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I got a bad taste from this just reading the Author's preface. As a former academic, he got under my skin almost immediately.
I had a really hard time enjoying the book because I kept comparing it in my mind to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Winesburg is not funny, nor is it meant to be, and it is one of my favorite books. Winesburg is able to show honest sketches of a small town without bluster or the need to entertain. The first story in the cycle, "Hands," has stuck with me ever since the first time I read it.
By comparison, I found Sketches to be tongue in cheek just for the sake of being so. It hurt the story and the reading experience for me so much that I had to put it down. When Twain uses humor, he is using it proactively. His humor is almost one of his characters. Leacock's humor, which was not very funny, was just clunky and in the way.
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