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Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910). He was born in Missouri, USA. He travelled around America, seeking fame and fortune before returning to become a steam-boat pilot on the Mississippi River, where he had grown up. Later he became a successful journalist and travel writer. In 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, inspired by his own childhood, was published, followed eight years later by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1928 in Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Province, Russia, into a family of the old nobility. His best-known works include War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection. During the Revolution of 1905, he came out on the side of the Russian peasantry, but in accordance with his doctrine, he categorically opposed revolutionary violence. He died in 1910.

Jane Austen is an English novelist who lived during the 18th century.