Customer Reviews

Life on The Mississippi (Signet Classics)

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To me, this book seemed like several rather disjointed chunks of writing about Twain's Mississippi experience. I don't know what happened. Maybe he compiled all his scraps of material about this period and threw them together, not bothering with transitions or filling in gaps, or smoothing out the narrative flow.
In any case, I found the writing delightful and in places laugh-aloud funny. I even typed out several large passages in a letter I was writing to my brother. The letter must have taken me an hour to write but I just had to share those passages with someone. That's how good Twain is. You want to share him with others who enjoy fine writing.
I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say this is Twain's finest book. But it is well worth reading and it lays out in detail perhaps the cross section of Twain's life that he enjoyed most.

"Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain is no doubt a classic memoir from the Civil War generation. Although Twain was smart enough not to remain with the southern armies for more than a few weeks, his life is still very much part of that era. His most famous book, " The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (which was inspired by the trip along the Mississippi river described in this book), is considered one of the first books which touches upon the racism of the south and its often backward traditions. Twain's work is unique because he is not a northerner like Harriet Beecher Stowe, heralding the inequities of southern life without really living in that region. Twain was from the border state of Missouri.

He certainly embodied the divided feelings of his homeland in regards to the times. As witnessed in the book, there is much reverence and nostalgia for the old south along the river that Twain knew so well, but he is able to poke fun at its eccentricities with a wit that perhaps was Twains defining feature as a writer. The sense of personal conflict is a classic point of reference for most writers to the point of sounding cliché, but Twain's writing is the model from which the clichés are derived.

The main impetus behind Twain's journey is chronicled in his pages, which is his comparison of life before and after the war. Just as Huckleberry Finn was written twenty years after the war, this book could have only been composed after a considerable interval of time. It is both Twain's memoir of his life as a steamboat pilot and retrospective of the glory days on the river upon returning there in the early 1880's. The steamboat trade is a shadow of its former self as river commerce had been replaced by the railroads. In these shadows Twain writes of all sorts of tales and memories of each part of the river as he travels along it, often concealing his true identity for the sake of getting objective information. The reader can see right away that there is a fondness for tall tales and exaggerations amongst the river folk, as many romanticize the past. Twain's writing seems quite level headed throughout, as he is able to sort through the "river lore" and relate the important and practical aspects of river travel to the reader (but that is not to say that he is exempt from embellishing to keep the reader on his toes).

One aspect of the writing that I thought interesting was Twain's focus upon the practical details of his early days as a steamboat pilot's apprentice. When many think of Mark Twain, romantic notions of travel and freedom are brought to mind, but Twain's first 100 pages is all about the skills of the trade in an ever changing river. The flawless memory needed for the job was quite impressive and no doubt fed his ability to recall his life's work later on. Many forget the man's practicality, which gave him unique insight into the social milieus that he often lampooned or mocked.

The mix of personal memoir and river history is done seamlessly, as Twain's early memories are intertwined with certain portions of the river. Just as an aging man looks upon his youth with fondness, Twain recalls the exciting days on the steamboats, evoking a sense of nostalgia for a youth and culture that have passed into history.

I am a big fan of Mark Twain so this is a perfect selection for me to listen to as I drive. It is very nicely done.

This is a detailed local history of a few years on the Missippi which can help genealogists as well as Riverboat fans and river enthusiasts. It provides insights into changes over a period of 30 years.