My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain
by
Mark Twain
This comprehensive volume of all of Twain's shorter works is representative of his vast humor and wit. "The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain" includes the following tales: 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 Curiou...more
Paperback, 488 pages
Published
January 1st 2008
by Digireads.com
(first published 1956)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,712)
To be honest, this was sort of a "desperation" book; one of many that I've picked up from the three for a dollar room at the Boston Book Annex, which is down the street.
At three for a buck I can pick up all sorts of odd books that I wouldn't normally try. The Twain book doesn't really fall into that category, of course; I've read a fair amount of Twain. But the thing about this edition was that it was over 600 pages long with small type; it was very compact.
Anyw...more
At three for a buck I can pick up all sorts of odd books that I wouldn't normally try. The Twain book doesn't really fall into that category, of course; I've read a fair amount of Twain. But the thing about this edition was that it was over 600 pages long with small type; it was very compact.
Anyw...more
This was a lot of fun to read, although many of the stories I had already read in "The Mysterious Stranger and Other Tales" and "The Bible According to Mark Twain."
My only complaint about this is that the stories are presented as chronologically as possible - which is all well and good, but as Twain got older and his writing progressed, he also got more and more bitter. So, as a read, it starts off hilarious and fun and light-hearted and then, about halfway through...more
My only complaint about this is that the stories are presented as chronologically as possible - which is all well and good, but as Twain got older and his writing progressed, he also got more and more bitter. So, as a read, it starts off hilarious and fun and light-hearted and then, about halfway through...more
All of Mark Twain's stories read all at once was a bit too much. He is so sarcastic that after reading one story after another you begin to feel this negative vibe for the world. Some of his short stories standing on their own were excellent. I enjoyed, A Day at Niagara, Journalism in Tennessee, A Medieval Romance and Buck Fanshaw's Funeral to name a few. Most of the ones I enjoyed, were written early on in Mark Twain's career. My least favorites came at the end when he seemed to become so negat...more
Mark Twain is still one of the funniest story-tellers a century after his death. He had a keen knowledge of people and their oddities as well as the obsurdity of modern society. His "Journalism in Tennessee" may be one of the funniest stories I've ever read, especially because I spent many an hour reading microfilmed 1850s newspapers from Tennessee and the rest of the South for my disseration. Twain perfectly summed up the combativeness of those firey and verbally inventive 19th centur...more
It was fun to read some stories from Mark Twain now that I live so close to where he lived part of his life but I have to confess, I'm not a big fan of short stories in general. These were interesting to read - and you could definitely see an evolution in his life in the style and content of his writing. His earlier stories were much lighter and more humorous than the later stories which made sense given that he lost 3 out of 4 children and his wife before he died. His very last story, publis...more
I was one of those rare people that had somehow never read an actual Twain book. I remember there was a man dressed as Twain who came to our school and did his one man show, that was about the length of my knowledge. My high school AP english teacher got me addicted to finding quotations and I started a binder for them after years of collecting and noticed quite a few were from Twain. So, finally, when my son was born, I went out and bought Huckberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer, but grabbed this boo...more
Nick
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anybody who loves to read a short 20 minute story
so far the book has had some weird stories but they are all completely understandable. they have had some very interesting stories. in the first story i had read, the title had given me a bit of a hint as to what the story was to be about. it had contained the word cannibal, which had me a little shocked but i had read on knowing that it would be a good story because it was written by mark twain. as the story unfolds i am hinted to the fact that people are being sacrificed i beleive for just on ...more
view 2 comments
The story California tale was very interesting and delightful because of its use of foreshadowing and how it draws you in just to twist the story and turn it on its head. In multiple cases in this story I felt like i knew what was going to happen and in the end everything I had thought was completely altered and the emotion of the story was almost devine. I personally really enjoyed the California tale and in the end i would recomend it to most if not all of my friends.
It's hard to rate a book containing every short story an author has ever written. Most of them seem to make no sense, mostly because I am so removed from Mark Twain's time. It also seems quite obvious that many of the stories were simply churned out for the newspaper. The most enjoyable part about reading his stories in their publishing order is seeing his progression deeper into misanthropy. In general the stories tend to get longer and longer, and the veil hiding Twain's disgust for mankind ge...more
It took months, and I read a few books in between, but I finally finished this one. It amazes me how different today's short stories are compared to those of the past. In some ways, I'm glad for the change, and in others--I'm tending to agree with Bradbury more and more: Many are simply slice-of-life garbage.
Twain knew how to tell a story--I would've loved to HEAR him do so. His voice is so strong, yet he can change it with the drop of a hat. He can make you laugh and cry within the s...more
Twain knew how to tell a story--I would've loved to HEAR him do so. His voice is so strong, yet he can change it with the drop of a hat. He can make you laugh and cry within the s...more
A lot of material, and I chose to tackle it in chunks over a couple months because otherwise the stories got monotonous. There are some real gems among these 60: a hilarious lambast of Niagara tourism in "A Day at Niagara;" poking fun at feminine hysterics in "Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup;" a parody of justice and fairness in "Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale;" and a comic dismantling of military honor in "Luck." I was parti...more
What I read was actually a very collection of short stories by Mark Twain. I amy come an edit this particular if I find another book closer to the collection I read. These were all short stories, just a few I did not enjoy so much, but the rest of the book was such fun to read. Such an entertaining story teller!!
John Wiswell
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Humor readers, literary readers, classics readers
Twain explored the gamut of subjects in short stories. There are very serious, touching tales, like the reflections of a slave on his painless but joyless life. There are quirky and absurd stories, like the opening one narrated by a blue jay. There's a wealth of humor, from small-time scams like "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," to the civilized politics of cannibalism discussed by senators stuck under an avalanche in "Cannibalism in the Cars." The longer stor...more
What a range--from fun adventure to humorous, gently satirical stories, to bitingly bitter pieces from a "pen warmed up in hell" ! These stories really show Twain in all of his moods, and are really fun reading.
I have read this book several times. It is undoubtedly the funniest book I have ever read (parts of it)
I would lay in bed crying it was so funny. The same thing when I read it the second time.
I would lay in bed crying it was so funny. The same thing when I read it the second time.
I did not read all of the short stories, although over the years, I have read several. I found the stories that we chose for book club to be rather depressing. We read the last story in the book (something with Frogs in the Title). Clearly by this time in Mark Twain's life he was struggling with life and depression. The stories give a good idea of life in America during his era, and the language they used then, but are not riveting. Although he is an acclaimed American author, I don't find ...more
I had to read these for my book club, and I have to admit that I did it very reluctantly, but I found that I really enjoyed his stories and they gave me a lot of food for thought.
For a classic laced with wit and humor Mark Twain is always worth a visit. Rather than his typical novels, you might enjoy reading some of his humorous short stories.
Some real gems among some bland, but the gems make it worth one's time to sift through the mediocre fare. Result: rolling in the aisle in fits of hysterics.
Patrick Oden
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
lovers of good, witty, intelligent short stories
Shelves:
fiction
One of the shames of literature in our era is that Mark Twain is primarily taught as and known for his novels, especially Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Now, I'll tell you straight, I found Tom Sawyer boring and Huck Finn almost unreadable. Twain was a decent novelist. His travel nonfiction books are better. He was an amazing short story writer. If you haven't read Twain's short stories you are missing out on his true brilliance, insight, wit, and ability. "Some Learned Fables, For Good Ol...more
i picked this up specifically to read "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg". I was not disappointed. It was a great story.
I really wanted to give this 5 stars, but just couldn't bring myself to be dishonest. This is Mark Twain; these should have been the greatest stories ever written. Many of them were amazing, but they were unfortunately offset by several stories where it seems like Clemens was unsuccessfully experimenting. I shouldn't be critical, he forged the way for many of today's greatest contemporary authors. That experimenting occasionally led to great stories.
I couldn't help but look forwa...more
I couldn't help but look forwa...more
Wow, did he ever have a weird imagination! Some of these stories so far are really quite disturbing!
Mi ankaŭ legis kiam mi havis 13 jarojn. La komenco de mia amo kun mallongaj rakontoj kun graveco.
I read these several years ago. Some were not my favorite, but some were just hilarious.
I love Mark Twains' wit. The way he spins sarcasm and humor makes him one of my favorite writers of all time. I would love to have met this great man!
Yeah, M Twain is rad. thats pretty much all that needs to be said there.
Part of your human experience has to be reading this classic American Humorist!
Somebody once remarked that Mark Twain is not as funny as he was a hundred years ago. But he's still pretty funny.
I think this is my favorite way to read Twain. I loved all of these.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).
Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a...more
More about Mark Twain...
Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“There is nothing in the world like persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
