Wednesday, January 2, 2019

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County


Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat me down and reeled off the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph. He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm.
This very short tale from Mark Twain is often anthologized. I find the offered quote from the story my own view on the matter. I take it we are to find this wooly tale one of high amusement, but I found myself more in keeping with Twain’s captive audience.
It’s not a badly done wooly tale, but the merit seems to be in its brevity.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

“The Last Running” by John Graves

  “Liberty,” Starlight said out of nowhere, in Spanish. “They speak much of liberty. Not one of you has ever seen liberty, or smelled it. Li...