The Stolen White Elephant

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"The Stolen White Elephant" is a short story written by Mark Twain and published in 1882 by James R. Osgood. In this short story an Indian elephant, en route from India to Britain as a gift to the Queen, disappears in New Jersey. The local police department goes into high gear to solve the mystery but it all comes to a tragic end.

The main characters of the story include:

• Mark Twain, who functions as the initial speaker and author of the story.
• An elderly Indian gentleman who had at one time spoken to Twain during a train ride; he was once a member of his nation’s civil service and in charge of transporting the white elephant.
• Chief Inspector Blunt, a detective who is in charge of finding the lost elephant; he first receives the report of the elephant’s disappearance.
• “Hassan Ben Ali Ben Selim Abdallah Mohammed Moist Alhammal Jamsetjejeebhoy Dhuleep Sultan Ebu Bhudpoor” or “Jumbo”, the white elephant
• Alaric, a young worker at the detectives’ office.
• Captain Burns, another employee of the Detectives’ office; he is in charge of carrying out Inspector Blunt’s orders.
• The Queen of England plays a nonspeaking role.
• The Emperor of India plays a nonspeaking role.
• A number of other detectives, servants and civilians also play minor roles in the story.

[edit] External links

• 'The Stolen White Elephant' text on Project Gutenberg
• Recording of 'The Stolen White Elephant' on Internet Archive

v • d • e Works by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Novels: The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • 1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors • The Prince and the Pauper • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court • The American Claimant • Tom Sawyer Abroad • Pudd'nhead Wilson • Tom Sawyer, Detective • Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc • A Double Barrelled Detective Story • Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany • A Dog's Tale • A Horse's Tale • The Mysterious Stranger Short stories: "General Washington's Negro Body-Servant" • "My Late Senatorial Secretaryship" • "Advice to Little Girls" • "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" • "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" • "The War Prayer" • "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" • "A Literary Nightmare" • "Luck" • "The Stolen White Elephant" Short story collections: Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance • Sketches New and Old • A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime • Punch, Brothers, Punch! and other Sketches • Merry Tales • The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories • The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories • Letters from the Earth Plays: Is He Dead? Essays: How to Tell a Story and Other Essays • Christian Science Non fiction: The Innocents Abroad • Memoranda (monthly column) • Roughing It • Old Times on the Mississippi • A Tramp Abroad • Life on the Mississippi • Following the Equator • What Is Man? • Is Shakespeare Dead? • Queen Victoria's Jubilee • Mark Twain's Autobiography • Mark Twain's Notebook • King Leopold's Soliloquy • The Private History of a Campaign That Failed • Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War • The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood