How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays
1897
This is Mark Twain as you've never quite seen him: not the river-boat raconteur but the literary surgeon, scalpel in hand. The title essay alone is a revelation, a deadpan meditation on the secret art of humor delivery where Twain reveals that the story itself matters far less than the telling - the pause, the dead-pan face, the slow build to a punchline. But the collection's crown jewel is "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences," a legendary essay that somehow manages to be the funniest critical writing in American letters while systematically dismantling Cooper's prose. Twain lists eighteen rules for writing badly, then proves Cooper violated every single one. Elsewhere, he reflects on his own famous "Jumping Frog" story, defends Harriet Shelley, and dissects what American novelists owe their readers. It's a book by one of America's greatest writers about how writing actually works - and how it fails. Anyone who loves stories, or has ever tried to tell one, needs this.
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“Here the narrator bursts into explosion after explosion of thunderous horse-laughter, repeating that nub from time to time through his gaspings and shriekings and suffocatings.””
— Mark Twain
“To the rear, sir”
— Mark Twain
“But the teller of the comic story does not slur the nub; he shouts it at you”
— Mark Twain
“Artemus Ward used that trick a good deal; then when the belated audience presently caught the joke he would look up with innocent surprise, as if wondering what they had found to laugh at. Dan Setchell used it before””
— Mark Twain
“If I got it the right length precisely, I could spring the finishing ejaculation with effect enough to make some impressible girl deliver a startled little yelp and jump out of her seat --and that was what I was after.””
— Mark Twain
“There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind”
— Mark Twain
“The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter.”
— Mark Twain
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/how-to-tell-a-story-and-other-essays-ef008888-bacc-436e-a665-7c69e4b39437"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays by Mark Twain free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/how-to-tell-a-story-and-other-essays-ef008888-bacc-436e-a665-7c69e4b39437)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/how-to-tell-a-story-and-other-essays-ef008888-bacc-436e-a665-7c69e4b39437][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays by Mark Twain free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/how-to-tell-a-story-and-other-essays-ef008888-bacc-436e-a665-7c69e4b39437Cite this book
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Twain, Mark. How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays. Lex, lex-books.com/book/how-to-tell-a-story-and-other-essays-ef008888-bacc-436e-a665-7c69e4b39437.Twain, M. (1897). How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/how-to-tell-a-story-and-other-essays-ef008888-bacc-436e-a665-7c69e4b39437Twain, Mark. How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/how-to-tell-a-story-and-other-essays-ef008888-bacc-436e-a665-7c69e4b39437.
