(His treatment of the landmarks and relics of the Holy Land are some of the funniest passages in the book.)įor the Twain fan, one of the interesting things about this book is its unevenness, its variability of tone. But it is the blunt, skeptical Twain that is the most memorable, always suspicious of the historicity of an ancient tradition-particularly if it is being used to pick an American’s pocket. Yes, I know, there are a helluva lot of Madonnas, but still.) Some of the flowery passages are impressive: his descriptions of Venice and the Acropolis at midnight are excellent. (His almost complete lack of appreciation for the paintings of Italy particularly irritated me. He alternates plain-spoken folksy humor with flowery praises for the scenery, and it is often difficult to tell whether Twain is satirizing the boorish American, or whether he is indeed the American boor personified. Twain’s tone can often be uneven and problematic, and this is doubly true of Innocents. By 1870, Mark Twain had become a household name. In spite of the classics that came after, it was always his best-selling book. The American public not only loved it for its humor, but also valued it as a travel guide. Two years later he published The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrim’s Progress (1869). The Alta California payed Clemen’s $1,250 fare (more than $20,000 in today’s money) in return for a series of letters describing the travelers’ adventures, but Clemens-then known only as an itinerant reporter and a minor regional humorist-got more out of the deal than just a fancy trip. Twenty-six months after Lee surrendered to Grant, the thirty-one-year-old Samuel Clemens, a ‘special traveling correspondent” for San Francisco’s Alta California newspaper, boarded the recently decommissioned USS Quaker City-a steamship once active in enforcing the Union blockade-and embarked on a five-and-a-half-month “pleasure excursion” to Europe and the Holy Land. I wanted to travel the world and call my guides Ferguson. This is the book that instilled in me a wanderlust that still afflicts me, even though I have rarely been able to satisfy it. It is brash, showing at once disdain for and secret envy of the old world, its people, and its institutions. Is this admirable? No, but it epitomizes the experience of Americans abroad. is he dead?" This also drives the Fergusons crazy. And regardless of the site, or museum, their attitude before the remains of some long-ago Renaissance man is the same: "Is. The name drives each Ferguson crazy, but they do it anyway. The author and his cohort call their guides Ferguson, whether in Paris or in Athens. Why did I call him Stan?įerguson is every tour guide that graces the pages of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad. It drove him crazy, but I called him Stan anyway. I don't recall his name, but I decided to call him Stan. When I lived in Madrid years ago I used to buy pistachios from an Iranian refugee in Retiro Park. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature". Twain worked hard to ensure that all of his creditors were paid in full, even though his bankruptcy had relieved him of the legal responsibility.īorn during a visit by Halley's Comet, he died on its return. With the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers, however, he eventually overcame his financial troubles. Though he made a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he squandered it on various ventures, in particular the Paige Compositor, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which proved to be very popular and brought him nationwide attention. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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