Set in the quaint hollow of Deer Lick, a mythical town resembling Mark Twain's Hannibal, Missouri, this bizarre tale chronicles the fortunes of 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 murder whose solution lies at the heart of this tale. Written in 1876 between Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the story was composed as a "blindfold novelette" that Twain planned to launch as a competition for writers, including Henry James and William Dean Howells. But the competition never took place, and the story, enjoined for decades from publication by the Twain estate, was thought by many to have been lost. Published here for the first time in book form and beautifully illustrated, it will delight Twain fans old and new alike.
Review
A book that took 125 years to publish. How could I pass this up when I saw it on the shelves while browsing my library's selection of Mark Twain's novels? To be honest, I probably would have been just fine passing on it. It's a short story, a very short story; half the book is commentary by Ray Blount Jr. Me and short stories typically don't get along well, and that was the case with this one as well. There just wasn't enough substance for this readers taste.
Despite that, the history of the novel is fascinating. In the midst of writing Huckleberry Finn, Twain was struck by an idea to come up with a skeleton plot and then have The Atlantic publish novelettes that he and other leading authors of the time, including Henry James, would write based upon said skeleton plot. He was obssessed with the idea and wrote numerous letters over the next couple decades to the publisher of The Atlantic, a close friend of his, to make it happen. Unfortunately for Twain, it never did. But now, over a century later, at least part of his dream has been made possible.
It is a strange little story however, and really makes you wonder, just what did Twain have against Jules Verne. And why would Twain name a hated character after his best friend, whom was known to be the complete opposite in almost every way of his fictional counterpart? The story takes place in a fictional Missouri town in which a young man is discovered laying in the snow, with no obvious means of having arrived there. That is the mystery, and this mystery leads to both the murder and the marriage.
Reading level
Adult
Rating
3 stars
