Luck (short story)

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"Luck" is an 1886 short story by Mark Twain which was first published in 1891 in Harper's Magazine. It was subsequently reprinted in 1892 in the anthology Merry Tales; the first British publication was in 1900, in the collection The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg. It is one of Twain's more neglected stories, and received little critical attention upon its publication.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Notes on the story 3 References 4 External links 5 See also

[edit] Plot summary

The story concerns a decorated English military hero, Lord Arthur Scoresby, a total idiot who triumphs in life through good luck. At the time of the Crimean War Scoresby is a captain. Despite his complete incompetence, everyone misinterprets his performance, taking his blunders for military genius, and his reputation is enhanced with every false step he makes. At the climax of the story, Scoresby mistakes his right hand for his left and leads a charge in the wrong direction, surprising a Russian force which panics and causes a retreat of the Russian army, thus securing an Allied victory.

[edit] Notes on the story

• The story is said by some to be based on a real person; Twain himself writes in a footnote to the story that it was not a "fancy sketch"; i.e., not a work of fancy or imagination. Twain had heard the story from his old friend and confidante Joseph Twichell (who appears in A Tramp Abroad as "Harris"), who was visited by a British chaplain who told him the tale of a famous general whose victories were entirely due to luck. However, Twain's footnote states that the story was related to him by an instructor at Woolwich Academy.
• The character of Scoresby bears some resemblance to George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman, a cowardly individual who ascends to high rank due to luck; it may have served as some small inspiration to Fraser.

[edit] References

1. ^ Mark Twain on the Crimean War: Introduction. The Victorian Web (2005-08-15). Retrieved on 2007-07-28.

[edit] External links

• Stephen Railton's Mark Twain in His Times project
• Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum

[edit] See also

• Irresponsible Captain Tylor

v • d • e Works by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Novels: The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • 1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors • The Prince and the Pauper • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court • The American Claimant • Tom Sawyer Abroad • Pudd'nhead Wilson • Tom Sawyer, Detective • Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc • A Double Barrelled Detective Story • Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany • A Dog's Tale • A Horse's Tale • The Mysterious Stranger Short stories: "General Washington's Negro Body-Servant" • "My Late Senatorial Secretaryship" • "Advice to Little Girls" • "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" • "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" • "The War Prayer" • "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" • "A Literary Nightmare" • "Luck" • "The Stolen White Elephant" Short story collections: 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 Plays: Is He Dead? Essays: How to Tell a Story and Other Essays • Christian Science 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 • Mark Twain's Autobiography • 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