The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories

by Mark Twain

Overview

In this representative volume, "The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories" the reader will find twenty-four of Mark Twain's best shorter works. Classic and unforgettable tales that span the author's career are included, such as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", which is Twain's most famous short story and was his first great success as an author. It is the unforgettable tale of Jim Smiley, the gambler who will bet on anything including a frog-jumping competition. Also included is the fascinating and unfinished final novel by Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger", which he worked on over a period of several years from 1897 to 1908 and was finally published after his death. The story takes place several hundred years ago and features a mysterious character who is revealed to be Satan himself. Far darker, more serious, and mature than Twain's earlier works, this final story grapples with challenging and important concerns about the moral failings of men and the fate of the human race.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781805478089
Publisher:	Dennis Vogel
Publication date:	11/13/2025
Pages:	116
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.24(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910. In his person and in his pursuits, he was a man of extraordinary contrasts. Although he left school at twelve, when his father died, he was eventually awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Missouri, and Oxford University. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher. He made fortunes from his writing, but toward the end of his life he had to resort to lecture tours to pay his debts. He was hot-tempered, profane, and sentimental—and also pessimistic, cynical, and tortured by self-doubt. He lives in American letters as a great artist, the writer whom William Dean Howells called “the Lincoln of our literature.”

Jeffrey L. Nichols has been Executive Director of the Mark Twain House & Museum since 2007. He joined the museum in 2001 after having served as Director of Education and Visitor Services for the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Mr. Nichols serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Milford Historical Society in Milford, Connecticut, and the Board of Directors of the New Haven Museum. He has served as a board member and Speakers Chair for the Connecticut League of History Organizations. Mr. Nichols is a graduate of the Bank Street College of Education in New York City, where he earned an M.S. degree in Museum Education. He received a B.A. in History and Education from Southern Connecticut State University, and an M.B.A. from the University of New Haven.

Howard Mittelmark is a writer, editor and book critic living in New York. He is co-author of How Not to Write a Novel.

Date of Birth:

November 30, 1835

Date of Death:

April 21, 1910

Place of Birth:

Florida, Missouri

Place of Death:

Redding, Connecticut

Table of Contents

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
"The £1,000,000 Bank-Note"
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
The Mysterious Stranger