Mark Twain

A sentimental short story praised for its moving plot and condemnation of scientific experimentation on animals, Mark Twain efficiently delivers a truly captivating piece. First appearing in Harper's Magazine in 1903, A Dog's Tale was later published as a pamphlet for the National Anti-Vivisection Society. The tale focuses on the life of Aileen, a misunderstood dog who experiences the ups and downs of life, while cruelly subjected to suffering because...

Excerpt: ""Moral Statistician."-I don't want any of your statistics; I took your whole batch and lit my pipe with it. I hate your kind of people. You are always ciphering out how much a man's health is injured, and how much his intellect is impaired, and how many pitiful dollars and cents he wastes in the course of ninety-two years' indulgence in the fatal practice of smoking; and in the equally fatal practice of drinking coffee; and in playing billiards...

"Las aventuras de Huckleberry Finn", amigo de Tom Sawyer, y del esclavo Jim no sólo nos transportan a la América del Misisipi, al Sur esclavista, sino que nos presentan a unos personajes sumidos en la contradicción: entre la libertad y las normas sociales, entre la amistad y el deber. Con su original estilo narrativo y su temática realista, esta obra, de la que ofrecemos su versión íntegra, ha logrado convertirse en el clásico norteamericano...

First published in 1865, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was Mark Twain's first real literary success and arguably launched his career as a writer. The story revolves around a tale the narrator once heard about a gambler named Jim Smiley who would bet on absolutely anything. An amusing tale of mistaken identity and a frog called Daniel Webster, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is a must-read that will not disappoint...

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 Curious Dream," "The Facts in the Great Beef Contract," "How I Edited an Agricultural...

A Double Barreled Detective Story by Mark Twain features Sherlock Holmes in the American west. Twain uses Sherlock Holmes to brilliantly parody the entire mystery genre. Holmes slavishly employs the scientific method to a ridiculous degree and to a widely incorrect conclusion while attempting to solve a crime. Holmes nephew, Fetlock Jones, provides us with Twain's opinion of Holmes: "Anybody that knows him the way I do knows he can't detect a crime...

America's greatest satirist sets his sights on England's most celebrated detective in this boisterous tale of revenge, murder, and the limits of logic   Tortured, humiliated, and abandoned by her fiancé, a woman gives birth to a boy with an unusual gift. Blessed with a bloodhound's sense of smell, Archy Stillman can track a man clear across the country. His mother, who has spent sixteen years dreaming of vengeance, finally has the means to achieve...

Twain originally envisioned the characters of Luigi and Angelo Capello as conjoined twins, modeled after the late-19th century Italian conjoined twins Giovanni and Giacomo Tocci. He planned for them to be the central characters of a novel to be, titled Those Extraordinary Twins. During the writing process, however, Twain realized that secondary characters such as, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Roxy, and Tom Driscoll were taking a more central role in the story....

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte is an 1896 novel by Mark Twain, which recounts the life of Joan of Arc. It is Twain's last completed novel, published when he was 61 years old. The novel is presented as a translation by "Jean Francois Alden" of memoirs by Louis de Conte, a fictionalized version of Joan of Arc's page Louis de Contes. Twain was aware of his reputation as a comic writer and he asked that each installment...

The most comprehensive Mark Twain collection—over 150 short stories, sketches, burlesques, hoaxes, tall tales, speeches, satires, and maxims from America’s greatest humorist.
Arranged chronologically and containing many pieces restored to the form in which Twain intended them to appear, this special Library of America volume shows with unprecedented clarity the literary evolution of Mark Twain over six decades of his career.
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