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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | Books | Home » » » Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain | | | | | | | Description: | | A Tour de Force of Wit and Humor--Travel the world with America's favorite humorist. Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad will delight, inform, and inspire as he chronicles his own journey across Europe and the Middle East in the late 1800's. Take a rambunctious American journalist with a sharp eye and an even sharper wit, book him on a steamship bound for Europe and the Holy Land, turn him loose on the glory and grandeur of the Old World, and what you get is The Innocents Abroad--the occasionally irreverent, unfailingly hilarious travel book that launched Mark Twain's career. | | | Features: | |
• A Tour de Force of Wit and Humor
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Mark Twain | | Hardcover:
| 432 pages | | Publisher:
| Reader's Digest Association | | Publication Date:
| 1990 | | ISBN:
| 0895773392 | | Package Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.9 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 53 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 an unexpected pleasureAug 11, 2010
Last summer, I enjoyed "Roughing It" about the westward expansion in America. At the time, I picked up "The Innocents Abroad" and started it, but life intervened. Usually that's a sign to me that the book won't be too whoopty... but this one WAS.
In about 60 chapters, Twain takes you through Mediterranean Europe and Paris, then Turkey, the Levant, Palestine, Israel, and Egypt, with stops in Gibraltar and assorted islands.
He finds the ridiculous side of most situations, and gently pokes fun of himself while he skewers his traveling companions. I've been many of the places he writes about, and some things don't change. It's an interesting book for travelers.
It's also interesting that, 140 years ago, EVERY literate person in America knew the Bilblical Old and New Testaments well enough to read this book. The book is packed with references to scripture and apostles and miraculous events -- he uses psalms and proverbs ironically.
Twain is not a reverent writer, although he has moments of being touched by the history of a place.
This edition has a great introduction and notes section by Jane Jacobs -- it's a high quality paperback book.
Worth a read.
 Another Masterpiece for L of A!!Jul 19, 2010
This is a travel book written by one of America's greatest writers and thinkers. Vaudevilliam comedy gets its place here as does grand tours of Europe and the Holy Land. Quite a different path for Twain....
The Civil War, frontier society, Mormons, Indians, stagecoach travel and the Chinese are mingled here with Twain's experiences in all kinds of occupations.
Quite interesting....
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Twain Deserves BetterOct 22, 2009
This is a great book, but the Signet version is a disgrace to Twain's memory -- cheap paper, messy undersized print, and narrow margins all make reading it torture.
Do yourself a favor and buy the Modern Library version instead: The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress (Modern Library Classics). You'll end up buying it anyway.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Trouble with abroad is there's too damn many furrinersJul 15, 2009
Well, Mark Twain certainly had a good sense of humor. You can count on laughing out loud many times as you read this book, which, because times have changed since he wrote it in 1867, is really amazing. It's interesting to read his adventures in the Azores, Gibraltar, Morocco, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russian Crimea, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and the Holy Land and compare the experiences with what tourists might expect to meet today. The world looks far more uniform now than it did then. A few shenanigans, a few jokes among passengers on the chartered ship that took the whole bunch of them on an extended tour overseas flesh out the volume. The famous author hoped to gain knowledge and insight, but a lot of what he saw repelled him. He could not escape the prejudices and bigotries of his time. The grandeur of ruins and the great sense of history to be found in the Old World inspired him; the order and cleanliness of France attracted him as well. But he often took the ways and tricks of those involved in the tourist trade as typical behavior of the countries involved. Like modern tourists, he did not meet cultured or disinterested people in such places---only touts, guides, servants, salesmen, and beggars.
As Twain travelled he got increasingly bogged down in minute descriptions of antiquities. By the time he got to Jerusalem, I was exhausted. While he revived my interest every now and then with another set of droll remarks or humorous observations, I admit that my will flagged somewhat towards the end of the 476 pages. Nowadays Americans are not so concerned to pinpoint the differences between the Old World and the New. Anyway, both have changed immeasurably in the last 142 years. But Twain, like many writers since--for example, Henry James, Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis---found the comparison fascinating. Contemporary Americans more easily accept themselves for what they are, at least, they have become less defensive. They have also lost the pretense that somehow America is more innocent, a common 19th century trope.
The best way to read this book is to dip into it over a period of time. I loved the sections where he took the mickey out of travel writers who waxed eloquent about the beauties of places that were anything but; recklessly trigger happy writers who claimed they'd showed the "natives" what was what (but probably did nothing of the kind). It's still a great travel book and if you ever liked Mark Twain, you should read it.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
About This EditionDec 21, 2008
This review relates to the Heritage Press edition in green cloth with red and gold on the spine (circa 1962 and probably later.)
A classic and simple Heritage design, meant to evoke the 19th century. Unfinished green cloth with a real gold leaf on the spine: letters, horizontals reminiscent of decorative Victorian bands, and five images of travel (designed by illustrator Fritz Kredel.)
Inside one finds smooth, creamy paper, sub-topic headings in the margins, a judicious use of white space, and over 30 small color illustrations.
Designed by George Salter, illustated by Kredel, with an introduction by Edward Wagenknecht. In a red slipcase. 499 pp.
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