The Best Short Works of Mark Twain

by Mark Twain

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED

BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

A collection of short works by one of America's most revered, iconoclastic, and enduring voices‹Mark Twain.

EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information

• A chronology of the author's life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

The notorious jumping frog of Calaveras County --
The story of the bad little boy --
Cannibalism in the cars --
A day at Niagara --
Legend of the Capitoline Venus --
Journalism in Tennessee --
A curious dream --
The facts in the great beef contract --
How I edited an agricultural paper --
A medieval romance --
My watch --
Political economy --
Science vs. luck --
The story of the good little boy --
Buck Fanshaw's funeral --
The story of the old ram --
A true story --
Experience of the McWilliamses with membranous croup --
The canvasser's tale --
The facts concerning the recent carnival of crime in Connecticut --
The loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton --
Edward Mills and George Benton: a tale --
The men who put up at Gadsby's --
Mrs. McWilliams and the lightning --
Jim Baker's bluejay yarn --
A curious experience --
The invalid's story --
The McWilliamses and the burglar alarm --
The stolen white elephant --
A dying man's confession --
The professor's yarn --
The private history of a campaign that failed --
A ghost story --
Luck --
Playing courier --
The Californian's tale --
Extracts from Adam's diary --
Eve's diary --
The Esquimau maiden's romance --
Is he living or is he dead? --
The $1,000,000 bank-note --
How to tell a story --
Cecil Rhodes and the shark --
Why Ed Jackson called on commodore Vanderbilt --
The man that corrupted Hadleyburg --
The death disk --
Two little tales --
The belated Russian passport --
A double-barreled detective story --
The five boons of life --
Was it heaven? or hell? --
A dog's tale --
The $30,000 bequest --
A horse's tale --
Hunting the deceitful turkey --
Extract from Captain Stormfield's visit to heaven --
A fable.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories

832 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 26, 2004

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

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michigan J. Frog makes a lot more sense after reading these stories.

[Uthpala Dassanayake · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Best Short Works of Mark Twain” is a collection of over 60 stories, varying from couple of pages to over 50 pages. All stories are heavy with satire, humor and irony. There were many exceptionally good stories, my favorites being “Extracts from Adam’s diary” and “Eve’s diary”, “Stolen white elephant” and “Captain Stormfield’s visit to heaven”. Rather than directly challenging religious concepts, it is hilarious the way he ridicule them by attempting to present them rationally. But in some of the stories, sarcasm was too raw and rude to enjoy. Bad boy and good boy stories and some of the McWilliams stories are such few. Some of them like “Double barreled detective story” seams to be wavering and dragging at times though there was good humor in them. May be Twain wrote them for news papers and journals in several episodes over a time. It is possible that some of the stories are not up to standard because he had to write one for each issue. Though Twain is said to be despised of sentimentalities, there are hints of his tragic personal life emotions reflected in stories like Adam’s and Eve’s diaries and Horse’s Tale.
I read this book over a time of many months in between other books. I think it is better that way as it is a long (800 odd pages) book and an overdose of humor and irony may become dull as there is nothing else much in those stories.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of what I'm reading these days are short stories or essays. Novels aren't really conducive to my life style right now, I can be called at any moment with both my work and my child. I've just started this and I can say its very entertaining. Twain's genius is apparent from the get go. I like reading Twain on my own time opposed to having to do it in the class room.

[Cayla]

I did not finish all the stories but the ones I read were really good. I love reading for the satire in Twain's works.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious.