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How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays by Mark Twain, book cover
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How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays

by Mark Twain

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Under 100
First published
1895
Pages
20
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Listen to How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays Audiobook Free

Read by Claudia Salto · 59 min · 3 parts

  1. How to Tell a Story, The Wounded Soldier, The Golden Arm

    17:55

  2. Mental Telegraphy Again

    18:36

  3. The Invalid's Story

    22:47

How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays (1897) is a public domain work.

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About this book

A pause, a wandering detail and a carefully buried punch line become tools of the storyteller in Mark Twain's 1897 collection. The opening essay distinguishes humorous, comic and witty stories, arguing that a humorous tale owes its effect to the manner of delivery. Twain draws on performers such as Artemus Ward and James Whitcomb Riley to show how a grave expression or an apparently misplaced remark can shape an audience's response.

The collection also moves into personal anecdotes and speculation about thoughts passing between minds. In one passage, a trolley ride with Joseph H. Twichell prompts an account of meeting an army lieutenant in Milan and hearing of his financial trouble at Bellagio. These shifts between practical advice and remembered conversation make the book useful for readers interested in spoken storytelling, comic timing and Twain's handling of everyday encounters.

Contents

About the author

Mark Twain - BDeBooks
Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He has been praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature".

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Book facts

First published
1895
Reading time
About 35 minutes
Pages
20
Language
English
Formats
PDF, EPUB, Read online, Audiobook
Audio read by
Claudia Salto