A review by willwork4airfare
The Innocents Abroad: Or, the New Pilgrims' Progress by Mark Twain

3.0

This is such a long book with so many things happening. It's a shame that Mark Twain is so nasty and prejudiced against pretty much everyone he encounters. There is only so much that can be excused for the time he was writing in. So many of his observations are funny and true, and so many of them are just bigoted and gross, boring, or terribly too long. So much Christian nuance even the jokes didn't really make up for how long it went on for. I don't usually finish books if I start feeling like I want to skim them, but there were enough good parts that I got through the whole thing. Huge sections of the book barely rate a 2, but some of his satirical observations about the travails of travel and of journaling about travel hit so close to home that it was impossible not to like. I can see the stirrings of writers like Bill Bryson or inspiration for shows like An Idiot Abroad. It's an interesting read, just know going into it that he's going to shit on every culture and person he meets. There are better (and shorter) travelogues out there so if you aren't interested in the genre generally, this is definitely one you can skip.


"They sat in silence, and with tireless patience watched our every motion with that vile, uncomplaining politeness which is so truly Indian, and which makes a white man so nervous and uncomfortable and savage that he wants to exterminate the whole tribe."

“Suppose a party of armed foreigners were to enter a village church in America and break ornaments from the altar railings for curiosities, and climb up and walk upon the Bible and the pulpit cushions? However, the cases are different. One is the profanation of a temple of our faith—the other only the profanation of a pagan one.”