This collection of short stories and novellas has several imaginative and strange tales written in Mark Twain’s humorous style.

I didn’t really enjoy these stories. Most of them don’t have a decent plot line. It’s all atmosphere and setting, with little substance. The characters aren’t that great. The plots meander around and don’t end satisfactorily.

“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is only a few pages about a man who makes a bet about a frog being able to jump high. The story rambles all around and when the narrator finally gets to the point, it’s not that funny.

“The Million Pound Bank Note” was my favorite in this collection. It’s about a man who is given £1,000,000 bank note, but he can’t make change for it. I thought it was clever and funny, and I liked the characters.

“The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg” is about a man who mysteriously leaves a sack of gold, trusting to the honesty of strangers to get the gold into the right hands. He tries to prove that everyone in this town is dishonest. There were a few plot holes in the story, and things that were left unexplained. I didn’t like any of the characters.

“The Mysterious Stranger” is about three young men who meet Satan and are fascinated by his powers. At first their friendship with him seems innocent, but gradually their family and neighbors begin to suffer because of the supernatural involvement in their lives. There were a lot of strange spiritual ideas regarding God and heaven, ending with the horrifying concept that there is no reality, and all of life is just a dream. This whole story was just awful! The three young men witness people being tortured and going insane, and the violence is graphic and upsetting. What a horrible story!

Out of all these stories, the only one I liked was the “Million Pound Bank Note.” I would much rather read Tom Sawyer.