The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Undead

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Undead

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

It’s the 1830’s, and life has changed forever. A virus has swept across the world, and now when you die, you’ll be coming back as one of the undead - a Zombie – or Zum as people call them. The only way to prevent a Zum infestation is to remove the head immediately after expiration – and the sooner the better! Otherwise, they will be clawing their way out of a coffin or a shallow grave. Huckleberry Finn – Tom Sawyer’s best friend – is prudent around the dead, but he’s more afraid of his father, a mean alcoholic who has taken to looting the newly-deceased for easy drinking money. When Huck meets up with a runaway slave named Jim, they decide to head out for a Northern free state. All they have to do is steer clear of the local authorities, outrun Huck’s paw, and avoid getting torn to pieces by wandering Zum. But the Zum have been evolving… they’re learning how to speak and how to plan, and what they’re planning is beyond anyone’s worst nightmares. They’re more dangerous now than ever. Some criminals are even willing to kill themselves just to make themselves a more terrible threat. The Undead. Everywhere, local citizens have armed themselves and are willing to do whatever it takes to stop this new horror. The old days are gone forever. Huck has to stay a few steps ahead of anyone and everyone who means to do him harm. It’s going to be difficult, and perhaps impossible…but there aren’t any other options.
Read online
  • 536
Humorous Hits and How to Hold an Audience

Humorous Hits and How to Hold an Audience

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

In preparing this volume the author has been guided by his own platform experience extending over twelve years. During that time he has given hundreds of public recitals before audiences of almost every description, and in all parts of the country. It may not be considered presumptuous, therefore, for him to offer some practical suggestions on the art of entertaining and holding an audience, and to indicate certain selections which he has found have in themselves the elements of success. The "encore fiend," as he is sometimes called, is so ubiquitous and insistent that no speaker or reader can afford to ignore him, and, indeed, must prepare for him in advance. To find material that will satisfy him in one or in a dozen of the ordinary books of selections is an almost impossible task. It is only too obvious that many compilations of the kind are put together by persons who have had little or no practical platform experience. In an attempt to remedy this defect this volume has been prepared.
Read online
  • 463
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

It was many years ago. Hadleyburg was the most honest and upright town in all the region round about. It had kept that reputation unsmirched during three generations, and was prouder of it than of any other of its possessions. It was so proud of it, and so anxious to insure its perpetuation, that it began to teach the principles of honest dealing to its babies in the cradle, and made the like teachings the staple of their culture thenceforward through all the years devoted to their education. Also, throughout the formative years temptations were kept out of the way of the young people, so that their honesty could have every chance to harden and solidify, and become a part of their very bone. The neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy, and affected to sneer at Hadleyburg\'s pride in it and call it vanity; but all the same they were obliged to acknowledge that Hadleyburg was in reality an incorruptible town; and if pressed they would also acknowledge that the mere fact that a young man hailed from Hadleyburg was all the recommendation he needed when he went forth from his natal town to seek for responsible employment.
Read online
  • 417
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

It was many years ago. Hadleyburg was the most honest and upright town in all the region round about. It had kept that reputation unsmirched during three generations, and was prouder of it than of any other of its possessions. It was so proud of it, and so anxious to insure its perpetuation, that it began to teach the principles of honest dealing to its babies in the cradle, and made the like teachings the staple of their culture thenceforward through all the years devoted to their education. Also, throughout the formative years temptations were kept out of the way of the young people, so that their honesty could have every chance to harden and solidify, and become a part of their very bone. The neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy, and affected to sneer at Hadleyburg\'s pride in it and call it vanity; but all the same they were obliged to acknowledge that Hadleyburg was in reality an incorruptible town; and if pressed they would also acknowledge that the mere fact that a young man hailed from Hadleyburg was all the recommendation he needed when he went forth from his natal town to seek for responsible employment.
Read online
  • 375
Editorial Wild Oats

Editorial Wild Oats

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world\'s literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.
Read online
  • 372

1601: Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors

1601: Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. or simply 1601 is the title of a short risque squib by Mark Twain, first published anonymously in 1880, and finally acknowledged by the author in 1906. Written as an extract from the diary of one of Queen Elizabeth I’s ladies-in-waiting, the pamphlet purports to record a conversation between Elizabeth and several famous writers of the day. The topics discussed are entirely scatological, notably farting and sex.
Read online
  • 369
The Horse Story Megapack

The Horse Story Megapack

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

The horse has been championed throughout history as a war machine, a means of transport, an adjunct to farming, a source of popular entertainment, and, finally, as a true friend and companion. So it's no surprise that writers throughout history have featured the horse prominently in their fiction. Here are 25 stories and 5 poems of equine fiction and literature, from Anna Sewell's Black Beauty to classic tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, and many others! Included are: Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell The Man from Snowy River, by A. B. Paterson [poem] Chu Chu, by Bret Harte John G., by Katherine Mayo Gulliver's Travels: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms, by Jonathan Swift How the Old Horse Won the Bet, by Oliver Wendell Holmes [poem] A Horse's Tale, by Mark Twain The Talking Horse, by F. Anstey Samuel Cowles and His Horse Royal, by Eugene Field A Horseman in the Sky, by Ambrose Bierce The Dun Horse, by George Bird Grinnell The Enchanted Horse, by Amy...
Read online
  • 348
The Prince and the Pauper, Part 1.

The Prince and the Pauper, Part 1.

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

Chapter XXII. A victim of treachery. Once more \'King Foo-foo the First\' was roving with the tramps and outlaws, a butt for their coarse jests and dull-witted railleries, and sometimes the victim of small spitefulness at the hands of Canty and Hugo when the Ruffler\'s back was turned. None but Canty and Hugo really disliked him. Some of the others liked him, and all admired his pluck and spirit. During two or three days, Hugo, in whose ward and charge the King was, did what he covertly could to make the boy uncomfortable; and at night, during the customary orgies, he amused the company by putting small indignities upon him—always as if by accident. Twice he stepped upon the King\'s toes—accidentally—and the King, as became his royalty, was contemptuously unconscious of it and indifferent to it; but the third time Hugo entertained himself in that way, the King felled him to the ground with a cudgel, to the prodigious delight of the tribe. Hugo, consumed with anger and shame, sprang up, seized a cudgel, and came at his small adversary in a fury. Instantly a ring was formed around the gladiators, and the betting and cheering began. But poor Hugo stood no chance whatever. His frantic and lubberly \'prentice-work found but a poor market for itself when pitted against an arm which had been trained by the first masters of Europe in single-stick, quarter-staff, and every art and trick of swordsmanship. The little King stood, alert but at graceful ease, and caught and turned aside the thick rain of blows with a facility and precision which set the motley on-lookers wild with admiration; and every now and then, when his practised eye detected an opening, and a lightning-swift rap upon Hugo\'s head followed as a result, the storm of cheers and laughter that swept the place was something wonderful to hear. At the end of fifteen minutes, Hugo, all battered, bruised, and the target for a pitiless bombardment of ridicule, slunk from the field; and the unscathed hero of the fight was seized and borne aloft upon the shoulders of the joyous rabble to the place of honour beside the Ruffler, where with vast ceremony he was crowned King of the Game-Cocks; his meaner title being at the same time solemnly cancelled and annulled, and a decree of banishment from the gang pronounced against any who should thenceforth utter it. All attempts to make the King serviceable to the troop had failed. He had stubbornly refused to act; moreover, he was always trying to escape. He had been thrust into an unwatched kitchen, the first day of his return; he not only came forth empty-handed, but tried to rouse the housemates. He was sent out with a tinker to help him at his work; he would not work; moreover, he threatened the tinker with his own soldering-iron; and finally both Hugo and the tinker found their hands full with the mere matter of keeping his from getting away. He delivered the thunders of his royalty upon the heads of all who hampered his liberties or tried to force him to service....
Read online
  • 304
A Tramp Abroad (Penguin ed.)

A Tramp Abroad (Penguin ed.)

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Biographies & Memoirs

In A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain's unofficial sequel to The Innocents Abroad, the author records his hilarious and diverse observations and insights while on a fifteen-month walking trip through Central Europe and the Alps. "Here you have Twain's inimitable mix," writes Dave Eggers in his Introduction, "of the folksy and the effortlessly erudite, his unshakable good sense and his legendary wit, his knack for the easy relation of a perfect anecdote, and some achingly beautiful nature writing."This Modern Library Paperback Classic reproduces the text of the first American edition and features new explanatory notes and a critical Afterword by Kerry Driscoll, professor of English at Saint Joseph College in Connecticut.
Read online
  • 292
183