The Mysterious Stranger
by Mark Twain · first published 1916
38% recommend63% neutral
The Mysterious Stranger is a novel attempted by the American author Mark Twain. He worked on it intermittently from 1897 through 1908. Twain wrote multiple versions of the story; each involves a supernatural character called "Satan" or "No. 44". All the versions remained unfinished (with the exception of the last one, No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger).
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I don't remember seeing anyone recommend Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger[1] in these kinds of list. Not sure if it counts as sci-fi, and it's at least 25 years since I read it, but I recall it being worth reading. [1] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3186/3186-h/3186-h.htm
on “Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read” ↗Believe it or not: Slaughterhouse V by Kurt Vonnegut and No. 44 The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain. The first for the idea of being "unstuck" in time, and the second for introducing the concept of nihilism.
on “Ask HN: Books that altered your view of reality” ↗…Bene Gesserit a lot, was surprised how much I disliked God Emperor given the praise it gets, but it honestly reads like Frank Herbert posting twitter hot takes as a worm with no story Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger. Among the best novellas I've ever read, very different in tone from most of his books. Shūsaku Endō, Silence. Book about a Jesuit mission in early Edo Japan. My favorite Japanese book in a long time.…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗My own opinion of _Haruhi_ is that it is (or at least, should be) a more positive retelling of Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger", and Haruhi is an ordinary girl made special by her wish to be extraordinary: https://www.gwern.net/The-Melancholy-of-Kyon
on “The Melancholy of Subculture Society (2019)” ↗…once successfully and once unsuccessfully; helped organize the Populist Party; successfully defended Big Bill Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone; published his first book. Twain: wrote Pudd’nhead Wilson, The Mysterious Stranger, Letters from the Earth, his autobiography, and a vicious literary criticism of the Leatherstocking series that’s better reading than the Leatherstocking series itself; did a six-year around-the-world…
on “Winning Isn't Normal” ↗Same premise as Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger
on “The Egg” ↗…was a lot of reason and evidence when they were doing this. I don't think it's unique to the people of today that people in groups do dumb emotional shit. That's kind of the point of Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger".
on “False claims in a widely-cited paper. No corrections. No consequences” ↗Was going to ask "Which Mysterious Stranger?" but then I noticed you'd linked straight to text. :) Ooo, checking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger there was apparently one version I didn't know about. (I've read the one you…
on “Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read” ↗