A novella first published in 1906, The Dairy of Adam and Eve, is not as famed as his other works, yet it is still regarded as one of his great works, which reflects Twain’s understanding of the harmonious life between male and female and his awareness of social equality. Also, it depicts the image of Twain’s ideal wife and it is thought that this novel was written in honor of his dearly departed wife, who came from a wealthy but liberal family and throughout her, Twain met abolitionists, socialists, principled atheists and activists for women’s rights and social equality, including Harriet Beecher Stowe (his next-door neighbor in Hartford, Connecticut), Frederick Douglass, and the writer and utopian socialist William Dean Howells. Adam and Eve are two personas from the Bible. However, his writing does not quite faithfully conform to the original record of the Bible, Adam and Eve in this story are on equal footing, and Eve even has more say sometimes. And this short story depicts the process of their acquaintance and love, and their later harmonious life.

Although The Diary of Adam and Eve is not as famous as Twain’s other two travelling novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, “The Great American Novel”, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), there have been many studies on Mark Twain and The Diary of Adam and Eve in China because it is quite different from the other two novels, it is simple but reflects Twain’s advanced thought.