Mark Twain's Burlesque Autobiography

by Mark Twain

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Humor, Collections

24 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1870

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Leah Markum · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you need a short story writing prompt, this should be it: write 2,000-2,500 words of a fictitious family history with as much sarcasm and naive sass as possible. Weave in a little real world history to feign some family honor or dishonor if you must.

As an example, when Twain discusses Augustus Twain from the year 1160:

"He was as full of fun as he could be, and used to take his old saber and sharpen it up, and get in a convenient place on a dark night, and stick it through people as they went by, to see them jump. He was a born humorist."

He also had a relative invent "walk the plank" and the relative's comrades never voiced a complaint....

This is a humorous short story that'll make you smile--but only on one side because the other carries your guilt for finding technically abhorrent things be funny.

[Hirdesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars...
Twain was Twain....

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recensione: http://unantidotocontrolasolitudine.b...

[Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Twain writes his autobiography as a short story which perhaps stretches anything that might resemble fact into a work of complete fiction.

Amusing like most of his short stories.

[Fernando Endara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta edición de Ariel Juvenil Ilustrada nos trae varios cuentos y relatos del narrador y humorista oriundo de las orillas del Mississipi, Mark Twain. “Autobiografía humorística” es el texto que da inicio al libro y en el cuál el autor retrata su genealogía desde épocas remotas: ladrones, embusteros y cuenteros componen un linaje de hombres dedicados a divertirse y a sacar provecho de las situaciones a espaldas o frente a los otros. Pícaros mordaces, piratas amotinados, y personajes reconocidos son sus antepasados en línea directa, y de manera indirecta el Capitán Kidd y Nabucodonosor. Que graciosa serie de comicidades y líos en donde siempre ganaban los embaucadores.

“El asistente negro del General Washington, apuntes biográficos” es una divertida historia en donde muere una y otra, y otra vez, un negrito sobreviviente de la época de la independencia y de la misma llegada de los puritanos; haciendo que diversas ciudades otorguen dinero para el pomposo funeral cada vez. “El cuento del vendedor ambulante” nos refiere los peligros a los que estamos expuestos los coleccionistas. “El peligro de quedarse en cama” es una interesante reflexión sobre el riesgo en el mundo, concluyendo que lo más inseguro es quedarse en casa, puesto que las posibilidades de muerte son mayores. “Como me libre de mi primera mentira” es una meditación y un análisis de las mentiras, de esta sociedad creada y sostenida por ellas; calumniadas y prohibidas cuando “todo es mentira la verdad”. La mejor narración del libro y un alegato en contra de nuestra hipócrita especie.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would you believe that America's greatest ever bullshitter can trace his family all the way back to 'the eleventh century, when our people were living in Aberdeen, county of Cork, England,' and that their surname should rightly be Higgins, not Twain? (Or Clemens for that matter.)

Would you believe that one of his ancestors came across with Columbus ('He complained of the food all the way over') or that another, named PAH-GO-TO-WAH-WAH-PUKKETEKEEWIS (Mighty-Hunter-with-a-Hog-Eye) 'aided Gen. Braddock with all his heart to resist the oppressor Washington'?

Would you believe that this autobiography turns out to be not much of an autobiography at all, burlesque or otherwise so much as it is a great example of the sort of joke Twain could toss out in his sleep and still get into print?

It just shows what you can achieve, provided all your jokes happen to be funny like his were.

[Lorrien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an autobiography

This is not an autobiography, burlesque or otherwise. I'm afraid that it is a case of what can go wrong when you tell a story by making the worst things happen to your characters the more of plot advancement.

Merged review:

Not an autobiography

This is not an autobiography, burlesque or otherwise. I'm afraid that it is a case of what can go wrong when you tell a story by making the worst things happen to your characters the more of plot advancement.

[Cristina - Athenae Noctua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Twain affida ad un pugno di pagine e alla sua ironia fulminea (e fulminante) tre brevi narrazioni molto diverse tra loro, ma tutte ugualmente volte a smascherare le certezze e i miti della società contemporanea, siano essi i culti delle origini nobiliari o le tare della comunicazione mediatica.
http://athenaenoctua2013.blogspot.it/...

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff. But, also, big yikes, some awful things were funny.


Sound advice:
'It is not well, when writing an autobiography, to follow your ancestry down too close to your own time--it is safest to speak only vaguely of your great-grandfather, and then skip from there to yourself, which I now do.'

[Christiane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "Burlesque Autobiography" is a mildly funny little piece about Twain's fictitious family tree.

I liked the second story better : "An awful, terrible, medieval Romance". This is Mark Twain in great form.

[Jack Falerni · Rating 5 out of 5]

il libro + breve mai letto e + economico
3,70 € nuovo

3 racconti esilaranti

io che adoro twain se volete leggere qualcosa di leggere , scritto bene , ma con delle idee con del contenuto
VEROOO


BRAVI CASA SIRIO I LAV IU

[Maulin Amin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bespectacled cliffhanger...!

[tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short funny work.

Short but funny as twain always is. If you enjoy Twains humor you will like this. I recommend it for a quick read.

[Miles Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twain's comical take on his autobiography. Fun, quick, and still important.

[Tym · Rating 4 out of 5]

A humorous little ‘autobiography’ that ends before the birth of the author.

[Pino Sabatelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nella collana “morti&stramorti”, titolo piuttosto eloquente e divertente, CasaSirio pubblica, con la consueta cura grafica ed editoriale, tre piccoli racconti inediti di Mark Twain. Nel primo, sicuramente il più riuscito e che dà il titolo alla raccolta, il Nostro illustra da par suo l’“antica e nobile casata” da cui discende accennando brevemente alle eroiche gesta dei più pittoreschi ed improbabili antenati. Una straziante storia d’amore medievale, invece, è una specie di tragedia in cinque atti dagli sviluppi così imprevedibili da costringere Twain a delegare la sua conclusione “al miglior offerente”. Per noi italiani, anche l’ultimo raccontino (Italiano senza laurea) riveste un certo interesse, visto che è ambientato “in una villa medievale in campagna a un paio di chilometri da Firenze”, dove il papà di Tom Sawyer e Huckleberry Finn passò una breve vacanza. Insomma un Twain minore, forse addirittura minimo, che però, anche quando scriveva con la destra (era mancino), rimane sempre un maestro.

[Paperstreet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se credete che ‪#‎MarkTwain‬ abbia scritto "solo" le avventure di ‪#‎TomSawyer‬ e quelle di ‪#‎HuckleberryFinn‬ vi sbagliate di grosso.
La recensione di #PaperStreet che ci racconta un' ‪#‎autobiografia‬ dell'autore... decisamente sui generis, edita da ‪#‎CasaSirio‬ Editore:
http://www.paperstreet.it/cs/leggi/au...

[CasaSirio]

Tre racconti inediti del discolo del nonno che tutti noi avremmo voluto avere, tre perle impossibili da perdere.

***
È Mark Twain, e Mark Twain piace a tutti!

[April Helms · Rating 5 out of 5]

The narrator is bound and determined to figure out the Italian language and how its grammar works. How he does this is amusing, and his observations, from my limited experience with the language, are accurate.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

not that kind of autobiography

It’s a brief, brief romance set in Medieval times, with mock (and real) seriousness. Very enjoyable. Ends on a cliffhanger. Arguably the main character is trans, and this is central to the story and no secret from many characters.

[Forked Radish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more accurate than Twain realized.

[Leniwa Wenus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious!

[Glenn Popson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So brave of Mr. Twain to finally divulge his shady family history.

[Kyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing short read :)

[Laura Verret · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I traced my family tree, it would probably look a bit like this.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very amusing and entirely untrue; not the autobiography that just came out.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really had nothing to do with mark twain

[Alessandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lettura scorrevole, ma nessuna dei racconti mi è piaciuto. Mi ha deluso un po' come libro.

[Leggendolibri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Twain è sempre spassoso da leggere quando non sta scrivendo storie. È un po' come Dickens che scriveva in America del suo viaggio fatto nel 1842.
Bel libro e molto divertente

[Forked Radish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t Twain go on about German in the same way?