The Curious Republic of Gondour, and Other Whimsical Sketches

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
95K words
Chapters
10

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Political AllegoryPortrait GalleryPower GameCivic AwarenessComplex HumanitySocial CritiqueLight ReadingHumor ReliefIntellectual Commentary

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Curious Republic of Gondour, and Other Whimsical Sketches by Mark TwainAuthor: Twain, Mark, 1835-1910,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 17, 2004

Editor's review

This collection gathers a group of Mark Twain's whimsical, satirical sketches and short fictions. "The Curious Republic of Gondour" uses the political design of an imaginary country to poke fun at elections, education, and social hierarchy, while the other pieces likewise approach real issues through light fantasy. Twain's touch here is relaxed and quick-witted; behind the absurd premises lies cool observation of institutions and human nature, often yielding unexpected moments of recognition. As a public-domain electronic text with short, independent pieces, it suits reading in fragments on a commute or before sleep, and serves as an entry point to Twain's writing beyond his novels. Readers used to long narratives can treat it as intellectual sketches rather than expecting continuous plot.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the title piece first to grasp the book's core pleasure in mocking institutions.
  2. Pause after each piece and recall what real target the author satirizes through the absurd premise.
  3. Read alongside Twain's other satirical works to see how his touch varies.
  4. For English reading, get the gist first, then revisit key passages to look up words.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

FAQ

Is this a long continuous story? No. It is a collection of short sketches and fantastical fictions, each relatively independent. You can dip in in any order without worrying about plot continuity.
Can I understand it without a political-science background? Yes. The author works through fictional stories and a humorous tone; the fun comes mainly from plot and dialogue, so you need only follow the narrative to enjoy the mockery, with no specialized theory required.
What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition? Public-domain electronic texts are plainly formatted. Use reading software with adjustable font size and watch for paragraph breaks to avoid visual fatigue from long passages.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 Author

Mark Twain (1835–1910), born Samuel Clemens, was an American writer known for his humorous, satirical style and colloquial narration. The library holds 161 of his works, including Roughing It, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His fiction often draws on life along the Mississippi River, depicting boyhood adventures and travel experiences in lively language, frequently using characters' voices to satirize social customs and human weaknesses. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, noted for its use of dialect and everyday speech, has had a lasting influence on the language style of later American literature. Public information is limited, so his biographical details are not elaborated here; the focus is on the subjects and writing features of his works.