This collection is conveniently arranged by date of publication, from 1865 through 1916, 6 years after his death. Haley's comet was visible from earth in 1835 when Samuel Clemens was born. It was next visible in 1910, the year he died. Some say that his life was characterized by the orbit of a comet. In his lifetime he saw the advent of the Transcontinental RR, completion of the Suez Canal, the Civil War, the transatlantic telegraph, the telephone, electric lights, the phonograph, the typewriter, the dictaphone, motion pictures and the airplane. He incorporated many of these technologies into his novels and short stories ,and he used most of them in the writing process. The telephone was invented in 1874, and just two years later he wrote "The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rossanah Ethelton". He imagined a long distance romance between New York and California, and eventually Hawaii. A jealous rival wiretaps the phone lines and listens in on conversations and sends fake messages, foreshadowing many of the events of today. Transcontinental phone calls were not possible until nearly 40 years later, well after Twain's death.
His stories use a great variety of time, place, and points of view. We can read a story that takes place in ancient Rome, Renaissance Europe, or current day in Heaven. He writes from the point of view of a dog, a horse, or a dead man.
He is known for capturing all the foibles of man. We see greed, jealousy, lying, theft, murder, and just plain foolishness. We see Twain, as he is in his final years, becoming more bitter and pessimistic about the future of mankind. He questions the existence of God, and the concepts of Heaven and Hell that go along with it."The Mysterious Stranger", published posthumously in 1916, is his last short story. It touches on metaphysics, God, and a bit of science fiction.
I have read the short stories of Guy de Maupassant, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Chekhov, and Hemingway. None can compare with Twain in variety, scope and humor.
