The Mysterious Stranger

[Jenny, Makeing a world of books]

The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
Actually a short story, not novel.

[Renee]

I’m looking into this one right now and have found all kinds of mixed information. For starters, it’s very dark. I think it got included on the list because it’s most often published with several of Twain’s lighter and more well-known stories.

Apparently, The Mysterious Stranger was originally published posthumously by Albert Bigelow Paine, who took quite a bit of license. In part because Twain had worked on the story for about 12 years, creating 4 versions, none of which satisfied him enough to seek publication.
Link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_M...

All of which I find really interesting because I’m weird that way. :)

[Renee]

The stories most often published together under the title, The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories by Mark Twain, form a little timeline of his career. They are:

• The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 1865
• The £1,000,000 Bank Note 1893
• The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg 1899
• The Mysterious Stranger 1916

[Renee]

A few others which have been included in the collection:

• The Facts Concerning the recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut
• The Stolen White Elephant
• Luck
• The 5 Boons of Life
• Was it Heaven? Or Hell?
• The Story of the Bad Little Boy
• The Diary of Adam and Eve
• Edward Mills and George Benton
• The Joke That Made Ed's Fortune
• A Fable
• Hunting the Deceitful Turkey
• The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm

[Renee]

The Gutenberg Project has a version available with the sumptuous illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. N.C. is most famous for illustrating the books of Robert Louis Stevenson. He was the father of Andrew Wyeth (Christina’s World). There’s a cool museum in Chadd’s Ford, PA, with works by the Wyeths and also Howard Pyle, who was N.C.’s mentor.


http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3186/3...

[Rosemarie]

The version I read is apparently the Official Version. It was an interesting read. It started well but faded towards the end.