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 “Humorous Stories and Sketches” by Mark Twain

Twain is the original U.S. inspiration for thousands of comics and writers and could be called one of the original humorists.  Twain’s cracked as many wild ones as Oscar Wilde although he might not admit it.  This collection of stories are a taste, although his books are also full of satire, irony, farce and making fun too. Here are one-line reviews for those who are tired of reading.  In fact, perhaps reading can be dispensed with all together in this instance.

“The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” – A loquacious drunk tells a long, tall tale about the exploits of the wrong person and his frog.

“Tennessee Journalism” – A violently opinionated editor defends himself from all the blackguards he’s insulted, while his visitor takes the punishment. 

“About Barbers” – The familiar experience of a terrible shave and haircut by an obnoxious barber upon his wary victim.

“A Literary Nightmare” – An author and his friend are mentally afflicted by a stupid newspaper jingle and perhaps a simple-minded slogan they can’t get out of their heads.

“The Stolen White Elephant” – A seemingly meticulous police detective in New York exhorts money out of a gullible foreigner to catch his elephant, which is rampaging across 4 states at the same time.

“The Private History of a Campaign That Failed” – An incompetent bunch of teenagers from Hannibal, Missouri join the Confederate resistance, and half decide otherwise after doing lots of retreating and killing an innocent traveler. (After this, Twain ‘lit out for the territories.’)

Fennimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses - Whereas Twain caustically eviscerates a fellow author’s narrative bumbling, misspent words and factual falsities in The Deerslayer and The Pathfinder.  

“How To Tell a Story” – Twain claims ‘the humorous story’ is native to the United States, with its wandering bumptiousness, while the Europeans are mechanically comic or witty.  (Given he also had wit, perhaps he’s just funning or trusting the American nationalists to laugh.)

Twain’s implicit politics hide behind these stories, lampooning warriors, celebrated authors, ‘competent’ cops, drunks, barbers, advertising, Europeans and newspaper editors.  His acerbic take on the rubes of his day reveals both his winking and detailed knowledge of his compatriots and his astonishment at how dim they are.

And I got this at the library, but May Day Books has a lot of leftish political fiction. Come on in and buy some!

Prior blogspot reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 19 year archive, using these terms:  “Twain,” “humor,” “Confederacy.”

The Cultural Marxist / July 11, 2025