A Short Story by Mark Twain
By courtesy of Mr. Cable I came into possession of a singular book eight or ten years ago. It is likely that mine is now the only copy in existence. Its title-page, unabbreviated, reads as follows:
“The Enemy Conquered; or, Love Triumphant. By G. Ragsdale McClintock, (1) author of ‘An Address,’ [...]
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A Cure for the Blues
A Curious Dream
A Short Story by Mark Twain
Containing a Moral
Night before last I had a singular dream. I seemed to be sitting on a doorstep (in no particular city perhaps) ruminating, and the time of night appeared to be about twelve or one o’clock. The weather was balmy and delicious. There was no human sound in the [...]
A Ghost Story
A Short Story by Mark Twain
I took a large room, far up Broadway, in a huge old building whose upper stories had been wholly unoccupied for years until I came. The place had long been given up to dust and cobwebs, to solitude and silence. I seemed groping among the tombs and invading the privacy [...]
A Horse’s Tale
A Short Story by Mark Twain
CHAPTER I—SOLDIER BOY—PRIVATELY TO HIMSELF
I am Buffalo Bill’s horse. I have spent my life under his saddle—with him in it, too, and he is good for two hundred pounds, without his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he is out on the war-path and [...]
A Medieval Romance
A Short Story by Mark Twain
Chapter 1
THE SECRET REVEALED.
It was night. Stillness reigned in the grand old feudal castle of Klugenstein. The year 1222 was drawing to a close. Far away up in the tallest of the castle’s towers a single light glimmered. A secret council was being held there. The stern old lord of [...]
A True Story
A Short Story by Mark Twain
REPEATED WORD FOR WORD AS I HEARD IT—[Written about 1876]
It was summer-time, and twilight. We were sitting on the porch of the farmhouse, on the summit of the hill, and “Aunt Rachel” was sitting respectfully below our level, on the steps-for she was our Servant, and colored. She was of [...]
About Magnanimous Incident Literature
A Short Story by Mark Twain
As published in ALONZO FITZ AND OTHER STORIES.
All my life, from boyhood up, I have had the habit of reading a certain set of anecdotes, written in the quaint vein of The World’s ingenious Fabulist, for the lesson they taught me and the pleasure they gave me. They lay always [...]
An Encounter With An Interviewer
A Short Story by Mark Twain, as published in “Alonzo Fitz and Other Stories.”
Aurelia’s Unfortunate Young Man
The full text of “Aurelia’s Unfortunate Young Man,” written by Samuel Clemens in 1865.
Cannibalism in the Cars
A Short Story by Mark Twain
Written about 1867
I visited St. Louis lately, and on my way West, after changing cars at Terre Haute, Indiana, a mild, benevolent-looking gentleman of about forty-five, or maybe fifty, came in at one of the way-stations and sat down beside me. We talked together pleasantly on various subjects for an [...]
Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven
A Short Story by Mark Twain
Chapter 1
Well, when I had been dead about thirty years I begun to get a little anxious. Mind you, had been whizzing through space all that time, like a comet. Like a comet! Why, Peters, I laid over the lot of them! Of course there warn’t any of them going [...]
Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale
The complete text of “Edward Mills and George Benton” by Mark Twain.
Eve’s Diary
A Short Story by Mark Twain
SATURDAY.—I am almost a whole day old, now. I arrived yesterday. That is as it seems to me. And it must be so, for if there was a day-before-yesterday I was not there when it happened, or I should remember it. It could be, of course, that it did happen, [...]
French Version – The Jumping Frog
I cannot speak the French language, but I can translate very well, though not fast, I being self-educated. I ask the reader to run his eye over the original English version of the jumping Frog, and then read the French or my retranslation, and kindly take notice how the Frenchman has riddled the grammar.
Goldsmith’s Friend Abroad Again
A Short Story by Mark Twain
NOTE.—No experience is set down in the following letters which had to be invented. Fancy is not needed to give variety to the history of a Chinaman’s sojourn in America. Plain fact is amply sufficient.
Letter 1
SHANGHAI, 18—.
DEAR CHING-FOO: It is all settled, and I am to leave my oppressed [...]
How to Tell a Story and Others
There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind—the humorous. I will talk mainly about that one. The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter.
Introductory to “Memoranda”
I have chosen the general title of MEMORANDA for this department because it is plain and simple, and makes no fraudulent promises. I can print under it statistics, hotel arrivals, or anything that comes handy, without violating faith with the reader.
Legend of Sagenfield, In Germany
Left out of “A Tramp Abroad” because its authenticity seemed doubtful, and could not at that time be proved.—M. T.
Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls
A Short Story by Mark Twain
Part First
HOW THE ANIMALS OF THE WOOD SENT OUT A SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION
Once the creatures of the forest held a great convention and appointed a commission consisting of the most illustrious scientists among them to go forth, clear beyond the forest and out into the unknown and unexplored world, to verify [...]
Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls (Part Second)
by Mark Twain
PART SECOND
HOW THE ANIMALS OF THE WOOD COMPLETED THEIR SCIENTIFIC LABORS
A week later the expedition camped in the midst of a collection of wonderful curiosities. These were a sort of vast caverns of stone that rose singly and in bunches out of the plain by the side of the river which they had [...]
Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls (Part Third)
by Mark Twain
SOME LEARNED FABLES FOR GOOD OLD BOYS AND GIRLS
PART THIRD
Near the margin of the great river the scientists presently found a huge, shapely stone, with this inscription:
“In 1847, in the spring, the river overflowed its banks and covered the whole township. The depth was from two to six feet. More than 900 head [...]
The $30,000 Bequest
A short tale that served as the title selection of “The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories”
The Canvasser’s Tale
A Short Story by Mark Twain
As published in ALONZO FITZ AND OTHER STORIES.
Poor, sad-eyed stranger! There was that about his humble mien, his tired look, his decayed-gentility clothes, that almost reached the mustard, seed of charity that still remained, remote and lonely, in the empty vastness of my heart, notwithstanding I observed a portfolio under [...]
