The Innocents Abroad

Mark Twain describes his travels on a luxury cruise that takes him and a couple hundred other Americans from New York across the Atlantic to the Azores, Gibraltar, Morocco, Marseille, Paris, much of Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine in 1867. It is fascinating to hear about an American traveler's experience at such a time when the world was industrializing and probably already as different from the 18th century as it was different from our world in the 21st century today.

Twain takes in the hallowed sights and sites along the “grand tour” of Western Europe and the near Middle East with a wry and usually hilariously cynical skepticism. Rather than recount how extraordinarily beautiful the art of the old masters is, Twain instead typically comments on the way that tourists take in that art–almost always using the stock observations of the guidebooks. Twain never holds back and freely describes the uglier, chintzier, seedier, and more unpleasant experiences that a traveler would have faced, be they underhanded tour guides, fraudulent histories offered at sites, bad food, awful weather, shameful behavior from fellow American tourists, or otherwise.

This is the first pre 20th century travel writing that I have read, but I suspect that Twain's is among the most readable, in large part because he seeks to parody the stodgy cliches of other travel writing popular of the time. It offers a fascinating insight into the way people lived in urban and rural places from a perspective that is unique and historical, but familiar (as an American). This does not mean Twain's work is without fault. Despite many instances where Twain works to dispel prejudices (his preface even includes a famous epigraph about the power of travel to give one empathy and dispel racism), Twain expresses ugly attitudes towards “the Turk” and “Mohammedans”, perhaps consistent with his general anti-religious sentiments, but frustratingly ignorant nonetheless.

More than satirical: deeply insightful. Twain had the gift of Beginner's Mind, seeing people and places without the prejudice of preconceptions. His takes on Europe, Renaissance art, religio-pilgrims, the Middle East, and human character are still relevant and powerful 150 years later.

Kind of spotty, but even so a beautiful work; doubly so when considering its context. This was groundbreaking work in its day, and is still a yardstick by which to measure any travelogue. And the “spotty” may be my fault: I don't know much about Jericho, Nazareth, Judea(), or any of those Jesusy places. A more educated reader might find great mirth in his treatment of the Holy Sepulchre, whatever that is; I just find heartbreak in how people do so much harm and destruction in the name of their myths.One surprise was learning that the Middle East was a festering shithole of ignorance and misery even back then. I can't figure out how I feel about that, what it says about our species and our future.Four-star Twain, but that's still five real-world stars.() Aside from the great rift between the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea.

Uhh this took me forever to get through. I'm glad I read it. I totally buy into the afterword about how this was a turning point in the construction of the American identity. And it had some very funny lines about travel, and just interesting tidbits about tourism in the 19th century. But it was also a li'l bit offensive to my modern sensibilities! And it dragged. And was 500 pages long.