Cannibalism in the cars The best of Twain's humorous sketches

This collection of Twain's great humor sketches has come and gone over the years. "Prion Humour Classics" here resurrects it again in a sweet little hardcover edition with a new introduction by Roy Blount Jr. Along with the title piece, this also contains 33 others, such as "Curing a Cold," "Science vs. Luck," and "Political Economy." Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Mark Twain is the rambunctious father of all cynics. His wry observations and biting jibes made him the first modern humorist. His sardonic sketches on everything from politicians, preachers, journalists, barbers, nagging wives, devious children, and gullible low-lifes are as hilarious and true today as they were when Twain hammered them out to make a name for himself on the frontier newspapers in the 1870s. Though humor saturates all his best-loved work, it is in the freewheeling exuberance of these early sketches and yarns that his love of pranks, hoaxes, yarns, slapstick, and parodies is shown to best effect. Throughout these tales, the violence, cruelty, and plum stupidity of human nature is woven into comic gold as he makes us roar with laughter at our own idiotic self-deception and vain conceit.