"The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" received mixed reviews when it first appeared in Harper's Monthly and later in the collection The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Sketches. Despite the range of critical estimations of the story, the magazine version of the story enjoyed a wide audience and earned Twain about $2000. Many commentators detected a movement away from Twain's trademark humor and light-hearted satire toward a moralizing didactic tone. A reviewer for Living Age states: "Mark Twain at his best is as good in his own line as any living writer of English prose ... The snag on which he now seems most apt to run his vessel is that of edification. He is too fond of being didactic, or pointing morals, of drawing lessons, of teaching the old world how to conduct its affairs." This reviewer longs for the "gleams of the old humor...