Presetns a collection of eight classic short stories.

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories

Reprint of the original, first published in 1867.

A much celebrated jumping frog, the lack of literature in a gold-mining town, and castaways who eat their own shoes to survive are among the subjects treated by the stories contained in this volume. The Jumping Frog and Other Sketches captures the light and humorous spirit of Mark Twain’s early work, inspired by his experiences in the mining districts of California and Nevada. These sketches became widely known in America, India, China and England and launched the solid foundation of the author's fame.

Originally published: Berkeley, Calif; London: University of California Press, 1969.

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is one of the most beloved of Mark Twain's tales. Notable for the shaggy-dog quality of the story-within-the-story, this early work of humorous short prose was Twain's first big success as a writer. Seeking someone named Smiley, a man comes to a mining camp and meets a fellow who tells him of another Smiley, an inveterate betting man. One day, this Smiley caught a frog and trained it to out-jump any other frog; but when a stranger appeared at the camp, Smiley's famed gambling skills were tested severely ... This volume also includes two other Twain gems: "The Million-Pound Bank Note," in which a down-and-out American in London is challenged by two rich men to survive with only a rare million-pound bill to his name; and "Luck," which tells of both a great hero of the Crimean War and the only man who knows how he attained such a status.