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The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

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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. Twain describes him: "If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to—to wherever he going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."

Plot Summary

Jim Smiley was addicted to gambling. He bet on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog pup, Andrew Jackson, and other dogs. One day a stranger to the town agreed to bet on a frog jumping higher than Jim's frog, Daniel Webster. When Jim wasn't looking the stranger poured quail shot into Daniel Webster's mouth making it impossible for him to jump at all. The stranger won the $40 bet and escaped before Jim realized the con.

Trivia

  • The frog of the title, named Daniel Webster, is believed to be a California red-legged frog (Rana aurora).
  • Upon discovering a copy of the story translated into French, Twain translated it, word-for-word, back into English, keeping the French grammatical structure and ending it with a note saying "Such is the Jumping Frog, to the distorted French eye.

Adaptation

Lukas Foss composed The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, an opera in two scenes with libretto by Jean Karsavina, based on Twain's story. The opera premiered on May 18, 1950, at Indiana University.

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Last updated on Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 10:55:22 PST (GMT -0800)
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