이 책은 EDGAR ALLAN POE의 이상한 천사, Mark Twain의 점프하는 개구리, H.C. Bunner의 훌륭한 신사 외 GEORGE POPE MORRIS, Caroline M.S. Kirkland, Oliver Wendell Holmes 등 유명한 미국 작가 18명의 작품들이 실린 책이다. 19세기의 미국 소설의 흐름과 미국의 역사와 삶을 이해하는데 도움이 된다.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS : By George Pope Morris
THE ANGEL OF THE ODD : By Edgar Allan Poe
HE SCHOOLMASTER'S PROGRESS : By Caroline M.S. Kirkland
THE WATKINSON EVENING : By Eliza Leslie
TITBOTTOM'S SPECTACLES : By George William Curtis
MY DOUBLE; AND HOW HE UNDID ME : By Edward Everett Hale
A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS : BY Oliver Wendell Holmes
THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY : By Mark Twain
ELDER BROWN'S BACKSLIDE : By Harry Stillwell Edwards
THE HOTEL EXPERIENCE OF MR. PINK FLUKER : By Richard Malcolm Johnston
THE NICE PEOPLE : By Henry Cuyler Bunner
THE BULLER-PODINGTON COMPACT : By Frank Richard Stockton
COLONEL STARBOTTLE FOR THE PLAINTIFF : By Bret Harte
THE DUPLICITY OF HARGRAVES : By O. Henry
BARGAIN DAY AT TUTT HOUSE : By George Randolph Chester
A CALL : By Grace MacGowan Cooke
HOW THE WIDOW WON THE DEACON : By William James Lampton
GIDEON : By Wells Hastings