Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance

Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance
cover of the first edition

Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance is a short volume, published by Sheldon in 1871, is Mark Twain's third book. It consists of two stories - First Romance, which had originally appeared in The Express in 1870, and A Burlesque Autobiography (bearing no relationship to Twain's actual life), which first appeared in Twain's [1] Memoranda contributions] to The Galaxy. Rather, the content consists of a few short stories of fictional characters who are supposedly part of Twain's lineage. In the final passage, Twain develops the story to a point of crisis, and then abruptly ends the tale, saying:

“ The truth is, I have got my hero (or heroine) into such a particularly close place, that I do not see how I am ever going to get him (or her) out of it again—and therefore I will wash my hands of the whole business, and leave that person to get out the best way that offers—or else stay there. I thought it was going to be easy enough to straighten out that little difficulty, but it looks different now. ”

With that, Twain's "Autobiography" ends.[1]

The illustrations form an interesting aspect of this book. They have no relationship to the text of the book. Rather, they use cartoons illustrating the children's poem The House that Jack Built to lampoon the Erie Railroad Ring (the house) and its participants, Jay Gould, John T. Hoffman, and Jim Fisk.

The book was not one of Twain's personal favorites. Two years after publication, he bought all of the printing plates of the book and destroyed them.

References

  1. ^ Mark Twain's Burlesque Autobiography at marktwainclassics.com

eBook

v · d · eWorks by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Novels
Short stories
Short story
collections

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County • Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance • Sketches New and Old • A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime • Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches • Merry Tales • The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories • The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories • Letters from the Earth • The Library of Humor •
Plays
Essays
Non-fiction

The Innocents Abroad • Memoranda (monthly column) • Roughing It • Old Times on the Mississippi • A Tramp Abroad • Life on the Mississippi • Following the Equator • What Is Man? • Is Shakespeare Dead? • Queen Victoria's Jubilee • Autobiography of Mark Twain • Mark Twain's Notebook • King Leopold's Soliloquy • The Private History of a Campaign That Failed • Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War • The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood

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