13 h 58 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How honest is a town when a sack of gold puts its proudest claim to the test?
In Mark Twain's The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories, a stranger brings temptation to a town proud of its honesty. He leaves gold and a letter at the home of bank cashier Edward Richards and his wife, Mary. A fortune awaits the person who once helped him. As news spreads, Hadleyburg's good name faces a test it cannot simply avoid.
The title story anchors this collection of short fiction and sketches, where sharp satire meets tenderness, humor, and plain argument. Edward and Mary share hopes and fears about the gold, while Reverend Burgess is drawn into a public meeting about who deserves it. Beyond Hadleyburg, Twain's shorter pieces move between the comic and the serious, asking uncomfortable questions about human nature.
What you’ll discover
- Honesty under pressure Watch a town's cherished reputation meet the temptation it has never learned to resist.
- A fortune at home Follow Edward and Mary as sudden wealth brings hope, fear, and difficult choices.
- Laughter with an edge Enjoy Twain's dry, mock-serious voice as he probes greed and hypocrisy.
- Lighter and stranger turns Explore shorter tales and sketches that mingle humor, tenderness, satire, and serious questions.
- Virtue beyond reputation Consider the unsettling difference between avoiding temptation and standing firm when it arrives.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy sharp satire, tall tales and true adventure, and who like to see pride, greed and good manners poked with a sly smile, will find plenty here.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A proud town receives a mysterious sack
- Honest people feel the pull of temptation
- Fame makes the town vain and then gloomy
- The great Friday meeting at the town hall
- Twain turns a joke on lying itself
- Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy
- Hoaxes, heroes and a burning ship
- Vienna, parliaments and odd laws
- Smaller pieces and the voice that ties them
Who’s who
- Edward RichardsAn old, poor bank cashier who prizes his good name but is tempted by the stranger's gold.
- Mary RichardsEdward's wife, who sees quickly how thin the town's trained honesty is and admits her own temptation.
- Reverend BurgessA disliked minister chosen by the stranger to receive the claims and open the sack.
- Jack HallidayThe lazy, good-natured town joker who sees the changes in his neighbors and mocks them.
- Barclay GoodsonThe dead town critic whom everyone believes was the stranger's generous helper.
- PinkertonThe town banker, proud of Hadleyburg's reputation, who shows the sack to every visitor.
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L’uomo che corruppe Hadleyburg e altri racconti
by Mark Twain · 1900
A stranger leaves a sack said to hold gold in Hadleyburg and waits for an honest town to prove itself.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
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In short
This collection also gathers his thoughts on lying, a mock Arctic romance, a fierce attack on Christian Science, a shipwreck diary, and reports from Vienna. You get the main pieces one by one, and the sharp view of human nature that links them.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A proud town receives a mysterious sack
Hadleyburg is known across the region as the most honest town around. For three generations it has raised its children away from temptation, so that honesty becomes part of them. The town loves its good name more than anything it owns.
A passing stranger feels insulted there, and he spends a year planning a revenge that will hurt every person in town. One night he carries a heavy sack to the home of the old bank cashier, Edward Richards, and leaves it with Mrs. Richards. An attached letter says the sack holds forty thousand dollars in gold for the kind man who once gave him twenty dollars and a few wise words.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 7 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1900
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Twain, Mark. The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-that-corrupted-hadleyburg-and-other-stories.
Twain, M. (2026). The man that corrupted Hadleyburg, and other stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-that-corrupted-hadleyburg-and-other-stories (Original work published 1900)
Twain, Mark. The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-that-corrupted-hadleyburg-and-other-stories.
@book{twain2026man,
author = {Twain, Mark},
title = {The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-that-corrupted-hadleyburg-and-other-stories},
note = {First published 1900}
}
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What is The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg about?
A stranger leaves a sack said to hold forty thousand dollars in gold in a town proud of its honesty. He claims it belongs to a man who once helped him, and the townspeople are tested by the offer.
What other stories are in the collection?
It includes My First Lie, The Eskimo Maiden's Romance, Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy, Is He Living or Is He Dead, My Debut as a Literary Person, Concerning the Jews, the Jumping Frog history and more.
Is the Hornet shipwreck in the book a true story?
Yes. My Debut as a Literary Person tells of the 1866 burning of the clipper ship Hornet. Twain interviewed survivors in Honolulu and quotes the diary of Samuel Ferguson and the log of Captain Mitchell.
The author
Mark Twain
1835–1910 · American humorist and novelist
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American author born in Missouri in 1835. He lived in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1874 to 1891. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Prince and the Pauper (1881). He died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910.
More by Mark Twain
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