A Medieval Romance - Mark Twain

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Author: Mark Twain

Genre: Short Story, Classic
Rating: 4.25 stars.

A fascinating story but what a hilarious anti-climax of an ending! (No, it’s not a humorous story.)

Back in 1222, the old Lord of Klugenstein is brother to the great Duke of Brandenburgh. A clause is set that the dukedom will pass to the next male heir. As the brothers both have a daughter each, Klugenstein comes up with a devious plan and raises his daughter as a boy named “Conrad” right since she was born. Now has come a time when his scheme will bear fruit. The old Duke is sickly, and needs his “male heir” to take over in the court. How will things go for “Conrad” when she reaches Brandenburgh?

The story is written in 5 short chapters and considering that it was written in 1870, is quite quick-paced and innovative. (We need to keep the era in which the story was written, in our mind while reviewing, don’t we? As per today’s writing, this might come across as an odd and outdated tale that reeks of patriarchal superiority and suppression of women’s rights.)

But, but, but….

You must know… And you must prepare yourself well…

For the ending of this story is nonexistent!

It is the cliffhanger of cliffhangers!! I actually laughed hard at it because I already knew it was coming. But had I not known this was how the story ended, I might have been either furious or disappointed. A part of me admired Mark Twain for making his dilemma clear and hence stopping the story with his clear statement on how there’s no conclusion possible. I suppose doing this for a short story is still fine; imagine reading a full-length tome to find that there is no ending at all!

If you go in expecting no resolution but a quandary at the end, you’ll like it sufficiently. I enjoyed it a lot. I was looking for entertainment, and it offered me more than enough of it!

As this classic story is in the public domain, it can be read online for free. I read it HERE.

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