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Celebrated Jumping Frog & Other Sketches: And Other Sketches Audiobook
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(3.01) - 2,216 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is a wild yarn involving a case of mistaken identity, a gambler who’d bet on anything, and a very unusual frog named Daniel Webster. First published in The Saturday Press in 1865, the tale was immensely popular, and in 1867 an expanded version was published with 26 additional short stories, told as only Mark Twain could tell them.
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""The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and other Sketches " is essentially a collection of humor essays that Mark Twain wrote when he was working for a newspaper in California and includes the famous Jumping Frog story. This group of essays provide a great insight into the sarcastic and snarky humor that was a hallmark of many of Clemens writing style. Ironically, the Jumping Frog story probably isn't the funniest in the collection. My personal favorite actually turned out to be the "Concerning Chambermaids" essay. The humor contained in this book is surprisingly timeless (considering it's well over 100 years old) and left me laughing out loud many times. If you enjoy sarcastic humor that can be consumed in small bite-sized pieces, this is a great book to consider."
— Chris (5 out of 5 stars)
Celebrated Jumping Frog & Other Sketches Listener Reviews
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" Listening was very enjoyable! A good number of laughs are available in these short stories. "
— Kent, 2/6/2014 -
" One of my favorite short stories of all time. "
— Michael, 1/26/2014 -
" I listened to audiobook. Narrator was pretty good with different voices, but listening to some of the language was difficult. "
— Sarah, 1/21/2014 -
" I read this short story in 7th or 8th grade. I remember it being very readable and quite funny. Twain is a wonderful storyteller! "
— Eddie, 1/20/2014 -
" The stories in this book were fun, and very critical of humans in their willingness to push aside others and their morality for a bit of money. Just as I would expect from Twain. We could use a bit of this brand of satire today. "
— Abby, 1/18/2014 -
" Gahhhhh, I hate HATE Mark Twain's writing. Had to read this for school. BLEH. "
— Alex, 1/10/2014 -
" I just read the Jumping Frog, but loved it. "
— Lauren, 1/4/2014 -
" Love me some Mark Twain. "
— Derek, 12/21/2013 -
" Usual entertaining Mark Twain. Nice. "
— Elizabeth, 12/8/2013 -
" A silly run-on sentence. Creative though. "
— Jen, 12/8/2013 -
" A lovely tale, highly recommended. "
— Alex, 11/4/2013 -
" A clever collection of short stories sprinkled with bits of deep genuine humor and on the whole filled with good characterization and dialogue. "
— Joshua, 10/27/2013 -
" Can't really go wrong with Mr. Twain. "
— Lafcadio, 8/11/2013 -
" It has been years since I've read a Mark Twain book. It was very humorous and enjoyable. "
— Margaret, 7/25/2013 -
" Worth reading for the quaint descriptions of California life as it was just beginning, this is a great book for settling down to relax with some tea, and still a classic at that. "
— michael, 3/20/2013 -
" Not my cup of tea. "
— Kevin, 1/13/2013 -
" Mark Twain is the man. I want to be just like him. I think I'd look good with that moustache. "
— Hilariapdx, 10/16/2012 -
" So far I only have read Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog but let me just say this, I am s lost on the clean humor. I think I need to read a few more of these to be able to get the overall message because the humor in this story was so completely lost on me. Oh well live and learn. "
— Reeses, 9/8/2012 -
" The first of the readings for the class where I'm a graduate assistant (American Lit Since 1865 -- I hit the jackpot). Good example of the tall tale, and the part about the dog made me laugh. "
— Emily, 7/18/2012 -
" Read on audiobook. A better reader my have helped, but it's hard to tell. Not Twains best. "
— Ed, 7/5/2012 -
" This was a free downloaded audiobook from audiobooksync.com this summer. We listened to it on parts of the drive to & from Maine. It is a collection of short stories that were mainly written as magazine articles in the 1880's & 1890's - they were laugh out loud funny. A gem! "
— Sue, 6/22/2012 -
" The French, after being clawed back into a civilized language by hard unremitting toil by the best translator Mark Twain could find; himself, had me laughing out loud, which is something few books have accomplished. "
— Eli, 3/31/2012 -
" Twain is an odd fellow but classic. Enjoyed his "fight" with a Frenchman. "
— Lea, 3/23/2012 -
" Wow, that was a pointless, useless, and uninteresting story. How is this still in the world? "
— Brian, 8/21/2011 -
" Although it's still a great story, it's my least favorite Twain. I'm definitely more partial to Huck Finn and A Conn Yankee in King Arthur's Court. "
— Tara, 3/22/2011 -
" Mildly interesting story; pretty funny re-translation from the French. "
— Patrick, 2/24/2011 -
" A funny short story that is as pointless and most of the stories I am told throughout the day. I recomend it to everyone as it does not take long to read and was just so very fun. "
— Ali, 1/13/2011 -
" One of my favorite short stories of all time. "
— Michael, 12/17/2009 -
" I live in Calaveras County during weekdays and go to school in San Andreas. Mark Twain and this story are worshiped up here. I found the dialect in this story very funny. It's nice to know that even in Mark Twain's day, people in Calaveras County were idiots. "
— Kati, 10/26/2009 -
" Wow, that was a pointless, useless, and uninteresting story. How is this still in the world? "
— Brian, 8/20/2009 -
" The best part for me is not the frog, but the part about the dog Andrew Jackson. "
— Josh, 7/22/2008
About Mark Twain
Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), was born in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal on the west bank of the Mississippi River. He attended school briefly and then at age thirteen became a full-time apprentice to a local printer. When his older brother Orion established the Hannibal Journal, Samuel became a compositor for that paper and then, for a time, an itinerant printer. With a commission to write comic travel letters, he traveled down the Mississippi. Smitten with the riverboat life, he signed on as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot. After 1859, he became a licensed pilot, but two years later the Civil War put an end to the steam-boat traffic.
In 1861, he and his brother traveled to the Nevada Territory where Samuel became a writer for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and there, on February 3, 1863, he signed a humorous account with the pseudonym Mark Twain. The name was a river man’s term for water “two fathoms deep” and thus just barely safe for navigation.
In 1870 Twain married and moved with his wife to Hartford, Connecticut. He became a highly successful lecturer in the United States and England, and he continued to write.
About Robin Field
Robin Field is the AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator of numerous audiobooks, as well as an award-winning actor, singer, writer, and lyricist whose career has spanned six decades. He has starred on and off Broadway, headlined at Carnegie Hall, authored numerous musical reviews, and hosted or performed on a number of television and radio programs over the years.