Twain's End

by Lynn Cullen

Reviewed by Margaret Tomlinson

Twain's End is a love story about Isabel Lyon and the man she served as private secretary for most of the last eight years of his life, Samuel Clemens, known to the world by his pen name, Mark Twain. From the first chapter, introduced by a pair of 1908 newspaper clippings, one titled "New York Loses Mark Twain," it's clear the story will not end happily. Though the clipping refers to his move from New York to Connecticut rather than his death, Clemens was nearing his end. Born in November of 1835, the month in which Halley's comet had last appeared, Clemens believed he would "go out with it." The comet was due to return in 1910.

The novel takes on the mystery of Lyon's cataclysmic fall from grace in 1909. Clemens fired her the month after she married one of his business associates. He then publicly and viciously denounced her as "a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded & salacious slut pining for seduction," an astonishingly broad litany of complaints against someone he had trusted. Lyon had handled financial matters for him, overseen the building of his Connecticut home, taken dictation for his autobiography, and moved into a room in his home after his wife's death.

Circling back to 1889, when the two first met over a card game, Twain's End tells an emotionally convincing story that takes much of its authority from the research, both extensive and deep, behind it. Sympathetic to both central characters, it portrays Clemens as a man difficult to live with, plagued by self-doubt, short-tempered with the people he most loves. One gets the feeling that this complex and remarkable man, who created an alternative persona which allowed him to both reveal and conceal the unvarnished truth about himself, would both admire and denounce Cullen's novel. (2015, 342 pages, including an Author's Note regarding her sources)

More about Twain's End at Powell's Books or Amazon.com


Historical novels by Mark Twain:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), about a time traveler who experiences the unglorious side of King Arthur and his knights. More info

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), about the medieval French heroine who was burned at the stake for heresy. More info

The Prince and the Pauper (1881), about a poor boy who looks identical to Henry VIII's son Edward, with whom he temporarily exchanges places. More info


Nonfiction about Samuel Clemens and Isabel Lyon:

Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years by Laura Skandera Trombley (2010), a book about Clemens' relationship with Isabel Lyon which draws a similar conclusion to the one on which Twain's End is based. More info

Dangerous Intimacy: The Story of Mark Twain's Final Years by Karen Lystra (2004), a book about Clemens' relationship with Isabel Lyon which draws a different conclusion than the one on which Cullen's novel is based. More info

The Autobiography of Mark Twain (first published in 2010, 100 years after Clemens's death by his instruction); the third volume includes his lengthy denunciation of Isabel Lyon. Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3


Online:

Mark Twain's Last Years: Some Ideas for a Documentary, a blog based on recent research about Samuel Clemens and his home at Stormfield.

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