The stolen white elephant

'The Stolen White Elephant' is a funny and satirical short story, following the investigations of Inspector Blunt when a pale pachyderm is stolen. Gifted from a king to a queen, the ship carrying the eponymous elephant stops at a harbour in New Jersey and goes missing. In this tale, Twain expertly parodies police investigative procedures, as forces fail to share information and a horribly expensive manhunt – or should that be 'elephant-hunt' – is launched. A laugh-out-loud read from the pen of one of the masters, 'The Stolen White Elephant' is sure to delight readers familiar with Twain's body of work. Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, (1835-1910). He was an American humourist, lecturer, journalist, and novelist who acquired international fame for his adventure stories of boyhood, especially 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'. Twain transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure and one of America's most beloved writers. So many of Mark Twain's stories have been made into films that it is impossible to name them all. The most popular ones are "The Adventures of Huck Finn" (1993), starring Elijah Wood, "Tom Sawyer" (1973), starring Jodie Foster, and "The Prince and the Pauper" (1990), produced by Walt Disney animation.