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Taming the Bicycle

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American life comes under the scrutiny of Mark Twain's wit in this delightful collection of short stories. Here, he comments on politics, education, the media, religion, and literature. The true subject of Twain's satire and burlesque is that strangest of all animals, the human being. In his novels, travel narratives, stories, essays, and sketches, Twain exposes such a variety of human foibles that one is left either laughing at the folly of human enterprise, blushing with shame at human behavior, or cursing the gods that would create such a silly animal. Twain does all three, often at the same time.

28 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

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About the author

Mark Twain

8,583 books18.6k followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Vaishali.
1,154 reviews315 followers
May 14, 2020
100% agree with every reviewer ever... This is just so hilarious 😂 Omg...
Profile Image for Abhishek.
78 reviews2 followers
Read
February 28, 2017
O man thou invention bring forth such glee,
a pidgin for old and young alike
Bones fragile but mind agile, yet
the author learns to ride the bike


Famous Quotation: Get a bicycle, You will never regret it, if you live.

Profile Image for Lynn.
3,045 reviews82 followers
December 1, 2018
Good old Mark Twain --- I never laughed so hard in my laugh ---one must remember that the Bicycle he's attempting to train is one of those huge one wheeled ones that as tall as people are! He had a marvelous sense of humor!
Profile Image for Akhil Jain.
683 reviews47 followers
February 13, 2019
My fav quotes (not a review):
"That's it! take a rest - there ain't no hurry. They can't hold the funeral without you."
"but the boy said, rebukingly, "Let him alone, he's going to a funeral."
Profile Image for Andrea.
101 reviews
February 27, 2020
I love Mark Twain. If I could time-travel I'd want to be his next-door neighbor or traveling companion. What else is there to say? This was a laugh-out-loud story and I loved it.
113 reviews1 follower
October 22, 2022
This is a story with many layers. Why did Mark decide to learn to ride the bike at the ripe age of more than 40? What kept him going in spite of innumerable falls? Who is or are his teachers - is it just the hired expert or also the young boy who is egging him on with sympathetic teasing? “Make way! he is late to a funeral!” (His own, presumably). Is Mark being purely satirical about the importance of teachers, given how little his “expert” seems to have taught him? Or is it a more philosophical point that this is what teaching is all about — cushioning the student’s fall?
The story is a pleasure to read, with its wit and humor. This is an excellent narration of the story: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=awP1tp-....
Profile Image for Natalia Neophytou.
52 reviews
September 17, 2024
Mark Twain's “Taming the Bicycle” is a delightful and humorous piece that perfectly captures the challenges and absurdities of mastering the early bicycle. I found it extremely engaging and funny, as it reminded me of my own experience taming my first bicycle. Twain’s sharp wit shines through, especially in his commentary on the dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend :)
Profile Image for Bud Russell.
433 reviews2 followers
February 27, 2022
As a cyclist, I thoroughly enjoyed this laugh-out-loud short story. My wife has a T-Shirt printed with the closing line from this delightful short story. Perhaps it was the narrator (Librivox) that made the story such a pleasure to hear.
Profile Image for Bert.
732 reviews30 followers
August 6, 2021
The narrator was dead on! This is an hilarious remembrance of Mark Twain's adventures learning to ride a bicycle.

Listened using Librovox.org.
Profile Image for Raphaël.
129 reviews
Read
August 5, 2011
3 courts textes ironiques et plein d'humour, qui illustrent la passion de Twain pour les nouvelles technologies (celles de son époque : le vélo, le paratonnerre et la machine à écrire) mais sa malheureuse incapacité à s'y adapter...
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews

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