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Mark Twain: The Short Stories
Mark Twain: The Short Stories
Mark Twain: The Short Stories
Audiobook2 hours

Mark Twain: The Short Stories

Written by Mark Twain

Narrated by Stuart Milligan

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Mark Twain – An Introduction. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835 and is far better known by his pen name; Mark Twain. An American author and humorist of the first order he is perhaps most famous for his novels, The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, written in 1876, and its sequel, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, written in 1885 and often described with that mythic line - "the Great American Novel." Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the backdrop for these great novels. Apprenticed to a printer he also worked as a typesetter but eventually became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Later, heading west with his brother, Orion to make his fortune he failed at gold mining and instead turned to journalism and found his true calling as a writer of humorous stories. It on these shorter stories that this volume dwells. His wit and humour sparkle from every page, his craft evident with every phase and punctured target. Twain was born during a visit by Halley's Comet, and predicted that he would "go out with it" as well. He died the day following the comet's subsequent return in 1910. These stories are read for you by Stuart Milligan.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 1, 2014
ISBN9781780001029
Author

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, left school at age 12. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher, which furnished him with a wide knowledge of humanity and the perfect grasp of local customs and speech manifested in his writing. It wasn't until The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), that he was recognized by the literary establishment as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. Toward the end of his life, plagued by personal tragedy and financial failure, Twain grew more and more cynical and pessimistic. Though his fame continued to widen--Yale and Oxford awarded him honorary degrees--he spent his last years in gloom and desperation, but he lives on in American letters as "the Lincoln of our literature."

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Rating: 4.146511232558139 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mark Twain, as always, kept me interested to the end of most every story in here: the longest story is about 45 min the shortest about 3 min. most stories in here about 9 min.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a great collection. Mark Twain's prowess with the written word is unparalleled during his period in American literature. The stories resonate with meaning, at times simplicity, power, originality, and perfected description and dialogue. Although there is certain padding in some, and others miss their mark, the overall collection is very strong and worth reading. The Mysterious Stranger, the final story in the collection, is my favorite.

    4 stars-- well worth the read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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 particularly pleased with his later stories, as his pessimism and hostility toward mankind increased exponentially. "A Dog's Tale," "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven," and the absolutely scathing "A Mysterious Stranger" are perhaps the best in the book, in large part because they stretch the bounds of Twain's traditional style.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reviewed March - August 2000 As the title tells us this is Mark Twain’s entire collection of short stories written between 1865 and 1916. Some of his stories are wonderfully funny and witty. “Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightening,” “A Stolen White Elephant,” “The Diary of Adam and Eve,” “The Joke that Made Ed’s Fortune,” and the one story that made me cry, “A Dogs Tale.” A few more stunk, “The Mysterious Stranger,” and “A Horse’s Tale.” Several themes seem to run through Twain’s stories...the common man and the trouble he can get into, as well as, “let me tell you about a friend of mine...” He also spends a lot of time with Christian themes, odd because he was an atheist, maybe these stories were commissioned, but if I read with keen eye I notice that he pokes fun at the humor of the ideals of religious people as in, “Was it Heaven? Or Hell?,” or “Extract from Cpt. Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.” Twain much have spent much time sitting around and listening to people tell stories about themselves, all the while thinking of how he was going to immortalize him into a story some day. I think Twain would have been a political humorist in our time constantly ridiculing our government’s red tape. Who knows? Twain seems to be an insightful clever man who I think privately laughed at all of us.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Some of these are absolutely hysterical. They're not all great, but the vast majority are.