On 2010-03-02 Bill R. Moore, Oklahoma, USA wrote: Though most famous for novels and non-fiction, Mark Twain is one of the all-time great short story writers. His shorts are indeed as essential as his other work. This magnificent collection is currently the most popular - not to mention the most comprehensive that can be easily found -, making it one of the few works that truly belongs on everyone´s bookshelf.
It has sixty stories over nearly 700 pages, arranged chronologically and covering Twain´s whole writing career. Included are some of the most famous and best short stories ever, such as ´The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,´ ´The Stolen White Elephant,´ ´Luck,´ ´The One Million Pound Bank-Note,´ ´The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,´ ´A Dog´s Tale,´ ´Extract from Captain Stormfield´s Visit to Heaven,´ and ´The Mysterious Stranger.´ It also has some of my personal favorites like ´A Double-Barreled Detective Story´ and ´Was It Heaven? Or Hell?´ The quality and variety is simply astonishing; it is hard to believe a single person could produce such greatness, and to have it all in one book is simply incredible. One of the most fascinating things is to see how Twain´s stories grew darker. Though often sharply satirical, early pieces are nearly all light-hearted and often comical - some of the more memorably pleasant light reading in existence. However, Twain became ever more embittered, and his stories - some of which he dared not have published while alive - clearly reflect this. Dark masterpieces like ´Hadleyburg´ and ´The Mysterious´ seethe with misanthropy and deep pessimism. The contrast is nothing less than stunning and sometimes makes transitions awkward, but the chronological approach is still the best way to appreciate the breadth of Twain´s accomplishment. Some stories are less good, but there is more to make us laugh, cry, and think here than in most writers´ whole careers; Twain is one of the few truly immortal artists, and this is an essential part of his legacy.
There is no arguing with what is here; editor Charles Neider even includes excellent works like ´The Diary of Adam and Eve´ that are not often given in such collections as well as thirteen selections culled from non-fiction books. However, the title is misleading, and hard-cores will notice many omissions. All significant works qualifying as short stories by the strictest definition are here, but Twain wrote many short pieces that straddled the border between fiction and various genres. This included numerous pieces before ´The Notorious,´ universally considered his first real literary effort, but they are very minor and of interest only to true diehards and scholars. More significant, though, are multiple omissions of works - many from late in his career - that dramatized various sociopolitical, philosophical, and theological concerns in quasi-fictional form. These include some very substantial works such as ´The Private History of a Campaign That Failed,´ ´The War Prayer,´ ´King Leopold´s Soliloquy´ and its associated Czar piece, and ´1601,´ as well as some of my favorites like ´The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut.´ Neider is upfront about not including anything but pure short stories, but some will disagree with his calls. Also questionable is his decision to include the first published version of ´The Mysterious,´ which was not authorized by Twain or printed as he wished, though the text´s history is admittedly very complicated and this is the best version for most. True fans will want to seek out these and other pieces, as hopefully will anyone who likes this book, but these complaints are essentially nitpicking, because what is here is truly great and will be more than enough for general readers.
All told, this should be among the first handful of Twain books anyone buys, which is all that need be said.
. And summed up by saying Absolutely Indispensable. Currently Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain (Bantam Classics) has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
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Bantam Classics claimed 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.”
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