The Innocents Abroad: Or The New Pilgrims Progress |
| |
|
|
Author:
Mark Twain
By Kessinger Publishing, LLC
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $52.95
Our Price: $34.84
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.
|
|
 Not Twain's Best, 2008-12-17
The Innocents Abroad covers the travels of the steamer Quaker City and its cargo of American tourists headed on a pilgrimage to the holy land. One thing that you notice right off the bat is that Americans haven't really changed since Twain's time. We still make the same remarks and complain about the same things and are prone to the same bad habits as then.
The funniest parts of this book is when Twain is talking about the paintings of the old masters or about the relics of Europe's churches. Twain likes to give his honest opinion in saying that he enjoys newer painting more than the old faded and cracked paintings of the old masters, and he is sure to torture any tour guide that gets within his grip with the fact. As for the relics, Twain notes that there are enough pieces of the true cross to make several copies over. The skeptic in Twain comes out and he points out everything that he thinks is false or a sham.
The reason that I say this isn't Twain's best is that this was written by a young Twain as a newspaper writer, so in a sense he he writing to appeal to a larger crowd. He takes every opportunity to criticize the people and races that he encounters on his travels. To the modern reader, some of this criticism will read like racial stereotyping, so at times it may be uncomfortable for the modern reader to read. The more tolerant Twain that we often hear quoted doesn't develop until later in his career.
The Hobo Philosopher, 2007-09-15
I think that I must be one of the few people who has read all of Mark Twain's non-fiction and practically none of his classic works of fiction. I think that Mark Twain is one of the cleaverst philosophers who has ever lived. There is more to be learned in reading Mark Twain than in reading Plato or Aristotle as far as I am concerned.
I think that this was the second Twain travelogue that I read. It is a laugh a minute. I just love this guy. When they say the "wit and wisdom" of Mark Twain they are not kidding. He is really too much ... and he is fun! How can you beat it.
Books written by Richard Noble - The Hobo Philosopher:
"Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.."
"A Summer with Charlie"
"A Little Something: Poetry and Prose"
"Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother"
"The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column.
Perfect Gift, 2007-03-05
If you don't know the person for whom you're buying a gift, well get them this. It's laugh-out loud funny even for someone who doesn't read much or who has never heard of Twain.
Review of INNOCENTS ABROAD by Mark Twain, 2007-01-15
In what must have been the first organized tour by Americans of the Old World, Mark Twain tells of his experiences as a member of a party of 150 taking a cruise steamer to tour the European mainland, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.
The "innocents" of the title applies to Twain and his comrades. It shows partly in their naivete such as being flattered by a French shopkeeper into buying a tawdry piece of apparel, and in their assumption that every native guide must be telling the truth. It shows partly in their attempting behavior that seasoned travelers would not attempt, such as riding a donkey all day, or making an evening foray to the shore of Athens--in violation of the quarantine--to observe the Parthenon under the moonlight. It shows mainly in Twain's sense of wonder at the monuments of civilization which tower over him in what seems the first confrontation of American culture with Europe and the East.
There are some memorable moments: Twain's audience with the Czar in the Caucasus; his arduous trek through the Syrian desert to the Holy Land; his measuring the blocks of the Baalbek temples and deciding they were as big as railroad cars; his being harassed by beggars in every town in the Middle East; his being made a virtual prisoner by his guide as he labors up the great pyramid in Egypt. And we realize that throughout this tour of the antiquities, some things remain as they were in 1867. Tour groups are still largely made up of the gray-haired, the Louvre with its miles of art galleries is still overwhelming, the sphinx remains inscrutable, and Arabs still hate Christians.
INNOCENTS ABROAD is typical Mark Twain, full of his humor, irony, and exaggeration. Brevity is not its virtue, however.
I found this non-fiction work useful for its travel information, but even more readable for its digressions: those anecdotes, legends, spoofs, and mini-essays that liberally infuse the book. Twain's reproduction of a fancied playbill for the Coliseum of 2,000 years ago is hilarious. His well-evidenced argument that Egypt is the wellspring of western culture is a startling one. His portrayal of his experience in the Tomb of the Holy Sepulcher shows a devoutness that we do not associate with this American iconoclast. In fact, he marshals a fund of knowledge of the Bible and Christian history in demonstrating that Ephesus, now largely in ruins, is really the most important city in Christendom.
I purchased INNOCENTS ABROAD after I read it. It is the only book of Twain's that I own, because I will want to read its passages again and again, to myself and to others.
As always a wonderful read, 2006-12-02
Twain is not only timeless but his observations may seem all the more timely. This excellent read follows him on a journey to Europe and then the Middle East in the 1860s. We learn much about the time period and his observations are helpful in learning about the past, we see the brutality od the slave market in Istanbul where European slaves are sold, we see the arrogance of the europeans and we see the true view of the 'Holy Land' as Twain puts to shame former romantic accounts of the land of the Bible and brings it to life in its brutal squalor. Twain is ever cynical and whitty and in this the read sheds light on a nascent quinitsential Americanism. The American culture of Twain is not taken in with old europe, he is not impressed by luxory and he is not easily taken in with romance, there is no Lawrence of Arabia in Twain, there is skepticism about religion, about the Catholic church. People are not inherently good or evil, but jaded, Twain has a sense of justice but he dares to challenge his contemporaries and ironically the way his contemporaries viewed say the European or the Arab beoduin, has not changed in 140 years. Twain dared to challenge popular thought and in that he was one of the first Americans.
Seth J. Frantzman
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780548293126
ISBN: 0548293120
Label: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 780
Publication Date: 2007-06-25
Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
Studio: Kessinger Publishing, LLC |
