The Portable Mark Twain

by Mark Twain, Tom Quirk (Editor)

Satirist, novelist, and keen observer of the American scene, Mark Twain remains one of the world's best-loved writers. This delightful collection of Twain's favorite and most memorable writings includes selected tales and sketches, excerpts from his novels and travel books, autobiographical and polemical writings, as well as selected letters and speeches.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Short Stories, Literature, Humor, Anthologies, Classic Literature

583 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

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

[P.S. Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection, if you haven't read Mark Twain, grab this, if you have, gab it anyway and take the journey all over again.

[kiwi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. I mean, I'm actually not that big a Mark Twain fan just in general.

I know. Shoot me now, right?

But seriously. It's nothing personal--it's not like I think he's a horrendous writer or anything--he just doesn't have a style that clicks with me personally.

Plus, the fact that every professor/teacher I've ever had sort of puffs him up to be the amazing writer...Sorta sets a person up for disappointment, you know?

So there's that.

Three stars and done.

[Lucas Foster]

Why did I commit myself to this volume? Twain isn’t especially fashionable these days, never been recommended to me, nothing urgent about the task of familiarizing myself with this dusty “giant of American letters.” Frankly I chose it over other books lying around under the assumption it’d be of a relatively low syntactic difficulty level and thus appropriate for bedtime reading lasting longer than 30 seconds. Lydia Davis confessed in an interview or story or some such thing that she’s prone to lapsing into autopilot while she reads, and pathetically I’ve put a lot of stock in this admission—if she’s not immune to it, why should I be? Luckily the main event so to speak (“Huck Finn”) is famously peppered with that HISTORICALLY CONTINGENT malediction we love to hate, and it’s hard not to perk up and reorient oneself whenever it makes an appearance. The stories, maxims, speeches, letters and excerpts—much of the book is made up of Twain scholar selected chunks from novels like “Connecticut Yankee...”—are all pleasant enough showcases of Twain’s legendary wit. I suppose you give what you get, and the Jinn/neurasthenia eating away at my brainpower just wouldn’t let up and allow me to really splash around too deep in that cool Mississippi immortalized by Clemens the Confederate clown—his Civil War story is stunning, I mean all of it is, I don’t have a contrarian view of the guy. Picture a scrappy urchin boy rolling around in the hog shed, his doughy taskmaster aunt chasing him with a rolling pin. This doesn’t literally occur in “Huck Finn” but it’s really not far off, I think it’s safe to say Twain is the grandaddy of these delightful tropes. Huck’s virulently racist alcoholic dad—you love it, I love it, it’s classic American literature, literally the great American novel according to Hemingway, who worshipped it other than the ending, which he felt was facile. Some graybeard prospector won’t shut up about his racing frog, and this sheds light on some axiomatic truth—yes, very good, this is high culture. Oh and we can’t forget... “cornpone opinions” that epistemic breakthrough... would be doing you a great disservice if I neglected to mention “puddnhead wilson,” my favorite needless to say, well next to the speech about the alphabet delivered at an Andrew Carnegie dinner. This is my love/hate relationship with literature laid bare

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was the Viking edition I read. Although I read a few of the other Twain works, it was really Huckleberry Finn that I was most interested in. I have to believe I read it as a kid, but really don't remember any of it.

Fun story that was used as a vehicle for Twain to ridicule so many different kind of folks. To make matters more fun, Tom Sawyer rejoins Huck (by coincidence, really??!). His role is to make a relatively simple escape into something complicated and time consuming.

Reading (rereading?) the book made me search for the movie. I found at least 12 that were made. Some of them can be found on-line with some of them free. I didn't get through most, especially the musical, but liked the 1939 black & white version with Mickey Rooney. The movie only covers a portion of the story.

Anyway, a nice jaunt down memory lane.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the best way to get acquainted with Twain’s writings. To be honest, I struggle through most of his writings. They just don’t jump out at me and grab me. I like his travel writings more than his fiction or essays, but even they can be too dry and dense for me at times. Maybe it’s the time difference or the cultural difference, but I at least see the strong influence he has had on subsequent American humorists, from Mad Magazine to Kurt Vonnegut’s writings. We have to thank him for his humor and writings and his positive influence on American culture.

[Steve Labarge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This started with my mom recommending the book “James” to me. Once I learned what that was about, I realized that I needed to reread Mark Twain‘s original “the adventures of Huckleberry Finn“. So I asked my son if he still had his high school version of that book. He brought down the portable Mark Twain. So informative for me to read this book and also learn some of the other biographical information.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although my experience with his works is not yet complete, I can safely say that I will always consider Mark Twain to be one of the absolute giants of American literature, standing favorably to any sampling of Hemingway or Emerson you can find. I think the brilliance of his writing, as evidenced in this collection of short stories and novel excerpts, is that while his stories almost always involve period events and often have characters speaking in rural 19th-century Missouri dialect, his characters (including himself in autobiographical essays) are immediately accessible and so recognizable to us in so many ways as ourselves. It is a very rare writer indeed who writes for his times and causes readers to chuckle aloud almost two centuries later. If you're not sure you'll like Twain, pick this book up and read a couple of stories - you'll get a great overview of his work, and, more likely than not, be on the bandwagon before long.

[Christiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn out of this book. I enjoyed Huck Finn and am glad that I read it.

The only problem I had with the book was understanding some of the dialect but that got easier as I read. That is why I gave it a 4 instead of a five.

I think that at a later point I may read some more Mark Twain.

[Irish Gal · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, it's 2" thick, so it's not all that "portable". But I'm enjoying the short stories and clips of his autobiography and Pud'dnhead Wilson's calendar. I skipped over the excerpts of "A Conn. Yankee..." and "Huckleberry Finn". I haven't read the first in it's entirety so reading just a chapter seemed awkward.

[Nitanews · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favs. Some great short stories here...

[Stacy Crandall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of writings by Samuel Langhorne Clemens, AKA Mark Twain.

[Andy Farley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long time since I've read Twain; laugh out loud funny and cuts deep with his scorn.

[Frank Schofield]

Exceptional book a pleasure to read parts of several of Twain's books. The full book of Huck Finn was especially great to read again. A must for everyone to read.