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Mark Twain: The Curious Case of Colonel Sellers
The history of Mark Twain’s play, Colonel Sellers, is an intriguing story with more plot twists and turns than the play itself. “The Curious Case of Colonel Sellers” documents this tale of literary piracy and personal conflict. It is a saga that leads from the quiet setting of Hartford, Connecticut, to the wharves of San Francisco and from the theaters of New York to the courtrooms of Salt Lake City where Twain sent a Deputy U.S. Marshall “armed with a writ of injunction against the buccaneers who contemplated an act of piracy on the high seas of literature.”
For the first time, Mark Twain's forgotten masterpiece is affordable and easily available to the Twain fans everywhere.
For the first time, Mark Twain's forgotten masterpiece is affordable and easily available to the Twain fans everywhere.
174 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 18, 1965
About the author
Mark Twain
9,732 books19.2k followersLibrarian 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.
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 - 1 of 1 review
January 2, 2018
The back of the book states that “for the first time, Mark Twain’s forgotten masterpiece is affordable and easily available.” Usually taking the declaration on the back of a self-promoting book at its word is a bad idea, but I want to be the first to whole-heartedly endorse this statement.
Because I had been, since 2015, meticulously working my way through all of Twain’s works, I had heard of his play based off of Colonel Sellers from Twain and Charles Warner’s novel The Gilded Age. And I wanted it. But, boy, it was trickier to get a hold of than I thought. Due to how long ago it was written, I assumed it would be easily available in e-reader format thanks to public domain. Nope. Nothing. I went to search print copies online and could only find it for ridiculous prices in mainly out-of-print books. After an extensive search (which probably only lasted a couple of hours), I concluded that I would have to wait until I had MILLIONS (!) before I could casually justify ordering this forgotten gem (in the meantime, I found the affordable though never produced Twain play “Is He Dead?” and thoroughly enjoyed it--you can find my review on goodreads).
Well, a year and a bit later, I had run through most of Twain’s most well known books, and I decided on a lark to try again searching for the Colonel Sellers play. I don’t know if my “extensive” search from last time was simply not as extensive as it should have been or if the search engine gods were just smiling on me with greater favor this time … or if it just was not available when I first looked. Either way, The Curious Case of Colonel Sellers (play by Mark Twain, compilation and notes by KB Shaw) showed up, and before I could take a second breath, it was ordered.
Shaw has put in a thankless effort to set the stage (as it were) for this play with the background, vibrant and clashing real-life personalities, and cultural and legal response, including several primary source excerpts and reviews. To really gain an appreciation for the significance of this forgotten work by Twain, someone needs to help us remember why it mattered then, and Shaw gives us a thorough and fascinating introduction that does just that.
As for the play itself, I was surprised to find that it is really just a re-hashing of Twain’s novel: The Gilded Age (albeit at a tenth of the length). The Colonel Sellers of the title does no more in the play than he does in the novel, though with enough stripped away from the novel, he definitely takes a more prominent--albeit not protagonist--role in the play. In other words, if you’ve read the book, then there’s nothing about the play that will surprise you. At the same time, the book has some parts that are worth revisiting, and this is a much more timely manner of accomplishing that feat.
Something that the play cannot do that the novel does well is really dip into the satire of the gilded age society with the kind of scope and breadth that Twain and Warner really emphasize in the novel. That is not to say that the play does not have it’s biting satire (particularly in the 4th and 5th acts), but it simply does not have the time or ability to address all aspects of corrosive nature of gilded society of the time that the novel does.
And while Twain, in his novels, can create and display unique characters and situations with a very prominent ease and with the powerhouse support of his spirited and humorous narrator voice, in the play he has lost that power. Instead, he is limited to only presenting the character voices, and any cleverness and wit has to come through them. Colonel Sellers is the closest he can get to that, and otherwise we are left with a melodramatic, though not unfeeling, tale that--Sellers and a few particular plot points aside--probably reflected most other run-of-the-mill, come-and-go plays from that time period.
So, as far as the play goes, it is enjoyable and amusing enough. I recommend it, though not strongly. Its best use would be to either revisit the events of The Gilded Age without having to commit yourself, timewise, to a large endeavor, or if you have never read The Gilded Age and are interested in the theme but not actually sitting down and reading the novel, this is a perfect “Sparks Notes” version for you.
As far as the presentation of the play and the context that it comes from, I highly recommend the work that Shaw put into bringing this to light. Thanks to him, it is truly affordable, easily available … and the play is not bad, either!
Because I had been, since 2015, meticulously working my way through all of Twain’s works, I had heard of his play based off of Colonel Sellers from Twain and Charles Warner’s novel The Gilded Age. And I wanted it. But, boy, it was trickier to get a hold of than I thought. Due to how long ago it was written, I assumed it would be easily available in e-reader format thanks to public domain. Nope. Nothing. I went to search print copies online and could only find it for ridiculous prices in mainly out-of-print books. After an extensive search (which probably only lasted a couple of hours), I concluded that I would have to wait until I had MILLIONS (!) before I could casually justify ordering this forgotten gem (in the meantime, I found the affordable though never produced Twain play “Is He Dead?” and thoroughly enjoyed it--you can find my review on goodreads).
Well, a year and a bit later, I had run through most of Twain’s most well known books, and I decided on a lark to try again searching for the Colonel Sellers play. I don’t know if my “extensive” search from last time was simply not as extensive as it should have been or if the search engine gods were just smiling on me with greater favor this time … or if it just was not available when I first looked. Either way, The Curious Case of Colonel Sellers (play by Mark Twain, compilation and notes by KB Shaw) showed up, and before I could take a second breath, it was ordered.
Shaw has put in a thankless effort to set the stage (as it were) for this play with the background, vibrant and clashing real-life personalities, and cultural and legal response, including several primary source excerpts and reviews. To really gain an appreciation for the significance of this forgotten work by Twain, someone needs to help us remember why it mattered then, and Shaw gives us a thorough and fascinating introduction that does just that.
As for the play itself, I was surprised to find that it is really just a re-hashing of Twain’s novel: The Gilded Age (albeit at a tenth of the length). The Colonel Sellers of the title does no more in the play than he does in the novel, though with enough stripped away from the novel, he definitely takes a more prominent--albeit not protagonist--role in the play. In other words, if you’ve read the book, then there’s nothing about the play that will surprise you. At the same time, the book has some parts that are worth revisiting, and this is a much more timely manner of accomplishing that feat.
Something that the play cannot do that the novel does well is really dip into the satire of the gilded age society with the kind of scope and breadth that Twain and Warner really emphasize in the novel. That is not to say that the play does not have it’s biting satire (particularly in the 4th and 5th acts), but it simply does not have the time or ability to address all aspects of corrosive nature of gilded society of the time that the novel does.
And while Twain, in his novels, can create and display unique characters and situations with a very prominent ease and with the powerhouse support of his spirited and humorous narrator voice, in the play he has lost that power. Instead, he is limited to only presenting the character voices, and any cleverness and wit has to come through them. Colonel Sellers is the closest he can get to that, and otherwise we are left with a melodramatic, though not unfeeling, tale that--Sellers and a few particular plot points aside--probably reflected most other run-of-the-mill, come-and-go plays from that time period.
So, as far as the play goes, it is enjoyable and amusing enough. I recommend it, though not strongly. Its best use would be to either revisit the events of The Gilded Age without having to commit yourself, timewise, to a large endeavor, or if you have never read The Gilded Age and are interested in the theme but not actually sitting down and reading the novel, this is a perfect “Sparks Notes” version for you.
As far as the presentation of the play and the context that it comes from, I highly recommend the work that Shaw put into bringing this to light. Thanks to him, it is truly affordable, easily available … and the play is not bad, either!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review