The Jumping Frog
Mark Twain
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"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1865 short story by Mark Twain. It was also published as "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog." In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. Upon discovering a French translation of this story, Twain re-translated the story, word for word and keeping the French grammar structure, back into English. He then published all three versions under the title "The Jumping Frog: In English, Then in French, and Then Clawed Back Into A Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil." (Summary by Wikipedia) (1 hr 5 min)
Chapters
| The Jumping Frog: In English, then in French, then Clawed Back into a Civilized… | 4:13 | Read by Ruth Golding |
| The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County | 17:59 | Read by Ruth Golding |
| La Grenouille Sauteuse du Comté de Calaveras | 16:46 | Read by Didier |
| The Frog Jumping of the County of Calaveras | 16:59 | Read by Ruth Golding |
| Private History of the "Jumping Frog" Story | 9:14 | Read by Ruth Golding |
Reviews
Funny (strange) story, with humorous awkward translation.
kerriganm
It adds something if you understand French, but it's not necessary. You can just skip the French part. The translation humor ("Franglish") is reminiscent of English as She is Spoke.