<DIV>"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand," <b>Mark Twain</b> once wrote. In this sixth volume in The Library of America's authoritative collection of his writings-the final volume of his fiction-America's greatest humorist emerges in a surprising range of roles: as the savvy satirist of <b>The Gilded Age</b>, the brilliant plotter of its inventive sequel, <b>The American Claimant</b>, and, in two Tom Sawyer novels, as the acknowledged master revisiting his best-loved characters. Also in this volume is the authoritative version of Twain's haunting last novel, <b>No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger</b>, left unpublished when he died. <br><br> <b>The Gilded Age</b> (1873), a collaboration with Hartford neighbor Charles Dudley Warner, sends up an age when vast fortunes piled up amid thriving corruption and a city Twain knew well, Washington, D.C., full of would-be power brokers and humbug. The novel also gives us one of Twain's most enduring characters, Colonel Sellers, who returns in <b>The American Claimant</b> (1892), an encore performance that moves beyond the worldly satire of its predecessor into realms of sheer inventive mayhem. <br><br> <b>Tom Sawyer Abroad</b> (1894) and <b>Tom Sawyer, Detective</b> (1896) extend the adventures of Huck and Tom. <b>No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger</b> (1908), an astonishing psychic adventure set in the gothic gloom of a medieval Austrian village, offers a powerful and uncanny exploration of the powers of the human mind. </div>