A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage: A Story [Paperback]

Mark Twain (Author), Peter de Sève (Illustrator), Roy Blount Jr. (Foreword), Roy Blount (Author), Peter de Seve (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

An unpublished Mark Twain story surfaces 125 years after it was first written—a must-read for any Twain enthusiast and a perfect introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

America's great love affair with Mark Twain continues with the paperback publication of this new work that first emerged in the fall of 2001. , A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage, Twain's delightful rendition of life (and a disturbing death) in the mythical hamlet of Deer Lick, Missouri, chronicles the fortunes of a humble farmer, John Gray, determined to marry off his daughter Mary to the scion of the town's wealthiest family. But the sudden appearance of a stranger found lying unconscious in the snow not only derails Gray's plans but also leads to a mysterious murder whose solution lies at the heart of this captivating story. Including a foreword and afterword by best-selling humorist Roy Blount Jr. and stunning, award-winning paintings by illustrator Peter de Sève, A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage will delight Twain lovers for generations to come. Winner of the 2001 Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators. 6 four-color illustrations

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Atlantic Monthly, to great hoopla, recently resurrected an 1876 Twain manuscript; in this slim volume, it is reproduced, along with insightful comments from Roy Blount Jr. The question is, do we have a forgotten masterpiece? Or is the Atlantic playing a game like the Duke and the Dauphin's Royal Nonesuch in Huckleberry Finn, inflating expectations and leading up merely to a diddly stag show? In Twain's story, a Frenchman is found in a field of snow outside a small Missouri town. He refuses to explain how he got there, but lets it be known he is a Count Fontainebleau. He courts Mary Gray, the town beauty. Mary was intended for her true love, Hugh Gregory, but her father, John Gray, scotched the marriage. David Gray, John's brother, has threatened to drop Mary from his will if she marries Hugh, whom he dislikes. Then David Gray is murdered, and Hugh Gregory is convicted of the crime. Count Fontainebleau is on the verge of marrying Mary when there is a sudden turnaround of events. Twain's original idea was to give a skeleton plot involving a mysterious stranger and a murder to other writers (including, bizarrely, Henry James) and have the Atlantic Monthly publish all their versions a scheme presumably engineered to show Twain's superiority. This never happened. Twain's story is, admittedly, a trifle. Roy Blount directs his comments to the reason Twain put aside Huckleberry Finn to write it, leading him to speculate interestingly, albeit somewhat irrelevantly, on Twain's life and politics, which were shifting in 1876. Altogether, this Twain curiosa is less interesting in itself than for what Blount makes of it. (Sept.)Forecast: Curiosity will spur sales of this bauble, as will the gift-book-size trim and six watercolor illustrations by Peter de Sive.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The core of this little book is a gimmicky mystery that Twain wrote for a proposed Atlantic Monthly magazine competition in 1876. The fanfare accompanying its publication made it seem as important as a lost chapter of Huckleberry Finn; however, it's a distinctly minor piece, good for a chuckle or two. The real meat of the book is humorist Roy Blount's contribution, which uses half the pages to tell the story behind the story and place it in the context of Twain's other writings. This will interest Twain buffs and scholars but may stretch the patience of listeners, especially since Blount writes better than he reads. Fellow humorist Garrison Keillor narrates Twain's story itself, but even it may not please everyone. His timing and inflections, while perfect for his own material, tend to bury Twain's voice. Not a necessary addition to libraries that own the print edition. R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393324494
• ISBN-13: 978-0393324495
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Twain (1835-1910) was an American humorist, satirist, social critic, lecturer and novelist. He is mostly remembered for his classic novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not impressed and not disappointed, January 2, 2002

By 

Randy Keehn (Williston, ND United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage (Hardcover)

I am a major fan of Twain and have always held him in the highest esteem. His "The Mysterious Stranger" got me through some tough times in college with the help of other books such as "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" IS the Great American Novel. There is little left of his that I haven't read and just when you think you've read all his best stuff, another short story comes out of nowhere and totally amazes you with his insight. This is not one of those stories. However, it's not bad and it's a nice enough way to spend an hour or so. Bear in mind that the Preface and Afterword are together longer than the story itself. There is some nice information about Twain and the the times in which this story was written but it isn't essential that you read them. Twain had an idea of taking a basic, simple plot and having 20 or so other authors of his era write their version of the story. (OK, I DID get that much out of the Preface and Afterword). His motion, however, died for lack of a second and we are left with this; his briefly written entry. It reminded me a lot of his style in "The Gilded Age". That book was too long and this book is too short but the story has an interesting twist to it. The moment I saw this book on the shelves I bought it and I have no regrets. If you're a fan of Twain's, you should buy it too. After all, if you act quickly, you too can have a first edition of Mark Twain.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unpublished for a reason, June 10, 2003

By 

Steve Bryant (Sunnyside, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage: A Story (Paperback)

Finding an unpublished piece by Mark Twain is reason to celebrate, but that doesn't mean its shortcomings should be ignored. Though the story begins well and has an interesting set up, the ending is abrupt and does not fit well with what has gone before. More was needed to make this a coherent and, more importantly, an interesting read. For reasons unexplained Mark Twain ended this story savaging Jules Verne. I never read any opinions he had on Verne but would be interested in finding them, should they exist. This story is only worth reading as a curiosity. However, after doing so, one understands why Twain chose to let it languish on the shelf.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A New Perspective, A Challenge, and a Snapper!, September 4, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage (Hardcover)

Those who read The Atlantic Monthly will probably be curious about how this book compares with the material that appeared in the August 2001 issue. As best I can tell, the primary differences are in the illustrations. The book has four larger facsimile pages of the manuscript while the magazine material had two smaller ones. The book has 9 water color illustrations while the magazine has three. Obviously, a bound book is a more handsome item than part of a magazine. But anyone who is interested in this book might want to examine the magazine version first.

The "Skeleton Novelette" will probably seem to most people like just a slightly more developed version of a short story. Its text encompasses 8 magazine pages.

By itself, this work would attract relatively little attention except for its newness to the reader. What makes the story appealing are the foreword and afterword by Roy Blount, Jr. Combined, these essays are longer than the story.

The foreword explains the history of how the work came to be written and published. Of particular relevance is the reference to Mark Twain's "How to Tell a Story." Mark Twain (or Samuel Clemens, depending on your preference) wrote that "the rambling and disjointed humorous story finishes with a nub, point, snapper, or whatever you like to call it." Mr. Twain warns that "the listener must be alert, for in many cases the teller will divert attention from that nub by dropping it in a carefully casual and indifferent way . . . ." The risk, naturally, in using this approach is that the reader will fail to grasp or appreciate the snapper.

You will also learn how Mark Twain conceived of this story in 1876 as his entry into a challenge against the leading writers of the day, including potentially William Dean Howells (The Atlantic Monthly's editor and his friend), Henry James, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and Bret Harte. Mr. Twain charged Mr. Howells with interesting the other authors. Although Mr. Howells did his best, the project went nowhere. Fascinated by it, Mr. Twain went on to write his version. Mr. Twain had already written Tom Sawyer and was about halfway through Huckleberry Finn at this time. Mr. Twain did not pick up writing on Huckleberry Finn again until 1879 or 1880, and it was not published until 1885.

The story itself is an unusual one for its time. As the title indicates, there's a murder and a mystery. The story also leads to a marriage, as the title also indicates. I can remember few short stories with so much action and diversity in them. The story also has several other unusual elements that I cannot comment upon without spoiling the story for you.

The site of the story is Deer Lick, Missouri (which will remind most of Hannibal, Missouri. Two young people are interested in marrying, Mary Gray (aged 20) and young Hugh Gregory (aged 27). Mary's father, John, has his eye on the potential money involved. Young Hugh Gregory's father is one of the wealthiest men in the area, second only to John's estranged brother David. Complications arise that shift John's idea of how to get the most for his daughter.

The story will strike many as strange. It takes a darker view of humanity than exists in Tom Sawyer. The afterword does a good job of addressing that shift. It has some unexpected elements which are also well explained in the afterword. I highly recommend it to you.

As to the snapper, I thought it was out in plain sight all along. The answer to the "mystery" also seemed pretty obvious to me in its simplest form. Neither element worked well for me. As a result, I graded the story down to three stars. For although it is done by one of our greatest American writers, I don't think that most will find it to be an example of his best writing. In its twists and turns, it will remind you of O. Henry's irony, but not as skillfully done. There's a meanness here that pervades the story that reduces its power. I thought the foreword, afterword and illustrations were five star efforts. So I averaged all that to my four star rating.

If you liked either Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn, you will probably be glad you read this story. It provides some interesting insights into the shifts within the focus of Huckleberry Finn.

After you finish this book, I suggest that you think about where in your life you try to make too big an impression, and reduce the effect. Try doing less.

Be open to the letting the reader or listener supply more of the appeal to a story or review by extending their imagination, rather than forcing it in a certain direction.