Queen Victoria‘s Jubilee

"Every nation has its own way of celebrating, but England‘s pageantry is unmatched." Mark Twain‘s Queen Victoria‘s Jubilee captures the splendour and sentimentality surrounding the celebration of the sixty years of Queen Victoria‘s reign in 1897. With his characteristic wit and keen social commentary, Twain reflects on the grandeur of the festivities and the deep emotional connection between the queen and her subjects, interweaving humour with poignant insights into British identity, tradition, and the complexity of monarchy in a rapidly changing world. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain (1835–1910), grew up along the banks of the Mississippi River, and his early experiences inspired many of his most famous works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Widely celebrated as America‘s greatest humorist, Twain captured the spirit of a rapidly changing nation, and his sharp wit, keen eye for human nature, and gift for storytelling made him not only a beloved novelist but also a popular lecturer and essayist. Twain‘s innovative style, character-driven storytelling and ability to interweave humour with profound social critique laid the groundwork for modern American literature and has inspired countless authors, including Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Indeed, Hemingway famously declared that "all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn."