The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress (Modern Library Classics)

Amazing how contemporary the humor of a person from over 150 years ago can be (if you can dial-down your 'PC' filter). Like traveling in a time machine, to read first-hand accounts and descriptions of lost world.

Love Mark Twain, but had never gotten around to reading his travel writing. You can bet that I'll be getting around to it now! This book tells of a journey to Europe and the Holy Land abound 150 years ago ... and it is still a riot. My biggest regret is that most of the people I know could never sit down and enjoy this book the way that I did, hence I have no one to share it with. If you...more

Love Mark Twain, but had never gotten around to reading his travel writing. You can bet that I'll be getting around to it now! This book tells of a journey to Europe and the Holy Land abound 150 years ago ... and it is still a riot. My biggest regret is that most of the people I know could never sit down and enjoy this book the way that I did, hence I have no one to share it with. If you have enjoyed Twain in the past try this one. His voice is ageless. I'm moving on to ROUGHING IT next.   hide

One word: Ferguson.

It's Mark Twain, perhaps not at his best, but not at his worst.

Amusing but gets a bit repitious. Twain is at his most humorous when cursing the beggars of far off lands and when he sees fit to make fun of himself. Eventually all the locations and biblical landmarks start to blur together.

I read this for the first time in my sophmore year of high school and I still think that it is Mark Twain's best work in that more of his own personality, wit, and sarcasm comes through.

An incredible book!

Funny, sarcastic, and interesting, as one might expect. His accounts of the people and places he encounters are lighthearted and insightful. If you are a traveler (or want to be), then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. The penultimate chapters were my least favorite. Twain's exhaustion with the landscape and relics from Jordan through Palestine echo in the writing, making it...more

Funny, sarcastic, and interesting, as one might expect. His accounts of the people and places he encounters are lighthearted and insightful. If you are a traveler (or want to be), then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. The penultimate chapters were my least favorite. Twain's exhaustion with the landscape and relics from Jordan through Palestine echo in the writing, making it a slow read. It might be personal preference, but I prefer Twain's essays and nonfiction to the American classics. A side note: Paul Theroux's Pillars of Hercules travels along the same path up through Italy. In comparison, Twain is a kinder, gentler travel writer. Where Theroux is disdainful, Twain sees the world with genuine wonderment, with a twist of lemon.   hide

Although the book is long (600 pages), and Twain goes off on a number of weird tangents, this was an excellent read. For anyone who has ever traveled to Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East, this is a must read. It's amazing that 150 years after its writing, the stereotypes and cultural observations are still true today. Twain is truly a wordsmith. And, though he may be...more

Although the book is long (600 pages), and Twain goes off on a number of weird tangents, this was an excellent read. For anyone who has ever traveled to Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East, this is a must read. It's amazing that 150 years after its writing, the stereotypes and cultural observations are still true today. Twain is truly a wordsmith. And, though he may be somewhat brutal in his candid opinions, his book kept me laughing.   hide