Short Stories

The sustained popularity of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and especially The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has tended to obscure for the general reader Mark Twain's other novels, reminiscences, sketches, tales, and stories. This eclipse is not surprising, but even a cursory examination of Twain's lesser known works reveals a substantial body of literature well worthy of contemporary attention.

The tradition of Southwestern humor, which flourished in America from about 1835 to the Civil War, culminates in the writings of Mark Twain. That tradition is exemplified by many of the stories in this collection. They are representative of certain themes and techniques, such as the use of vernacular speech, the telling of tall tales, and realism, that were the hallmarks of that group of writers. However, Mark Twain leaves his own special stamp in the form of his probing, sometimes cynical, view of mankind. In these stories, it is possible to trace Twain's increasing skepticism about the validity of current social morality. It is this aspect of Twain which gives his humor a bitterness and a sting. It may perhaps be credited to Twain's piercing view that his works survive and are frequently read while other writers of that period have long since been relegated to the literary specialist.