A review by mschlat
The Innocents Abroad: Or, the New Pilgrims' Progress by Mark Twain
3.0
I enjoyed this most for the mix of Twain's pointed sarcasm and reverent awe. There's a lot of sarcasm, much of it pointed at some of his fellow passengers (who he starts calling "the pilgrims" when they reach the Holy Land) and their habits of scraping away at any religious artifact they find so they have a pebble from St. So-and-so's such-and-such. But that is leavened by the deep impressions Twain has of many locations --- the Sphinx, Pompei, and Athens among them. There are many times when Twain waxes elegantly about understanding the past when it stands right there in front of you.
For modern readers, keep in mind there's a lot of racism, sexism, and anti-Catholicism here. Twain does an extended riff on slave girl markets, there's regular expressions of humor-tinged hatred towards Muslims, and he is ready to use labels of "lazy" and "ugly" for all sorts of people. But I think the read is still worth it to get a sense of what nineteenth century travelling is like and to read Twain's prose.
For modern readers, keep in mind there's a lot of racism, sexism, and anti-Catholicism here. Twain does an extended riff on slave girl markets, there's regular expressions of humor-tinged hatred towards Muslims, and he is ready to use labels of "lazy" and "ugly" for all sorts of people. But I think the read is still worth it to get a sense of what nineteenth century travelling is like and to read Twain's prose.