Mark Twain fled to Berlin in 1891 with his wife and three little daughters. He had earned a great deal of money from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and his other writing and lectures, but he invested in ventures that lost most of it and the family was short of funds. So in the fall of 1891 Twain contacted his publisher about a quick scheme to generate cash: a translation of the most popular and best-known children’s book of the nineteenth century - a beloved book that could be found in almost every nursery in Europe and North America. Twain was sure his version would be a bestseller. He...