Wednesday, November 27, 2013

What is the plot of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

There is not a lot of plot to this -- it is mainly an excuse to have a few funny tall tales about a gambler in the West in the late 1800s.


The narrator, Mark Twain, goes looking for a man named Leonidas Smiley.  When he asks about Smiley, a man in a bar starts telling him about some other guy called Jim Smiley who was an eccentric gambler.  He tells Twain about all the crazy things this guy would do to gamble.


The longest story is about how Smiley had a champion jumping frog that he would bet on.  Someone got the frog to swallow a bunch of lead shot to weigh it down and so Smiley lost his bet.


Eventually, Twain gets tired of hearing these stories and leaves without finding out about Leonidas Smiley.

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