This travel book recounts a pleasure cruise Twain took in 1867 aboard a steamer carrying American tourists to Europe and the Holy Land. Writing as one of the so-called innocents, he describes famous sights in France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East with irreverent wit.
He pokes fun at guidebooks, relic-hunting, fellow passengers and his own countrymen, but also records real moments of wonder. The book made Twain famous across America and helped define a distinctly American, unawed style of travel writing.
Quotes
The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, until he goes abroad.
Chapter XXIII · Project Gutenberg #3176 (opens in a new tab)
I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.
They spell it "Vinci" and pronounce it "Vinchy". Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
Guides cannot master the subtleties of the American joke.
Chapter XXVII · Project Gutenberg #3176 (opens in a new tab)