This little book was intended for the education of school children and includes tales, sketches and anecdotes of his life written for the children of the mid 1800's and written in the English languge of that period. Each chapter has numerous questions intended for the the reader or the teacher to quiz themselves to see if they gathered the pertinent information. The quiz questions will not be recorded. Also part of this book are numerous short essays written by Franklin on various topics. These entertaining and insightful samples occupy sections 17 through 27.
“The object of this book is to bring together stories of the most important movements in the history of Europe during the Middle Ages, and to make familiar the names of the most important figures in those scenes. I have endeavoured to weave a tapestry in which, with due colour, may be traced the history of the rise and fall of the various nationalities and the circumstances and mode of life of each—in short, to give the young reader an approximation to the background for the study of his country’s history which a wide reading gives to a man.”
Albert Bigelow Paine was Samuel Langhorne Clemens’ (Mark Twain’s) biographer. He lived with Twain, collecting ideas and material for a biography, for a few years before Twain’s death in 1910. Six years later Paine published this “story of a man who made the world laugh and love him.”
For those who have read or listened to Mark Twain’s works, Paine’s work is an invaluable resource to better understand Twain, the stories behind his stories and his life with those he loved and with whom he worked.