The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County and other sketches

<p>Featuring 27 sketches the author wrote while living in California and Nevada, Mark Twain's first book, <b>The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County</b>, was published in May 1867, and has been out of print for well over a century. As Roy Blount Jr. observes in his introduction, "<b>Jumping Frog</b> is not just the seed from which the Mark Twain empire sprang, it is his most devilish and quicksilver book, the one that made the fewest concessions to the book-buying market of the day—the work of a man who had profited, artistically, from the company of roughnecks." In his Afterword, Richard Bucci notes that "Mark Twain rebelled against everything that was obscure in art, and everywhere sought to deepen and broaden his audience. His cause was not merely to deflate and criticize, but to create, in a new and democratic artistic language. The <b>Jumping Frog</b> book is only a small moment on his path to remaking American fiction, but it is the beginning moment—reason enough to justify the book's reappearance now, after one hundred twenty five years. Grand historical significance aside, however, not a few of the sketches in this book still sparkle with their original humor and insight into the human condition."</p> <p>A man who loves to place bets acquires a remarkable frog, which he claims can outjump any other frog in the county. </p>

Author(s): Mark Twain  

ISBN 10: 0195101316
ISBN 13: 9780195101317
Pages: 198
Format: Hardcover
Publication: 1996/11/01
Edition: 1