Customer Reviews

How to Tell a Story and Other Essays [with Biographical Introduction]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The actual contents of the free and the one dollar Kindle editions include:

How to Tell a Story

The Wounded Soldier

The Golden Arm

Mental Telegraphy Again

The Invalids Story

"Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences" and "Traveling With a Reformer" do not appear in this edition, in either the free or the $1.00 edition, despite the editorial comment to the contrary. The wonderful Fenimore Cooper essay is available online several places for free; see the second Comment for a link to UVA's collection. There are at least two Kindle versions for a buck or so:

The Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper $1.00.

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences $.99

Nonetheless, this is still a very interesting collection, especially if you read aloud to children or adults. Twain has a great gift for explaining how to tell even a poor story.

Despite his disclaimer: "I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told, for I have been almost daily in the company of the most expert story-tellers for many years."

A joy to read, silently or aloud, and the price is right.

Robert C. Ross 2009

An entertaining read from on of America's treasured voices. I was particularly interested in the "How to Tell a Story" Essay and Mark Twain's lessons are just as relavent today. Kindle version was a welcome convenience and you can't beat the price!!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (Baby Board Books)

American writer Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain has given us some literary gems with Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and his travel adventures in nineteenth-century Europe and to Australia and New Zealand. Here is is discussing telling rather than writing a story.

Humour, he says, is American while comic is English and witty is French. He follows this typically brilliant essay with examples of story telling and some intriguing experiences of mental telegraphy.

Good on you Dodo Press for specialising in rare and out-of-print books.

Mark Twain devotees will want to add this slim volume to their collection.

Different editions of Twain's (1835-1910) writings contain different stories. This free book for amazon kindle users has five short essays and stories. Twain differentiates between humorous stories, which he says is an American invention, and comic stories, which he claims is English. There is also, he says, the witty story, which is French, but he does not discuss it in this volume. The humorous story depends on how it is told, the other two "on the matter."

The humorous story is told by word of mouth. It can go on and on with no apparent purpose other than to be funny. The joy is in the telling and it is an art to tell it well. He gives an example of a humorous story - The Wounded Soldier. He then gives an example of how a humorous story should be told - The Golden Arm. He shows by the dialect and by directions to the reader how it should be told. He emphasizes the importance of pauses and occasional noises just at the right time and with the right length.

Included in this volume is an essay telling of four incidences that he says happened to him. The title is Mental Telepathy Again. In each tale, another person who is far from him thinks something and he senses it. This essay is followed by The Invalid's Story. It is a very funny tale of how a healthy man became an invalid when he thought he was transporting the dead body of his friend to his parents when, because of a mix up, the crate contains guns and smelly limburger cheese.

I recently downloaded the free PC reader for Kindle. This is my second book read in that format. I was not sure what to expect from this free tool, but I found that I am enjoying using it. It is easy to read and scroll through the book. I discovered a nice feature that if you double click on any word you will get a New Oxford American Dictionary with the word definition, pronunciation, and origin. PC reader allows you to high-light words, add notes, and copy. So this is a nice study tool! It gave me access to large number of free Kindle books and I am really enjoying it.

If anyone knows how to tell a story it is Mark Twain. Combining humor and beautiful language this essay is a great read: education and give insight into this great man's mind.

This Kindle book includes

* How to tell a story

* The wounded soldier

* The golden arm

* Mental telegraphy again

* The invalid story

How to tell a story starts with Mark Twain's famous disclaimer "I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told, for I have been almost daily in the company of the most expert story-tellers for many years."

He uses the four stories to illustrate his points about story telling.

For example, his premise is that a humorous story does not have a purposes, it can go on and on as long as it is funny. The Wounded Soldier story demonstrates this point. He explains how to delivery a story with pauses and noises using The Golden Arm story to illustrate.

This book is a quick and easy read. And I could not wipe the smile off my face either.

I picked this up to read on my new Kindle and thought it must be a poorly written story because it was free and I've never heard of it. It was an entertaining short read about how to tell stories properly with a few examples expertly illustrating Mark Twains ideal format. Free and fun.

If you're a fan of Mark Twain then don't pass up this collection of essays. While not my favorite works, the essays are an excellent price!

Mark Twain's humor, perspective and edge shine through the generations. Timely then and timely now. A treat to read and re-read.

I like Twain. But I don't always appreciate all his work. It was an OK book. I didn't finish it, so I guess it was not that great. Don't know what I expected, but I just could not get into it. I will try again when I am in a different frame of mind.

no one writes so well, so subtly as Mark Twain. except Bill Bryson. but mark write in an age before canned entertainment. Its worth sitting down for an hour with Mark.