MARK TWAIN (1835-1910) labored eleven years to complete this final and greatest novel, a tale he wrote under the working title of "The Chronicle of Young Satan." Alas, Mr. Twain was destined by the heavens to exit this life with the book unfinished: having been born during the 1835 visitation of Halley's comet, Mr. Twain had long vowed that he would also perish upon the comet's return. And so it came to pass: Mark Twain died from a heart attack in 1910, one day after Halley's next fly-by of Earth.

This present edition of Satan: A Novel is derived from a harmonizing of the three extant manuscripts of Mr. Twain's final work, compiled by Mr. Twain's literary executor (along with some humble adjustments of our own). Mark Twain's fable of an angelic visitation in the Austrian countryside reveals the solipsism of its author, and his belief of the unreality of our collective dream.