The Collected Stories

This collection brings together Twain's shorter fiction from the jumping-frog sketch of the 1860s through later tales of the Mississippi, the mining West, and invented kingdoms. Pieces include tall tales, burlesques, and stories in which a confidence man, a boy, or a stranger tests a town's piety. Settings shift from river towns and mining camps to courts, hotels, and the afterlife. Recurring methods are vernacular speech, mock-solemn narration, and a joke that turns bitter. The book is a miscellany of comic and satirical stories rather than a single narrative, ranging across humour, parody, and darker suspense.

Bound in image blocked cream Buckram. Black & white illustrations. Three-volume maroon image printed slipcase.