Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World, Vol. 2 [Paperback]

Mark Twain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

Fascinating humorous account of 1897 voyage to Hawaii, Australia, India, New Zealand, etc. Ironic, bemused reports on peoples, customs, climate, flora and fauna, politics, much more. 197 illustrations.

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About the Author

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Often called America's greatest satirist, he is best known for his novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Born in 1835, Twain died in 1910.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880015195
• ISBN-13: 978-0880015196
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,934,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Twain (1835-1910) was an American humorist, satirist, social critic, lecturer and novelist. He is mostly remembered for his classic novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twain as cultural investigator, June 15, 2009

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Marie Sharon - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World, Vol. 2 (Paperback)

Twain's two-volume travel journal is rich with Twain's wry, intelligent humor, and strong in evaluation of cultures put up against his own American sense of truth, which is, of course, not every American's truth. Set upon a lecture tour around the world, Twain gives wonderful instances of sailing, enriched by his own early history on the Mississippi. He studies, particularly, the cultures he finds in Australasia in the first volume, and in India and South Africa in the second. He is very clear on the plight of the Aborigines and blacks of other countries visited, and also about the place and difficulties of women in these places. He provides astute and wise pieces about the hubris of the Westerner in bringing "civilization" to other countries through missionary work and via the spread of the British Empire. He spends a good bit of ink on the Sepoy Uprising of 1856-57 in India and the massacre at Lucknow. He loves "difference" between cultures, and bright colors and brown skins. It is clear he feels affinity with the brown races. Most enlightening is to read his struggle with Victorian sentiments and the mistreatment of others. One of my favorite parts are the bits from Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar at the head of each chapter. Equating these with the contents of their respective chapters is also enjoyable work for the reader.