Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven

Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven is Mark Twain's 1909 comic voyage beyond the grave, told in a boastful, fast-talking voice that turns the afterlife into a place of adventure, satire, and surprise. From Stormfield's wild journey through space—where he races comets and discovers a universe far larger and stranger than he imagined—to his encounters in heaven itself, Twain skewers human pride, earthly rank, and sentimental ideas about eternity. Guided by Sandy McWilliams, an old angel from New Jersey, Stormfield learns that heaven is not a frozen paradise of eternal youth but a place where people settle into the age and form that best suits their minds and habits. The story becomes both funny and poignant as it explores grief, reunion, and the way love must adapt when time has changed those we remember. In Twain's vast celestial landscape, nations, languages, fame, and power are all upended, and even the most ordinary figures can become the center of heavenly celebration. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.