)? caricature (77)?
"the Continent" (72)? the Conqueror (81)? a Norman (81)? a Duke (81)?
a minister (81)? Adam (81)? "the unabridged" (88)?

How much is a million pounds (British money) in American dollars? (70)

Find expressions about worshipping money. (70-71, etc.) Where does Henry Adams put the bank-note after his adventure? (88)

Read Mark Twain's description of a frozen smile. (74-75)

Should we consider only "tangible, solid matters," but ignore "indeterminable quantities"? (73, 83)

Should you judge a stranger by the clothes he wears? (74)

What does it mean "to expect other people to look with your own eyes"? (83)

What effect does Henry Adams have in the London business world? (85)

Did Henry purchase Portia? (88)

"Was It Heaven? Or Hell?" [1902] 141-60

Who are the main characters? (141)
Margaret and Helen Lester
Hannah and Hester Gray
Doctor, "The Christian" (143-44)

What is Margaret's illness? When is this story written? (152)
Margaret has typhoid, and presumably Helen does, as well. In 1902, when this story was written, the nature of typhoid was not well understood. Polluted water is the most common source of typhoid.

What is the setting? (144, 152)
Christian society, typhoid epidemic?

What is the plot?
The maiden aunts, Hannah and Hester Gray, force Helen Lester to confess her sin of lying to her bedridden mother, Margaret Lester, sick with typhoid. The doctor interrupts this penitential scene and accuses the aunts of hypocrisy. After a lecture on the distinction between a malicious lie and a lie with benevolent intentions, the aunts decry his admonition to "reform -- and learn to tell lies!" But their attitude changes as they desire to spare Margaret the distressing news that Helen is dying. Hester, then Hannah, succumb to the pressure to deny Helen's illness, then embellish their lies by contriving excuses and by writing love notes from Helen to her mother. When Helen dies, the aunts tell Margaret that the organ music of the funeral is played by Helen. At midnight an angel of judgment demands an account of the lies, threatening the fires of hell, but the aunts declare humbly that they would be unable in a similar situation to maintain strict standards of truth. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) invites the reader to decide the judgment of Heaven or Hell.

What is the theme? (151)
Love sometimes demands benevolent lies.

Discuss the style: why does Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), in employing ten sections to tell this story, style the first and last sections as he does? (141, 160)
The author begins with a focus on the aunts' aghast order to Helen that she confess a lie. He closes with an invitation to the reader to determine if the aunts, in Christian judgment, would go to Heaven or Hell.

Is honesty an important virtue?

Divide into two groups and debate whether the aunts' fate is Heaven or Hell.

"The Mysterious Stranger" [1916] 161-254

Who are the main characters?
Narrator: Theodor Fischer, son of the church organist (164)
Philip Traum/Satan (166, 174, 189)
Fr. Adolf
Fr. Peter, the older priest
Marget, a harpist, and Fr. Peter's niece
Solomon Isaacs, landlord
Wilhelm Meidling, a young lawyer who is in love with Marget
Nikolaus Bauman, son of the principal judge (164)
Seppi Wohlmeyer, son of the innkeeper
Felix Brandt, old servant in the castle (165)
Gottfried Narr (197-98)

What is the setting? (161)
1590, Eseldorf, Austria

What is the plot?
1. In 1590 in Eseldorf, Austria, society was still caught up in the Age of Belief. The beloved priest, Father Peter, came into the disfavor of the bishop, and his niece Marget suffered as well. Eventually he suffers from significant poverty and the landlord threatens to evict him.

2. The three boys, Theodor Fischer, Nikolaus Bauman, and Seppi Wohlmeyer meet a handsome and well clothed youth (Philip Traum) who demonstrates unusual powers, first producing fire to light a pipe. Philip Traum identifies as a "nephew" of Satan, and he demonstrates affinity by failing to sympathize with human grief and wantonly destroying human life, even as he asserts that he does not know what sin is.

3. The Stranger is ancient, witness to creation, including the creation of Adam from dirt. He is insensitive to the damned suffering in Hell. He reveals that his appearance is an illusion, that he is not human, and that he doesn't know Fr. Peter, nor does he have any respect for the Moral Sense. Fr. Peter has lost his wallet, and then he finds a wallet fat with money on the path and suspects a trap, but he takes the money to save his house.

4. Fr. Peter's new financial status contributes to his personal status, as well. When the boys ask Fr. Peter to explain the Moral Sense, Fr. Peter tells them that the Moral Sense lifts humanity above the beasts.

5. The astrologer accuses Father Peter of stealing the money. Satan produces a Lucky Cat that provides financially for Marget's servant, Ursula. Satan asserts that humanity is worse than the beasts because humanity, with the Moral Sense, must be held accountable for cruelty.

6. For example, a poor old woman struggling for survival could not defend herself when accused of collusion with the Devil as a witch.

7. The astrologer, suspicious has spies observe as Marget plans a party for her neighbors, but without packages entering the house because the Lucky Cat is providing through Ursula. Satan, arrogant about his own intellectual capacities, characterizes humanity as suffering/happiness-machines.

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What is the theme?