"Arthur Twain was a man of considerable note-a solicitor on the highway in William Rufus' time. At about the age of thirty he went to one of those fine old English places of resort called Newgate, to see about something, and never returned again. While there he died suddenly." -Mark Twain, Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography (1871) Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance (1871) are two short stories by Mark Twain. The first tale is a humorous story about fictional characters, supposedly Twain's ancestors. The second tale is about a strange power struggle in a European province. This jacketed hardcover replica of the original edition of Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance, with the authentic illustrations, is not among Twain's best-known books, but still a nice little read.

2011 Reprint of 1871 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance" is a short volume, published by Sheldon in 1871. It is Twain's third book. It consists of two stories - "First Romance," which had originally appeared in 1870, and "A Burlesque Autobiography." The illustrations form an interesting aspect of this book. They have no relationship to the text of the book. Rather, they use cartoons illustrating the children's poem "The House that Jack Built" to lampoon the Erie Railroad Ring and its participants, Jay Gould, John T. Hoffman, and Jim Fisk.

Reproduction of the original: A Burlesque Autobiography, and, First Romance by Mark Twain

Two or three persons having at different times intimated that if I would write an autobiography they would read it, when they got leisure, I yield at last to this frenzied public demand, and herewith tender my history: Ours is a noble old house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity. The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend of the family by the name of Higgins. This was in the eleventh century, when our people were living in Aberdeen, county of Cork, England. Why it is that our long line has ever since borne the maternal name (except when one of them now and then took a playful refuge in an alias to avert foolishness), instead of Higgins, is a mystery which none of us has ever felt much desire to stir. It is a kind of vague, pretty romance, and we leave it alone. All the old families do that way.

Mark Twain's quasi-autobiographical musings.