56 Comments
Matt Rose
10/3/2014 11:33:44 am
Something I really enjoyed about this book was the way Hugh stood up to David Gray and even though it ended up putting more suspicion on Hugh for the death of David, it was still sweet to read it. Something I disliked about this book was the ending, I was not surprised at all to see Jean Mercier be the murderer, it was too easy to predict it from the fact that his timing of meeting up with Mary to tell her that he can't get over her was unreal and had to be planned, also I could smell the BS of Mercier's speech about him being more happy to see Mary with Hugh.
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Emily Dingman
10/4/2014 04:15:59 am
Something I like about the book was the fact that the Count loved Mary and did want to marry her, but when he saw that she loved Hugh and not only confessed his love to her but told her he would not longer chase her it was nice to see a man understanding a woman's emotions. Instead of getting mad and demanding she loved him he left her alone, in the end they did marry but he gave her time and wanted her to love him before they married. I did not like how greedy her father and mother where and how when Mary got the money from her deceased uncle they refused to let her take it. It was cold and selfish and it always astounds me that people still do this to their daughters around the world.
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Jenna Welsh
10/4/2014 04:52:11 am
I enjoyed the twist at the end! I'm not very imaginative, so I didn't see the Count as the murderer. I also could never have predicted how he got to Deer Lick! Where did the balloon end up? How did he not die? I still have so many questions about the aspect of the story. I'm just going to say it: I hated Mary. Not unjoyed, but hated. It sucks that her father forced her to break things off with Hugh, but why didn't she still try and make it work with him? Why didn't she run away from Deer Lick? If I was Mary, I would stolen all of my uncle's money and gone to another part of the country and gotten married on my own!
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Nicole Matteson
10/4/2014 05:22:18 am
I enjoyed overall reading some mark twain! I predicted that the French guy wasn't who he was saying he was because it seemed too shady and too good to be true. I thought it was interesting how obsessed most of the men were in this novelette. What i didn't enjoy was the role of women in this book. They really had no opinion for themselves and only lived for the men, which i don't agree with. I was really glad that Mary and Hugh got together in the end, because they wanted to mary eachother for love and, in my opinion, thats the only reason a pair should mary. This novelette really showed the true power of love in my opinion, and also showed how the truth will always come out in the end.
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Chloe Rice
10/5/2014 02:37:24 am
Good point!
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Morgan King
10/4/2014 05:58:50 am
This was a very interesting book, and I overall enjoyed reading some of Mark Twain's work. Even though it was short, I never saw the "count" as a liar and a murderer, at least up until the evidence was stated. The components in the book were very well played, the small town out in nowhere, a family feud, money, and marriage. What I really enjoyed was how the book mirrored what society was like back then. Marriage was only done based on status and money. I also found the whole story with the hot air balloon very hard to believe, but it was fascinating to see that someone was twisted to commit murder, because his stories were being told very extravagantly. What I did not enjoy, was the shortness of the book, it almost felt rushed. I would have liked to have seen it play out a little slower, as to really emphasize all of the great components present in the novel.
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Shea Saulino
10/4/2014 06:23:02 am
This book, as everyone is saying, was quite interesting. Although short it really captured my attention and kept me interested, a very hard thing to do in short books. The end, as Jenna said, was my favorite part too. The COUNT was the murderer?! Truly shocking and riveting and cleverly written. Now there was one thing I didn't absolutely love, which was that the women in this book unfortunately were written to compliment the men. The men were in love with the women, the men were pining for their love. What about the women? I would've liked to have seen the author go into depth about that (I'm of course not trying to tell Mark Twain how to write. But I am).
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Mikayla Kricfalusi
10/4/2014 09:55:05 am
This was a very different story than any I had read before. I was relatively engaged throughout the whole novelette, but not exceptionally interested. I was very surprised by the count's supposed love of Mary, and was not expecting that. He barely knew her! That's something that frustrates me about some stories, especially in older books. So many feelings and descriptions of feelings, but no rational to explain those feelings. In The Scarlet Letter, half of the writing was descriptions of feelings. However, the author neglected to plainly explain to the reader why everything was so important and emotion evoking. In A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage, the characters don't have much time to develop rational feelings, however this is most likely due to the short nature of the novelette. I did enjoy the plot twist, especially as the count describes how his actions towards Mary were inspired by her possible wealth.
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Kaeli Leoni
10/4/2014 11:52:37 am
I really enjoyed this book. It was a very interesting story and kept me interested. However, most of the plot was very predictable. I don't know if that was because many stories and movies are modeled after this book or most of it was already a common theme, but I could guess what was going to happen next for the majority of the book. The romantic aspect of this book was specifically the most predictable for me, when the new man ended up being bad and she ended up with her true love. Even with this in mind, however, it was still a very captivating story. I also liked how it all ended on such a good note and ended all loose ties. All in all, I think it was a very easy and interesting read.
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Sarah Lockhart
10/4/2014 12:06:18 pm
I really enjoyed this little book! It was short and sweet. He writes so beautifully I got sucked in, even though I usually prefer books that have more details than strong plot line and this book was the opposite. I was able to predict that David Gray would be the one murdered, but I totally believed that Hugh Gregory was the one who murdered him! I was pleasantly surprised that the Count was the murderer and Hugh and Mary were able to get married. I kind of wish that the story was longer, especially since the ending was a little rushed, but at the same time a novelette oddly suits this plot line, just a fun little story to bust out and read quickly, nothing super moving a deep, just a little entertainment. I did read Tom Sawyer a while back but I don't remember it too well, so I definitely will re-read it after reading this, I fell in love with his writing style!
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Allison Hopkins
10/4/2014 12:31:33 pm
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was an easy read but it sucked you in. It was short but an interesting plot. One thing that I wish had been different about this story is the reveal at the end. I wish that they had gone into more detail about the Count. The reveal felt a bit abrupt and although it told us quite a bit about the Count it wasn't very detailed. I also wish that he had gone into a bit more detail about the characters and their relationships with each other. I really enjoyed this story, there were so many areas the author could have expanded upon and captured the audiences attention even more.
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Tristan Elghoroury
10/4/2014 02:19:31 pm
I really liked this novel because it had some wierd twists in it. For example, John Gray is walking and is mad about how he doesn't have enough money and all of a sudden there is a French count laying in the snow in front of him. Another thing that I enjoyed was looking at the really cool iluustrations. I really liked their style. Something I didn't like as much was how short it was and I wish it would go on. One part that was really crazy was when ..." It made even John Gray shudder to think of conferring an unsuspecting girl in marriage upon a man she did not love while the man she did love was walking to a shameful death". This qoute pretty much speaks for itself. It must have been really hard for poor Mary. The end also was a little wierd but at least the whole story was summed up by the count which was really good because I was a little confused about what was going on a little earlier in the story. overall I liked it and I would describe it as funny, unpredictable, interesting and intriguing.
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Rena
10/4/2014 03:37:19 pm
Well wow. This was a great book. I did not expect it to be that good, most older authors are kinda boring if we're being honest. I like the fact that it was able to keep my attention and at the same time be entertaining. It has a lot of unexpected events and it was great. Something that I didn't like too much was that it had a lot of detail about some things but not too much in others. For example, the last chapter was all about "Count Fountainblow" and his confession which was one of the longest chapters while one was only about 2 pages. Maybe I'll read more books by Mark Twain, or even one of the books talked about in the last chapter like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
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Abby Elliott
10/4/2014 04:42:11 pm
In this novelette, “A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" by Mark Twain I enjoyed a beautiful love story full of twists and turns thanks to some green stuff called money. I have read Mark Twain in the past and did not find him easy to read; yet, this novelette was quite the contrary. I sailed through it. Mary is my favorite character. Even though Mary was set to marry the Count, I found her to be true to herself throughout the whole story. She kept her undying love for Hugh Gregory. How wonderful that in the end, Mary and Hugh are together! In this story, I did not enjoy the use of time references; in fact, I found them unnecessary. Despite this little glitch, I would highly recommend “A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" by Mark Twain to anyone!
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Christian Klosterman
10/5/2014 02:53:44 am
I never really got into short novels, but it was different for this one. I really liked the way it was written, as I was expecting old English, but instead it was easy to understand. I loved/hated how the plot was really generic and so predictable, but still kept the anticipation and had you wondering what was going to happen next. This was an easy read, but a very enjoyable one and I would love to read some more like this in the future!
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Emily Hayashida
10/5/2014 04:12:03 am
The novelette " A Murder, A Mystery, A Marriage" was an unusual but engaging story. I usually feel that novelettes don't go into enough depth to keep the reader engaged, but this one did. Twain wrote in an intriguing, unclear, and unpredictable way that made it so appealing and usual. One of the things I did not enjoy as how the women were only in the book to support the male roles. I also didn't enjoy the use of time and there references, I found it unnecessary and to the text. Besides those two issue it was an overall intriguing story that I have never heard of before. I think reading short stories is enjoyable, and I hope we read some that are quite similar.
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Ryan Cormack
10/5/2014 04:46:07 am
This story was quite short, but kept my attention and had a lot going on in such a simple plot of a forbidden love. I think its interesting how fast Hugh and the Count fell in love with Mary, as that isn't something that happens anymore, because marriage is a bigger deal than it was. It isn't (hopefully) about money, its about finding a partner that you want to spend the rest of your life with. Throwing the murder in the story kept the plot going and interesting as well, and it was a pleasant surprise that Mary was able to marry the person she was in love with the whole time instead of the person with more money.
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10/5/2014 07:33:04 am
I liked how this short story really captured the reader by adding only what was necessary and not being too detailed about every little thing. Twain really developed the situation in which Mary was in, having to chose between the "Count" and Hugh. Even though I knew, that just from the how the characters acted that either the Count or Hugh had to be the killer since the beginning. For a short read I enjoyed it and would like to read more stories like this one with around the same length.
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George Downey
10/5/2014 08:12:50 am
I very much loved the aspect of it which resembled a Shakespearian drama. The changing of heart and reputation so rapidly as to have an unpredictable ending makes it a very thrilling read, though it is small. But at the end of the book, the book reveals its loving characters interactions to be more akin to a murder mystery involving as is custom, an inheritance and vengeance on the mind of the criminal. Thanks to the love story aspects, there is no pointless reasoning prior to the final reveal about who did the murder and this is supported by the books extremely small cast, and thus the ending is good (though personally I was rooting for the Count, even after reading his confession.).
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Camila Antonorsi
10/5/2014 09:58:46 am
this short book was quit strange, interesting but strange. I thought that it was cool that they had forbidden love, and murder in a short book. I really don't read short books like this but this one went in depth with the story. more often then not they just have a plot outline and don't go in-depth with the story. i tough that the pictures were adorable. overall i really liked it.
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Lucas LeVieux
10/5/2014 10:46:49 am
I'm not quite sure what I think about this book. It started really interestingly, but to me it descended into ridiculousness. The epilogue was especially confusing and dumb in the context of the book. The epilogue itself was an interesting premise, and would make a great short story if it were to be emancipated from the rest of the story.
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Chenoa Levy
10/5/2014 11:32:45 am
I think what was good about the story was that it was so short an just cut to the point. Sometimes short and sweet is better than a 300 paged book that repeats the same thing over and over again. It made the plot less confusing and easy to follow. For me personally the only bad aspect of the book was that the characters were hard to love. Mary was a little bratty, the count too snooty, and everyone else had a personal vendetta against each other. honestly there was not a single character that I liked while reading this novelette. Overall though the plot of the story was pretty interesting and it was fun to read.
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Noah Parr
10/5/2014 12:09:07 pm
I did enjoy this book. I was confused for a while, and not much made sense to me. But after we found out who the murderer was,a I went back and read it all, an it made sense. I was shocked. I thought that an entire set of people would be the marriage and murder. But I did enjoy the way It ended. I especially enjoyed the small backstory that it gave after the main story, so we would know his life. I think it was a good touch. Overall I liked the book, but the language was a little confusing at time, and I did not expect what had happened.
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Dylan L
10/5/2014 12:32:54 pm
In "A Murder, A Mystery, and a Marriage, I really enjoyed how Mark Twain wrote a fun, engaging story in fewer than one hundred pages. It didn't feel short or rushed, or even like it was missing details. It just worked, and I enjoyed that. I "unjoyed" that we didn't talk about this story in class. I was looking forward to some interesting conversations with the whole class, but I only got a few tidbits of thought from a few people.
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Mrs. Clark
10/6/2014 02:28:17 pm
It's impossible to have time for everything, but you can always definitely talk to people about it without it being assigned in a class. :)
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Nicole
10/5/2014 12:48:26 pm
It was different seeing two men fight over the girl. During the fight I thought that the count would fight for her but he understand that she wanted to marry Hugh and so he let her go. I didn't really like her parents they were really greedy and they tried to run her life by not letting her have her dead uncles money that he left her and only her.
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Chloe R
10/5/2014 12:53:32 pm
Reading Mark Twain, "A Murder, A mystery and a Marriage," was a little bit of a trudge for me. I didn't understand many of the characters intentions fully. I was especially confused by the counts love for marry, whom he apparently had just gotten to know. I did like the plot twist at the end, and the idea of alternative motivations for the Counts supposed love. The mystery kept it somewhat interesting, although I feel like the characters could have been more developed.
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Chandler Gaines
10/5/2014 12:55:37 pm
I thought it was amazing the way Hugh acted throughout the story, he was very intriguing and interesting in the way that he did things. I really liked the layout of this Novelette and it had a great story line. I also enjoyed how it was a small story but it told so much of a tale. It was very aspect oriented. There was not much I did not like, it was a great reading overall, in my opinion.
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Srdja
10/5/2014 12:58:04 pm
"A murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" is an amazing book and I really enjoyed it. It was really interesting to see old patriarchal family with their customs and life. Plot was a little bit predictable because many stories and movies are similar to this book. I really enjoy the Mark Twain's style of writing because he is telling a story with catch-able language and clear sentences like he did in Tom Soyer, Huckleberry Finn. I wish that book was a little bit longer, but however it was pleasure to read it.
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Justin Reyes
10/5/2014 01:17:13 pm
I really enjoyed this short little story from Mark Twain. The way this was written really kept me engaged in the whole story itself. However, I liked how this story was really easy to predict. It was in the sense which made it fun for the reader since they’re constantly thinking about what's going to happen next! Overall I loved this generic plot line and at the same time it was able to add some surprising twists as well
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Jackson Sjogren
10/5/2014 01:22:58 pm
While reading this I was reminded of many movies that had the same overall plot which kinda of surprised me. My favorite part was the plot twist at the end which I was kinda of expecting but it was still good. Over all mark twains style of writing is very clear and understandable which made it enjoyable for me. For our next book we should read "Huckle berry fin".
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Hunter Birk
10/5/2014 01:48:28 pm
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Jack Campbell
10/5/2014 02:12:36 pm
I thought that this book was really interesting. At first I did not think that I would like it because elf the wording and structure, but once John finds the Count in the snow I really enjoyed it. I felt that the story was really interesting because there was the constant sense of mystery between the real murderer and how the Count got into the snow. I really enjoyed the explanation of how the count ended up in the snow and how he committed the murder. I also found the Jules Verne use amusing. The only parts that I did not like were the first and third chapters, I found the boring. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the length, as well as the images.
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Dillon Prescott
10/5/2014 02:20:37 pm
I enjoyed the fact that revenge came around to and old man that was going to deprive his niece of his fortune just because he did not approve of who she was going to marry. I Did not enjoy the section about John gray keeping all of the information about what was happening with houg from mary just because of the matter of the fortune. she had a right to know what was happening she was getting the fortune either way by that point.
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TJ
10/5/2014 02:47:26 pm
While this book was a real pain to follow (good LORD did it jump around!) my favorite 2 parts have to be the part where he leaves Mary because he wants her to be happy and then leaves her to stay in love with Hugh. My other favorite part has to be the ending seeing as how his arrival there really did mystify me. I couldn't think of a single logical explanation as to how he got there without making tracks. I also liked his personal explanation, his cover up, and his how he came up with his fake name. When he orchestrated the murder he really was a lion among sheep.. The rest of the book was nice but I felt like none of the "scenes" lasted long enough to really develop. The book started as soon as it ended.
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Alexis Miranda
10/5/2014 02:48:10 pm
This book was really fun to read. It became really interesting for me when John Gray found Count on the ground, leaving no footprints. This part incouraged me to read more because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Towards the end of the book, I found it funny how Count explained everything about how he ended up on the ground in the snow and how he created a fake name. This was very unexpected, which I thought was pretty amusing.
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Seamus McGarvey
10/5/2014 02:55:06 pm
One of the things I particularly enjoyed is the atmosphere the words that Mark Twain used set. The descriptiveness and (I cant think of the word but it is like to immerse the reader in) creates a read that puts me into the book. One of the other things that I like was the general setting and mood of the book! I enjoyed most of it
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Isaac Fernandez
10/5/2014 03:01:03 pm
I really thought this was an interesting little story to read (novelette). When I started to read it, I figured it would be the new guy, because when he comes into town that is when stuff goes down. I figured it wouldn't be him though, because there are normally crazy plot twists in stories like these. But no, it was super predictable. It was definitely something that I had fun reading and I could actually understand it. It was nice that we got to find out the bad guy and that there was a couple who lived happily ever after.
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Edwin Herrera
10/5/2014 03:47:23 pm
This reminded of a soap opera, it was dramatic because Hugh loved Mary and Mary loved him so it was just instant click between the two. But (dun dun dunnnn my sound effect) everything goes downhill for the couple. Mary's bro, David, who is wealthy man, declares that he will give all his fortunes to Mary, if, he dumps Hugh. Cray cray world, am I right? Well, it get more cray because David dies...a moment of silence. So it becomes a fight between love and money and finding who murder David. It seems that this book shows what happens when greed comes into play. The book was interesting because it was very dramatic but still captured and sent a message.
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Kendall Tally
10/5/2014 03:59:36 pm
I very much liked the story. I have always been a fan of mysteries, even if I don't get to read a whole lot of them. The language used required a bit of a slower read for me, but I was able to understand it perfectly fine. This is also the first story I've read from Twain, so that in itself was very interesting.
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Michele Moua
10/5/2014 04:14:16 pm
I really enjoyed the stories simplicity, and the deep sense of selfishness and greed. The twist at the end was quiet interesting and confusing at first...i had to go through it a couple times. Even though the story and writing style was simple it was still a pain to follow for some reason. I often found myself lost and somewhat confused. But when i finished it and looked at it as a whole it was easier to make connections. If i could describe it in a couple words it'd be fun, short, cute, dramatic and simple. :)
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Grant
10/5/2014 05:35:51 pm
This reading was very interesting to me because I have never read anything from mark twain before ,but I heard his name mentioned many times before reading this. After reading this novel I thought he did a really good job of keeping the reader interested in the story by making the reader wonder what was going to happen next. An example of this would be Count on the ground with no foot prints. This kept me engaged in the reading because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I didn't really dislike this novel and I have nothing bad to say about it.
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Eamonn McGuiness
10/6/2014 12:12:44 am
What I really enjoyed about this story was the mystery in it because I really enjoy suspense. It kept me guessing what was going to happen next, or what they plot twist would be. Also how the book was written for the time period kept me engaged into the story.
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Alex de Villiers
10/6/2014 01:22:47 am
Well first off I had no idea what to expect because I've never read a Mark twain book before, I've heard that they are really great books, but I've never actually read one so i was a bit worried as to what I was going to be reading. Turns out Mark Twain makes some pretty incredible books, I never expected to like such a short story as much as I did, this book went really into detail with just a short amount of time. Also I love the twist ending at the end, I imagine this was the precedent for all twist endings to come. I mean I expected the ending, but for people that read this story when it first was published must have been very surprised because there wasn't much like this.
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Kayla Feather
10/6/2014 01:23:13 am
The book, "a marriage, a mystery, and a murder", was really short which was nice and easy to read. The writing style was a bit to easy and I didn't find grabbing my attention. I did like how the story was full of twist I did not see coming.
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mikey saunders
10/6/2014 02:05:07 am
I really enjoyed this novelette. In some parts I was kind of confused about which characters were who but overall I really liked the concept. I enjoyed the conflict and the suspicion really making me interested in finishing this book. When I found out that the french knight was the one who killed Mary's uncle. I think that this novelette fell under the best category of a Murder/Romance.
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Jordan Farrah
10/6/2014 02:05:54 am
I really enjoyed this book. I think the fact that it was kept me more engaged because I was more focused on the content rather than how much more i have to read. I also liked trying to figure out who the murderer was before it was revealed to be the count. Another cool thing was that it was really easy to read despite the fact that it was written so long ago.
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Jordan Farrah
10/6/2014 02:15:10 am
it was short*
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IAN
10/6/2014 02:11:57 am
This was a cool read and I have never read a Mark Twain. It was a short and easy read which I enjoyed.The mystery in this book kept me reading and I didn't want to stop. Its really cool to see how family back then were and how they lived. The story was really dramatic which I like.
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Alexis Habib
10/6/2014 02:15:35 am
One thing I liked about this book was haw honest some people were to one another. Like how honest the father of Mary was with himself about his wants for money. I did not like how predictable the plot was, for it was generic and I have seen and read many other books with a plot or sub plot like this. I found the pages hard to get though for there was nothing engaging, for me, in this novelette. One thing I would change about this novelette is to add more sub-plots and characters involved in the main plot.
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Morgan McNevin
10/6/2014 02:21:34 am
I really enjoyed the book just because I have also never read a Mark twain book so it was very interesting to finally read one. I really enjoyed how it was mostly suspenseful through the whole book. I really like when authors hook you in and this book definitely did. It was also short enough to as where you didn't feel like it dragged out but it definitely was a great read with a crazy ending. Really enjoyed this book and hope to see more like it.
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Kevin Stiemke
10/6/2014 04:39:44 am
I enjoyed reading this book. Even though it was hard to read. It was a great story to read. My favorite part was the end when they lived happily ever after. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on, but it was a good book.
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Jonathan R
10/6/2014 05:40:22 am
I enjoyd reading a new book by a "new" author and not knowing what to expect. I enjoyed how Hugh and Mary got married. I also how he added in certain things into the story to keep the reader interested, like having the count in the snow with no footprints. I "unjoyed" how the novelette was confusing at the beginning, personally making it hard for me to get started and causing me great confusion while reading the first few chapters.
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Piper Tompkins
10/6/2014 05:42:39 am
I think this story was almost the first of its kind, when reading it in todays times it feels like an episode of Law and Order or any other crime TV show. The book must have been revolutionary for its time, the story seemed so modern, like a classic Whodunit mystery. I really enjoyed reading it and following the ever changing story line throughout this somewhat short novel.
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Kevin Stiemke
10/6/2014 10:38:45 am
I enjoyed reading this book. Even though it was hard to read. It was a great story to read. My favorite part was the end when they lived happily ever after. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on, but it was a good book. It was very descriptive. There was a lot of twist, and turns. Overall this was a fun book to read.
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Melissa Ferrer
10/6/2014 12:59:24 pm
The book "A murder, A mystery and A marriage" by Mark Twain was a delightful reading. It was my first time reading any of Mark Twain’s books and I really enjoyed the story.The story was fulfilled with perfect measure of love and suspense. Mary and Hugh role completed the romantic love story, deeply in love with one another willing to stay together through any situation. Not only it’s love content made it a delightful reading but, it’s mystery throughout the pages of the book. It was very interesting how the suspense such as the man found laying in the middle of the snow was taken place in the story. The significance of the text reveals a powerful plot in the story giving the reader an interest to keep on reading on what will happen to the lives of the Grays’.I personally enjoyed reading this book ,and will be looking forward to read more of Mark Twain's books.
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