The Invalid's Story Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 42 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Invalid's Story.

The Invalid's Story Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 42 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Invalid's Story.
This section contains 516 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Invalid's Story Study Guide

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 assessments of the story and its dark humor. In his The Authentic...

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This section contains 516 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Invalid's Story Study Guide
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The Invalid's Story from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.