The publication history of "The Invalid's Story" gives an indication of the general negative critical opinion of the story. Although the story is believed to have been written in 1877 for inclusion in "Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion"—a work that was released in four parts in the Atlantic Monthly in the same year—"The Invalid's Story" was passed over for publication both here and in A Tramp Abroad (1880), until the tale was finally included five years later in 1882's The Stolen White Elephant, Etc. . . .
In his 1966 article in Midcontinent American Studies Journal, critic Floyd R. Horowitz notes the reason why the story was removed from its initial publication, saying that it had been withheld, perhaps, "for fear of piercing the reader's sensibility." This is mild compared to some critics' negative.....
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