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The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

by Mark Twain

Downloads: Under 100
First published: 1899
Pages: 41

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Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024) · 2 h 10 min · 4 parts

1 - Part 1
32:03
2 - Part 2
27:42
3 - Part 3
51:38
4 - Part 4
19:15

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1899) is a public domain work.

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About this book

A sack left beside a cottage stove brings a fortune within reach of a town fiercely proud of its good name. In Mark Twain's 1899 satire, Hadleyburg teaches honesty from infancy and treats its reputation as a valuable public asset. An offended visitor devises a test of that confidence. His accompanying letter promises the money to a resident who once helped a stranger, provided the claimant can repeat a particular remark.

The Richards household responds with fear, excitement and calculations about what the money could mean. At a public meeting, Mr. Burgess reads a claim while Deacon Billson and Lawyer Wilson each insist on their right to it. Their competing assertions turn civic ceremony into an awkward spectacle. Twain uses domestic conversation and public argument to examine how financial temptation reshapes moral certainty. The story offers readers a pointed comedy about the difference between maintaining a reputation and earning it.

About the author

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".