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  • Published: 1 December 2005
  • ISBN: 9780553211955
  • Imprint: Bantam Dell
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 848
  • RRP: $15.99

Complete Short Stories Of Mark Twain



This sparkling anthology covers the entire span of Twain’s inimitable yarn-spinning.

For deft plotting, riotous inventiveness, unforgettable characters, and language that brilliantly captures the lively rhythms of American speech, no American writer comes close to Mark Twain. This sparkling anthology covers the entire span of Twain's inimitable yarn-spinning, from his early broad comedy to the biting satire of his later years.
Every one of his sixty stories is here: ranging from the frontier humor of 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,' to the bitter vision of humankind in 'The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,' to the delightful hilarity of 'Is He Living or Is He Dead?' Surging with Twain's ebullient wit and penetrating insight into the follies of human nature, this volume is a vibrant summation of the career of - in the words of H. L. Mencken - 'the father of our national literature.'

  • Published: 1 December 2005
  • ISBN: 9780553211955
  • Imprint: Bantam Dell
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 848
  • RRP: $15.99

About the author

Mark Twain

Mark Twain's real name was Sam Clemens, and he was born in 1835 in a small town on the Mississippi, one of seven children. He smoked cigars at the age of eight, and aged nine he stowed away on a steamboat. He left school at 11 and worked at a grocery store, a bookstore, a blacksmith's and a newspaper, where he was allowed to write his own stories (not all of them true). He then worked on a steamboat, where he got the name 'Mark Twain' (from the call given by the boat's pilot when their boat is in safe waters). Eventually he turned to journalism again, travelled round the world, and began writing books which became very popular. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are his most famous novels. He poured the money he earned from writing into new business ventures and crazy inventions, such as a clamp to stop babies throwing off their bed covers, a new boardgame, and a hand grenade full of extinguishing liquid to throw on a fire. With his shock of white hair and trademark white suit Mark Twain became the most famous American writer in the world. He died in 1910.

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