Audiobook · read by volunteers
Stolen White Elephant
Mark Twain (1835–1910)
Read by Kristen McQuillin · 1 chapter · 38 min
About the book
A gift meant for the queen has vanished. A rare white elephant, on his way to England, has gone missing in New Jersey, and the police, in the story, are quite certain they can find an elephant. Mark Twain tells this tale in the voice of a straight-faced narrator, deadpan, solemn, and increasingly absurd, as detectives collect clues, send telegrams, and invent theories with the confidence of the thoroughly incompetent. It is satire at its most mischievous, aimed at bureaucrats, newspapers and the cult of the expert. The ending is not what anyone would call happy, and yet it is hard to stop smiling. About thirty-five minutes of dry, clever comedy, read with a straight face by one volunteer. Perfectly absurd and entirely believable. A small masterpiece of comic solemnity.
Introduction
Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, lived from 1835 to 1910 and is regarded as one of the greatest American writers. He was a humorist, lecturer, journalist and novelist, famous for books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but also a prolific author of short stories and sketches. His comic style, with its tall tales, deadpan delivery and sharp social satire, made him an international celebrity during his lifetime.
The Stolen White Elephant belongs to his later period and appeared in 1882. It tells of a rare animal, a gift for a queen, that disappears while being sent across the Atlantic, and the police are called in. In this story the police are the real subject. Twain describes their methods with a mock-serious solemnity, and the absurd chain of reasoning that results is one of the funniest things he wrote about institutions. It can be enjoyed as pure comedy, but it also bears a family resemblance to his more serious criticisms of pompous authority.
The recording consists of one chapter of about thirty-five minutes, read by a LibriVox volunteer. The story is told in the first person by a man who is clearly a good deal less clever than he thinks, and a reader who can keep a straight face is half the battle. It is a good choice for those who already love Twain and for those who know him only from his novels.
Short, funny and sharply observed, it is a fine way to spend an evening. Twain's humour about officials and experts has barely aged, and this little story shows how funny it can be when a clever author lets a fool do the talking.
Public domain
Mark Twain died in 1910: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text