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Title: Humorous Stories and Sketches (Dover Thrift Editions) by Mark Twain, Philip Smith ISBN: 0486292797 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: October, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $1.50

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5

Rating: 3
Summary: It's worth well over a buck.
Comment: But that, amazingly enough, is all it costs. I don't know how Dover does it, but I'm glad they do.

This probably should really get 3 1/2 stars; it's better than a "three", but I can't quite bring myself to give it four.

There are eight short pieces by Twain; there's "The Notorious Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County", doubtless the most famous story here, and "Journalism in Tennessee", a marvellous exaggeration of cutthroat frontier journalism that is, as so much of Twain's work is, reminiscent of Dickens. Then there's "About Barbers", which starts as a commentary on what we now call Murphy's Law, and then moves on to complain of barbers who are intent on cutting the customer's hair the way THEY want it, and to blazes with what the customer wants -- a complaint that seems still relevant even today. Then follows another story with a point unaffected by the passage of time: "A Literary Nightmare", a complaint about advertising jingles that cannot be driven out of the brain with an icepick. Then we have "The Stolen White Elephant", in which Twain directs his satire at the deductive powers of would-be Sherlock Holmeses, and a self-deprecatory tale of his own foolishness during the Civil War ("The Private History of a Campaign That Failed"). Next up is my personal favorite, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences", in which he gives elaborate reasons, in great detail, why he disagrees with the common wisdom that James Fenimore Cooper is a great writer (or, for that matter, can write at all.) (Perhaps I should find "Pathfinder" and "Deerslayer" on the book list here, and transcribe his comments.) And he closes with "How To Tell A Story", in which he gives advice that seems to me to be good advice for would-be stand-up comics.

The humor in some of these stories is a bit unsubtle, but certainly if you are fond of Twain, and haven't all of these stories in some other collection, it's worth the price of admission for even the least of them.

Rating: 4
Summary: It's worth a buck...
Comment: This is a good short book for an hour or two plane, bus or train ride. It's not too difficult to read and pretty amusing. You'll read it with a smile on your face and the time will go back quickly.

I mean, hey, it's a dollar. God bless Dover Thrifts.

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