The Mysterious Stranger, and Other StoriesMark TwainOmniClassics · Literature
The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories
Mark TwainAn extraordinary visitor's powers unsettle a village's confidence in its own moral importance.
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About the book
In the title narrative, boys in an Austrian village encounter a mysterious young being whose knowledge and abilities exceed the terms of their ordinary experience. His interventions make human suffering, judgment, and claims to moral superiority appear in a disturbing new perspective. Twain's satire turns increasingly towards the assumptions by which people make their lives seem intelligible and significant. This volume also includes A Fable, Hunting the Deceitful Turkey, and The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm, giving the collection additional approaches to misinterpretation and comic confidence. The title text is the posthumously edited version, and its opening note acknowledges editorial completion of unfinished material. It should therefore be read as a historically mediated presentation, alongside the unsettling philosophical questions and characteristic verbal energy it brings into view.
- Moral certainty
- Perception
- Human significance
Why read it
For a darker Twain narrative that challenges human self-importance, with this edition's editorial mediation made explicit.
Posthumously edited title narrative with three additional stories