This is very funny. It's impossible to decide if Mencken is a feminist or a misogynist. Probably both. This book is still largely relevant.

An amusing and cynical attack on the american people. If you like self-mockery and social criticism, you'll like this. Not everything he writes is quite right, perhaps, but this is readable and enjoyable.

Good. Mencken is great. A very modern cynic. I wish he were alive today. Not every essay is good, but the good ones are very good.

Pretty good. Apparently written in two parts. The first is good, the second less so. Gogol apparently has difficulty coming up with a good ending. Readable.

I didn't like this at all. A Russian acquaintance suggested this as the greatest Russian novel. Large chunks are unreadable, pages and pages of low-quality metaphysics. The plot is not so attractive. The characters remain ciphers throughout. Themes are introduced but then suddenly dropped without resolution. The ending is rushed. I think Dostoyevsky got bored with it himself.

Unreadable. Completely opaque.

Very poor. Not funny at all. Even the Twain stories. Don't bother. I can't imagine what the original editor was thinking. Did past generations think these stories were funny? I can't believe that.