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Title: Roughing It (The Penguin American Library) by Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Hamlin Hill ISBN: 0-14-039010-3 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: December, 1981 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.72 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Hilarious jounrye across America
Comment: Mark Twain achieves a remarkable feat in this book, he manages to write a travel book even funnier than 'Innocents Abroad', which I wouldn't have thought possible. His riveting account of his travels west across the country is packed with fascinating and amusing incidents and anecdotes. I was almost in hysterics when I read about Twain and a group of friends beimng held at bay by a boxful of escaped Tarantulas, and again reading about his bizarre encounters with the preposterous Mormons in Utah. As in Innocents Abroad, humour is woven in with serious observations on the places he visits and their inhabitants. His account of his visit to Hawaii is particularly fascinating, but the whole book is unforgettable.
Rating: 5
Summary: Roughing IT
Comment: I became acquainted with ROUGHING IT as a high school sophomore, when an otherwise fatally boring "World Geography" textbook introduced a chapter on America's Rocky Mountain West, with an italicized excerpt from Chapter 43 of ROUGHING IT. That excerpt was Mark Twain's description of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode during the "Flush Times". At that time, "Bonanza" was a popular TV western, and the Virginia City of Twain's experience, made "Bonanza's" Virginia City seem dull! I was hooked. I found a tattered old copy of ROUGHING IT at the public library and read it. And I have re-read ROUGHING IT many times since, finding it one of those rare books revealing fresh nuggets with every prospecting trip.
ROUGHING IT is captivating in so many ways, and on many levels. It's a journey into the real "Old West" on the Overland Stage, a journey on the road from youth to maturity, a journey to an era of wild, crazy times and colorful characters to match, a journey from young Sam Clemens to Mark Twain, and all written with the young , enthusiastic Twain's incomparable style and eye for detail and humor.
Although Twain's peerless storytelling is reason enough to read ROUGHING IT , the book is also a gem of priceless historic value, revealing much about the Western Frontier's early mining era. The first 20 chapters are probably the best first-hand account of travel on the Overland Stage in existence, and the description of early 1860's Virginia City ,as well as the descriptions of prospecting, mining , miners, and other details of that time are of equally priceless historic value. For those with a morbid dread of history, rest assured that with Professor Twain instructing , the subject emerges with a fresh, new perspective that is irresistible.
I can never read ROUGHING IT without wondering why Hollywood is so hung up on the Western Frontier's "cowboy era" , when the early mining era of the frontier seems so much more colorful and interesting . Hopefully, someone will drop ROUGHING IT on a studio executive's head , before he commits "Legally Blond 15", or "Terminator 25".
This classic book has often been overlooked for reasons I can't understand. It reads as freshly as if it had been written yesterday, and it is well worth the effort. This is history the way it should be taught, and while ROUGHING IT belongs at the top of any list of classic books, it would also belong at the top of a list of books which are fun to read. "Fun to read", and "Classic", rarely describe the same book, but ROUGHING IT is the exception.
Rating: 5
Summary: Frontier life through the eyes of Americas greatest satirist
Comment: There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of travel logs, journals, reports, diaries, etc. that tell about the American West in the mid-nineteenth century. This book by Mark Twain, however, is both unique and one of the best. This is travel writing as it should be. Twain, traveling across the plains from Missouri to Nevada in the early 1860's, and spending seven years loafing about Nevada, California, and Hawaii, collected and compiled his experiences into this extraordinary book. One of the best things about Twain, of course, is his unique view on things. This tale is told in Twain's wry, humorous style, and is very enjoyable.
This book is not quite as pessimistic as Twain's other great travel writing, 'The Innocents Abroad,' but it does include some interesting and unorthodox views which often prove hilarious. Twain spends time as a gold and silver seeker, a speculator, a journalist, and a vagabond (as he himself puts it), and puts a unique spin on each of these occupations. As far as travel writing goes, this book is indispensable, and it also proves quite valuable (odd as it may seem) in any thorough study of frontier life in the American West.
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Title: Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain ISBN: 0553213490 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1983 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Innocents Abroad or the New Pilgrims Progress: Being Some Account of the Steamship Quaker City's Pleasure Excursion to Europe and the Holy Land: With Descriptions of Countries, Nations, Incidents by Mark Twain ISBN: 0451525027 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: The Bible According to Mark Twain: Irreverent Writings on Eden, Heaven, and the Flood by America's Master Satirist by Mark Twain, Howard G. Baetzhold, Joseph B. McCullough ISBN: 0684824396 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain by Mark Twain ISBN: 0553211951 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1984 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Following the Equator : A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain ISBN: 0486261131 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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