Alonzo Fitz and Other Stories

Mark Twain flexes his full range in this mischievous collection of short fiction, sketches, and speeches. Here you'll find tender romantic tales like 'The Loves of Alonzo Fitz,' where a young man's courtship unfolds through the unlikely medium of telegraph, alongside the sharp satire of 'On the Decay of the Art of Lying,' in which Twain argues (with perfect seriousness) that lying has lost its artistic standards. The collection pivots from the absurdist journalism of 'Punch, Brothers, Punch' to the wistful European wanderings of 'Paris Notes' and 'Legend of Sagenfeld.' Throughout, Twain treats language itself as his primary material, bending words, deconstructing stories, and questioning what it means to spin a tale. The man who gave us Huck Finn shows he was just as brilliant in miniature: funny, tender, incisive, and always game to surprise you. This is Twain unchained from novel length, firing off short works that range from the ridiculous to the quietly moving.