The Celebrated Jumping Frog and Other Stories

by Mark Twain, Edward Wagenknecht (Afterword), Joseph Ciardiello (Illustrator)

Originally published in 1865, "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" began Mark Twain's remarkable career, and immediately demonstrated his masterful storytelling and brilliant sense of humor. This delightful tale introduces Jim Smiley, a man who loved to gamble, whether on horse races, dogfights, catfights, or even how long it took bugs to cross the Mexican border. When a gullible stranger came to town, Smiley boasted that his pet frog, Dan'l Webster, could outjump any frog in the county. Smiley, figuring it would be easy money, eagerly made a bet with the stranger, who had a secret plan to stop Dan'l in his tracks. This wickedly funny collection also includes several of Twain's other great short stories, including "A True Story", "Extracts from Adam's Diary", and "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed."

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Humor, Audiobook, 19th Century, Literature

230 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1867

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

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Notorious Jumping Frog by Mark Twain



Mark Twain is one of the greatest and best known writers in the world. I am not sure about Burma, Iraq, Uzbekistan and other remote places, but in the “Western World” most of the children have read and enjoyed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These adventures are actually included in the Guardian top 100 best books ever written. And the list is not some lining up of popular taste, or the fashion of the moment. It was compiled by experts and writers like Umberto Ecco.

Mark Twain had a fantastic sense of humor and from what I have read, this incredible sense manifested itself in the life of the author and many of the sayings which are now used and the pronouncements that Clarence has made. I think Clarence was the real name of Mark Twain



In the Notorious Jumping Frog the humor and irony are in full display. There is a bet on this frog, supposedly the best in the county. One of the competitors fiddles with the physique of the competitor, but I will not reveal anything that may jeopardize your pleasure, even if it is not the outcome that makes this fun to read, but Mark Twain’s gift and style.

[Michael Tildsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other than the titular story and "The Bad Boy," I love every other work in this short, short volume. I am upset at myself for having put this one off for so long on my 'to-read' list. I was never huge on Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, so I assumed I would not like Twain's shorter works. Oh, how wrong I was!

"Is He Living or Is He Dead?" is a fantastic little story of ingenuity that still holds up to this day. Without giving anything away, I can say that artists will always be starving for the sake of their art it would seem. Very poignant piece that strikes at the heart of what we call 'value.'

"The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" is a classic! It should be taught in schools. Maybe it is now, but it wasn't when I was coming up (and I went to 13 schools in various states, areas, and districts). I feel like Twain and Vonnegut would have gotten along and had much to say to each other over coffee while I read this piece. It is damning of human nature while also illuminating it.

"A Fable" is the shortest piece in a short collection, but I would say it packs a punch for the Cat's Moral at the end. I don't want to give it away, but I wish I had had this story back when I was in college to use as ammunition against one of my more unpalatable and prideful professors, whose worldview and critical view were to be taken as canon, not opinion.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with his classic humor and genius, this story collection may not be Twain's best work in complete form, but offers a striking amount of discourse on morality and the questioning of conventions. It seems to me that most of the best literature and authors are invested in reinvestigating the standards of society and culture that seem clean on the surface but are corrupt in the closets. Twain's morality tales and yarns force the reader into the uncomfortable notion that their standards and traditions, even their very beliefs, are nestled in limited critical thinking rather than truth.

And somehow, he does that while being funny.

[LeAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So That's where the "Golden Arm" Ghost story comes from! Mark Twain explains how to tell the story to get the best reaction from your audience. This is a fun collection of some of Mark Twain's short stories. I have a copy that I found in my parent's home.

[Mary Tuley · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I really want is to go back in time and become Mark Twain's best friend.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twain’s first. Satire and silliness, mocking priggish ideas about eg. good children, national heroes, and spiritualism.

[Beatriz Ribeiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t tell you how much I hated reading this.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, not Twain’s best. There were some funny anecdotes, though, whether true or not. Possibly a better book to read than to listen to.

[Carolyn Whitzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must re-read some Mark Twain next year. As he says in the final story of this collection, it was all about the manner in which he wrote dialogue… and he’s still extremely funny.

He was anti-slavery and anti-imperialism. But he wrote in dialect and that raises some hackles today. His ‘Trye Story’ is about the horrors of slavery and ‘Niagara’ talks about what we would call ‘pretendians’. But I could see how some would find his highly stylized voices offensive. All I can say is that he is a fascinating writer.

[Pastor Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

As advertised, this is a collection of stories from the celebrated author Mark Twain. Everyone should add Twain to their reading lists. These are some of his earlier writings but I am glad I started with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as well as his book, "Life on the Mississippi". I think that helped me appreciate this book more than I might have otherwise.

I liked some stories more than others, but this was an overall enjoyable listen with the narration by Robin Field who is on my list of top narrators.

I think it's sad to read other reviews and have them basically deduct a "star" or two because of the fact that this book written more than a century ago uses some strange vocabulary and utilizes some humor that they "don't get". It's Twain's fault he's been dead since 1910 and can't revise his works to suit you?

And then there is the use of the "n" word that has become the woke generation's only known form of "blasphemy". Bring back the blasphemy laws. Burn the books!

Anyway, if you're not a brainwashed (dumbed-down) snowflake, and especially if you already appreciate Twain, then I recommend this to you.

[Misa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book with the group Children's classics Club for August. I have to say that I'm happy that this book wasn't the first one that I have read from Mark Twain because he is one of my favorite authors and this one wasn't a great read. I found the stories dull and silly not really impressive. I love his other books and I'm happy that he wrote them.

[Glenn Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of short stories by Mark Twain ranging from a visit to Heaven, the life of a dog, to a contest to see if a homeless guy could survive if he only had a million dollar treasury check.

[Amy Ingalls · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was hit or miss for me. I think the Jumping Frog tale ends really abruptly-- I didn't remember that from when I read it in Jr. High. I really liked the Million Pound Note-- I thought it was clever. And Adam's diary, especially when Cain was born, had me laughing. Especially when he was saying things like, "It's not a fish." or talking about wanting to stuff him for science. It is hard to rate this overall, as some stories were 2 stars at best and others were more. I am just going to average them, and give it 3 stars overall.

[Vitória · Rating 3 out of 5]

19th century southern literature is indeed superior among its kind

[Alecia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially loved “The Million Dollar Bank Note” and “How to Tell a Story.”

[Tim Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Readers Digest Classics hardcover collection of Mark Twain short fiction pieces is notable for choosing some less anthologized pieces which is a good thing in that it exposes the reader to some lesser known Twain writings. The downside is that some of these writings are either overly sentimental or straining too hard to be funny but not succeeding.
I did enjoy the illustrations by Joe Ciaridiello and the afterword by Edward Wagenknecht and the excellent production values in this volume (and the Readers Digest series in general).
Recommended.

[DaniLanglie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these stories would get more than 4 stars, some of them less. I didn't really care for the titular story, and a few of the other short, fable-like ones. Some of the longer stories I really, really liked, but they didn't have satisfying conclusions. My favorite story, for the most part, was "Extract From Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." The ideas about Heaven were so fresh and interesting. I'd never read any other version of the afterlife like it. But the ending just kind of petered out, which I thought was a bummer.

Mark Twain has a way of writing that makes it feel as if you can really hear people telling a story. It's like he's managed to take the voice of a storyteller and transcribe it exactly. Some of my other favorites were "A Medieval Romance" and "The 1,000,000 Pound Bank Note." The first of these also has an unsatisfying ending, but in a way that felt appropriate to the story. I found myself eager to come up with my own version of events to fill in the blanks. And the latter was fun because of how satisfactory the ending was. It put a nice guy in a really weird, stressful situation, but then in the end everything worked out perfectly for all people involved. Sometimes it's nice to get a win.

So... yeah. Mark Twain is awesome. I definitely like his fiction more than his memoirs, though.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected the story of the Celebrated Jumping Frog to go on a little further, mainly because I know there has been a movie/tv movie, a something that involved a whole community in a frog jumping contest. But that's what happens when modern media get a hold of an old story. What the story was was amusing, if in a far different way. The idea of whether or not when it comes to making bets if there are any rules to fair play.

The tale of the many who has a million pound note is classic Twain satire about the nature of our assumptions around money. A man assumed to have money can have as much credit as he wants, can even make money without spending money. But a man who is assumed to not have money has to provide all their money and more up front - and usually be made to fail anyway. Not much has changed since Twain's time, has it?

The last entry is Twain talking about the nature of humor and storytelling. Good insights.

[Nick H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stories, but also a lot that didn’t say much to me. The title story was mostly inert. I thought A TRUE STORY was pretty affecting as a sobering look at slavery. THE MILLION POUND BANK NOTE was a lot of fun, probably the funniest of the stories to me. EXTRACTS FROM ADAM’S DIARY and EVE’S DIARY were also standouts. Adam’s was the funnier of the two, but they both were well done. Overall though, the collection didn’t leave as much of an impression on me as I felt it should have. Narrator Dietz was good. [AUDIBLE]

[emyrose8 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, it was okay. Some of the stories are better than others.

[Emily Green]

Read for school

[隻眼簽到 · Rating 3 out of 5]

狗與不可見的世界
It is said that Mark Twain's work helped to shape a picture of American : amusing, a bit rough, adventurous, but also trying to be kind, fair, and honest. Besides, Mark Twain also knew that people are weak. No one can be good all the time. His stories are mostly funny, but there is a serious side to them, too. This book contains eight stories, wrote about jumping frog and practical jokes, also about war, slavery, liar, and so on.
書前介紹說，馬克‧吐溫至今仍是美國非常受歡迎的作家。可惜的是，受歡迎的多半是膚淺的。他的文章風格就是講故事，講他生活經歷過的事件。在資訊不發達的時代，這種講述有助於擴充我們的見聞或知識，於學習是有益的。但在這個資訊發達的時代，這種講述就像每天在看報紙的社會版一樣，只是不斷在重覆一些我們早已“知道”的東西。老實說，這跟三姑六婆的閒聊或街談巷聞的傳言實在沒有什麼不同。一個有水準的作家，理應能觸動我們更深的感情，引領我們作更深入的思考。否則要文字何用，賣弄口舌就好了。
所以，虛構的故事通常勝過真實的故事，因為他們常會有比較大的寓意和想像空間。例如這本讀本中的《Murder in Connecticut》、《A Dog's Life》。前者是一個人謀殺自己的“意識”(Conscience)的故事。後者是以狗為第一人稱的擬人式敘事。它讓我想到《詹姆斯集‧生活值得過嗎？》裡的那個寓言。之前在部落格，我將它題為〈狗與不可見的世界〉：
在一個動物實驗或醫學教學的活體解剖場景：
狗被綁在木板上，朝著劊子手，尖厲地嘶叫著，牠黑暗的意識如同處在地獄之中。在這整個事件中，牠無法看到一絲獲得拯救的光芒；然則，所有這些明顯的凶殘事件，常常都是由人的各種意圖來控制的。並且，所有那些對牠施展這種凶殘行為的人，都會以宗教的心情默許這一切。因為，他們相信，這些凶殘事件是一種改善性的真理，在未來，或可藉此解除動物和人的痛苦。所以，從許多人看來，這是一個真誠的拯救過程。狗躺在木板上，牠所履行的作用要比任何充裕的狗類生活所能達到的高得多。這種作用只屬於絕對超出其狗窩的一部分。
狗的“不可見的世界”是人，人的“不可見的世界”是上帝。詹姆斯的意思是，狗類更高貴的存在價值是牠們無法理解的，正如人類更高貴的存在價值是人類自身無法理解的，所以，我們無法去忖度上帝的思想與計畫。在我看來，如果不可見的世界是我們存在的根本原因，那麼前提必需是上帝對我們是善意的。就像這個例子中，我們假設人(科學家)對狗的實驗是出於善意的。但是對於上帝是不是善意？我們並不知道。正如科學家對狗是否都懷抱善意，我們也不知道。
《A Dog's Life》故事中的那條狗，聽從母親的教誨，盡力“服侍”主人，並在一次火災中救了主人的小嬰兒。但後來，牠的犬子卻被主人因為實驗的理由給弄瞎，並因此而死。最後牠自己也哀傷至死。故事最後一句話是：“They're in a better world now.”。然而，是嗎？

[Elis Agustiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very like this book. It was telling me many stories. We can feel what writer feel. It tells us about some Jim Smiley's experiences. And I think it surprised me when I read it. This book containe some happies, sad even touching stories. For example, first story in this book talking about Smiley's frog which is have highest jump than other. But when he wanted to make a competition for his frog, someone maked his frog cannot jump even his frog became very weak. This happened because someone exit all of sand by his frog. So, his frog became very heavy and no power to make a little jump. It maked Smiley look so sad. And many other stories from this book is talking about some people in war who maked wrong shoot, someone who going to Rusia without his Passport, someone who was killing his conscience with his bad behaviour, true story about a tall black women who lost her son and found him at some years later, and also about a hero's dog who safe her baby's boss but some tragedy was happening, and his boss maked this dog's baby to be a research material until she lost her baby (Robin).

[Isabella Viggiano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was a very good book because you can learn so much about all the characters, the best one in my opinion was the one of “is he living or is he dead”, i enjoyed it a lot it was very interesting and fun to read and i am not a fan of reading books but this was it was not as boring as some of other books i have read. You could ask would you read it again to well no and is not because i didn’t like it is because i don’t like to read and i think that ir i read it again i would lost the interest for this book.
I likes the line in the last page that the cat said it was very beautiful, the part that iBook es the best was when it said “you can find in a text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your imagination”. I like that because is like something is that of you read it you can use it in your life because is a really beautiful message. The other part of that message of the cat was “you may not see your ears, but they will be there” i think that message is like when you say you may not see the people that care about you, but there are standing next to you.

[Diane Carrozzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a lover of Twain, and this little book confirmed it. Recently I read "James" in which the protagonist James is actually the character Jim from "Huck Finn." At that time, I read both books simultaneously to see how Twain's version of Jim was later interpreted through the eyes of James. Well, I finished "James " but not the classic "Huck Finn." Why? Because I'm not a lover of Twain's style of writing. (I tried reading "Tom Sawyer " years ago with the same unfinished result.) Now here's something interesting about this book and Twain's style. The last chapter in this book is called "How to Tell a Story." Twain explains the difference between a humorous story and comic/witty stories. According to Twain, the latter are delivered quickly with a punch at the end. Humorous stories play out (drag out?) for a while. I guess I just don't like how Twain's stories drag out... oops! I mean play out.
I rate this book a 2.5, but usually round up. The best part of this book is his last essay on "How to Tell a Story." The best story is "A True Story... repeated word for word as I heard it." Felt so real and truly heartwarming despite the era.

[Brent Byron · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, my 9 year old daughter took great interest in this book. I'm so glad she did. We read much of it together and she could barely understand it, but she listened raptly nonetheless and then asked me to explain each story to her. What a great experience to share a laugh with her about the man who bought a faulty burglar alarm and ended up with burglars living in his house and who then stole the alarm. My daughter also enjoyed my retelling of the jumping frog and the $30,000 bequest. We laughed again at the silly couple who became imaginary rich and then imagined they'd lost it all while never actually inheriting any real money.
I made a goal to read (or re-read) all the books my grandmother gave me and this was one of them. I thought of her telling me stories as I shared this with my little one.

[Shanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bookcover boasts "Humorous, hilarious, hysterical, sidesplitting". These claims are highly exaggerated. They are more "heh".

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" ** A man who bets on everything is swindled after he bets on his frog.
"The Story of the Bad Little Boy" * An awful boy grows up to be an awful man who makes out all right.
"Is He Living or Is He Dead?" **** Some painters devise a way to become wealthy within their own lifetime (manipulating the curse of painters becoming profitable only after death).
"The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" *** A man takes his revenge on a town who claims to be honest but when tested proves to be a bunch of lying cheats.
"A Fable" *** "You can find in a text whatever you bring..."

[J. Fosbenner · Rating 1 out of 5]

favorite quote:
________
"In the first place, always tune your instruments before you get within three hundred yards of your destination. This will enable you to take your adored unawares, and create a pleasant surprise by launching out at once upon your music. It astonishes the dogs and cats out of their presence of mind, too, so that if you hurry, you can get through before they have a chance to recover and interrupt you; besides, there is nothing captivating in the sounds produced in tuning a lot of melancholy guitars and fiddles, and neither does a group of able-bodied, sentimental young men so engaged look at all dignified."
- Mark Twain, from "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches" (1867)

[Andrew Bearden · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I read Ron Chernow's biography of Mark Twain I'm stopping along the way to read some of the collections of short stories and novels. This is Twain's first collected short stories, and they range from the absurd to the intentionally mundane. A few are quite funny, most are just wry tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. I think that while Twain's sense of humor is evergreen, many of his stories were intended for a specific audience at a specific time and place, and those stories haven't aged as well as his classic works. Still, this is an interesting peek into his early adult life and his experiences in Missouri, Nevada, San Francisco, and Hawaii. If you're short on time, consider just reading the frog story and move on.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good sampling of Mark Twain's humorous stories.

Warning: The N-word is used (mostly in the last story) which Twain claims is a story told by someone else that he is simply recording word-for-word.

o The Notorious Frog
o Niagara
o The White Elephant
o A True Story

I am also reviewing the audiobook. The narration was good.

I would probably listen to these stories again except for the last one. The last one was so filled with slang and the N-word that I couldn't follow it and missed the humor of it.