Merry Tales

About this book

Mark Twain gathers seven stories united by comic mischief rather than a single plot. A political candidate learns the cost of honesty; a man struck by lightning acquires an inconvenient reputation; fortunes rise and fall on accidents of timing and temperament. Twain's humor ranges from gentle irony to broad slapstick, always grounded in recognizable human vanity. These are not weighty moral fables but entertainments, the kind of tales told around a stove after supper, stretched for effect. For readers who enjoy American wit without committing to a long novel, Merry Tales delivers reliable laughs in manageable doses.