This volume brings together eight of his best stories, among which are: The famous jumping frog of Calaveras County, his first story, in which an inveterate gambler acquires an extraordinary frog with which he challenges all the breeders of the county; The theft of the white elephant, which narrates the vicissitudes of the transfer from India to England of a peculiar gift of the King of Siam to Queen Victoria, a sacred white elephant; The million-pound note, the crazy story of a young American who finds himself without money in London and is the object of a bet between two eccentric gentlemen: would he be able to survive a month with a bad check of 1,000,000 pounds? The man who corrupted Hadleyburg, who tells us how a small town that presumes to be virtuous forgets its values before the seductive offer of a stranger arrived at the village; and A detective story with double meaning, ...read more
