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Mark Twain

Elizabeth Frank

Roughing It (Signet Classics) Mass Market Paperback – November 4, 2008

by Mark Twain (Author), Elizabeth Frank (Introduction), Mark Dawidziak (Afterword)

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The celebrated author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn mixes fact and fiction in a rousing travelogue that serves as “a portrait of the artist as a young adventurer.”*

In 1861, young Mark Twain found himself adrift as a newcomer in the Wild West, working as a civil servant, silver prospector, mill worker, and finally a reporter and traveling lecturer. Roughing It is the hilarious record of those early years traveling from Nevada to California to Hawaii, as Twain tried his luck at anything and everything—and usually failed. Twain’s encounters with tarantulas and donkeys, vigilantes and volcanoes, even Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, come to life with his inimitable mixture of reporting, social satire, and rollicking tall tales.

With an Introduction by Elizabeth Frank*
And a New Afterword by Mark Dawidziak

Print length

496 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Signet
Publication date

November 4, 2008
Dimensions

4.15 x 1.3 x 6.7 inches
ISBN-10

0451531108
ISBN-13

978-0451531100
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

In his person and in his pursuits, Mark Twain (1835–1910) was a man of extraordinary contrasts. Although he left school at twelve, when his father died, he was eventually awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Missouri, and Oxford University. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher. He made fortunes from his writing but toward the end of his life he had to resort to lecture tours to pay his debts. He was hot-tempered, profane, and sentimental—and also pessimistic, cynical, and tortured by self-doubt. His nostalgia for the past helped produce some of his best books. He lives in American letters as a great artist, the writer whom William Dean Howells called “the Lincoln of our literature.”

Elizabeth Frank is the author of the novel Cheat and Charmer (2005) as well as the biography Louise Bogan: A Portrait, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986. She is also the author of two art monographs, Jackson Pollock (1983) and Esteban Vincente (1995). A translator of contemporary Bulgarian fiction, she is the Joseph E. Harry Professor of Modern Languages & Literature at Bard.

Mark Dawidziak is the television critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A theater, film and television reviewer for more than thirty-five years, his many books include Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing (1996), Horton Foote’s The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain (2003), Mark Twain in Ohio (2015) and Mark Twain’s Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness (2015). The co-founder and artistic director of northeast Ohio’s Largely Literary Theater Company, he has been portraying Mark Twain on stage since 1979 (the makeup process getting shorter each year). He also frequently performs Mark Twain material with his wife, actress Sara Showman, in their two-person show Twain By Two. He has three times been the guest scholar at the Center for Mark Twain Studies.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Signet (November 4, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0451531108
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0451531100
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.15 x 1.3 x 6.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #107,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #63 in Victorian Literary Criticism (Books)
- #190 in American Fiction Anthologies
- #223 in American Literature Criticism

Customer Reviews:
319 ratings

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Mark Twain

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Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910). He was born and brought up in the American state of Missouri and, because of his father's death, he left school to earn his living when he was only twelve. He was a great adventurer and travelled round America as a printer; prospected for gold and set off for South America to earn his fortune. He returned to become a steam-boat pilot on the Mississippi River, close to where he had grown up. The Civil War put an end to steam-boating and Clemens briefly joined the Confederate army - although the rest of his family were Unionists! He had already tried his hand at newspaper reporting and now became a successful journalist. He started to use the alias Mark Twain during the Civil War and it was under this pen name that he became a famous travel writer. He took the name from his steam-boat days - it was the river pilots' cry to let their men know that the water was two fathoms deep.

Mark Twain was always nostalgic about his childhood and in 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published, based on his own experiences. The book was soon recognised as a work of genius and eight years later the sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was published. The great writer Ernest Hemingway claimed that 'All modern literature stems from this one book.'

Mark Twain was soon famous all over the world. He made a fortune from writing and lost it on a typesetter he invented. He then made another fortune and lost it on a bad investment. He was an impulsive, hot-tempered man but was also quite sentimental and superstitious. He was born when Halley's Comet was passing the Earth and always believed he would die when it returned - this is exactly what happened.

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5 star		70%
4 star		13%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		5%

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Steve Moeller

Mark Twain is Hilarious

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2021

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No wonder Mark Twain is America's favorite author from the 19th century. His descriptions of adventures traveling from Missouri to Nevada showcase his powers of observation and his keen ability to use metaphors, exaggerations, and lyrica descriptions to paint humorous profiles of all things West. From desperados, to coyotes, the endless road, and his encounters with Brigham Young, this is a fantastic read.

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Joanne Bassar

A terrible racist book. The stories are all self serving and immature.

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2021

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Read it for a book club. I did not find any Twain magic. It was written at a time when popular literature tended to support the racist actions of the government, characterizing Native Americans as lazy, violent and unintelligent. Twain should be ashamed of himself for his dehumanizing caracatures of our indigenous peoples and glorification of gratuitous violence and lawlessness.

One person found this helpful

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john gilbert

It's Mark Twain so of course there will be great writing with humour

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2017

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It's Mark Twain so of course there will be great writing with humour. I loved the stagecoach ride from Missouri to Nevada, not so much his failed mining experiences in Nevada, San Francisco was interesting and Hawaii was fabulous. As this was all written first hand in around 1870, it is of course historically fascinating and great to be observed by such a master, but it did drag in the middle mining chapters that went on far too long.

One person found this helpful

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RachelFayeG

very small type

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2019

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For an oversized book the type was incredibly small with an awkward layout. I returned it.

3 people found this helpful

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James C. Perkins

Great Read!

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2021

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Really fantastic stuff... early Twain but well-written and good glimpses of the Old West. Rambled a bit on the Hawaiian part but otherwise great.

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2005

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Roughing It is semi-non-fiction travel literature about Mark Twains six-years "out west" from 1861-1867 in his late 20s and early 30s prospecting for gold and finding his way in life to become a writer. It was influential in the mythical creation of the Old West.

It is a mixed bag of stories and anecdotes, but most importantly it is one of the most influential books of early American travel literature genre and captured the imagination of the "Old West". Much of it seems cliche now, but it was in part Twain who helped invent and popularize it. It is an authentic primary source that captures the feel and flavor of its time, including a few tall tales. Having traveled out west myself on a number of explorative mis-adventures I could really visualize and understand Twains sense of awe and wonderment, in fact its part of the American psyche, a part of me, and this book was a key in that mythical creation.

Gutenberg has a HTML version online which includes scans of the lithograph pictures from the original which is recommended since many books omit the pictures, which are otherwise numerous and good. It was originally released on a subscription-basis. Twain had difficulties completing it with deaths in the family and writers block (it was his 3rd book and by far his longest at 600 pages). It didnt sell well at first, his earlier book Innocents Abroad did much better, which takes place after the Roughing period, but was written before, and is also a travel narrative, about a trip to Europe and Asia Minor.

8 people found this helpful

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Dana Heather

Fantastic Twain Replica

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2021

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Huge Twain loving sister approves! What a nice replica. The quality was nice. No tears or wear in the book. She loved it.

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2017

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I had read about the book but never read it. Glad I now have. A fascinating semi-truthful account of Twain's experience in the Old West. Both informative and humorous. I found his descriptions of great silver rush of the 1860's particularly interesting. Thanks, Mark.

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Amazon Customer

Only halfway through. And enjoying an insight of the wild west.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2021

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A little hard to follow when he explains about the mining business however I'm enjoying it.

luxlumini

Arrived really quickly

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2020

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Good condition and most interesting find

Peter S..

Avoid this version of "Roughing It". It is incomplete.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2017

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Avoid this version of "Roughing It". It is incomplete - literally. It ends mid sentence mid word in chapter 42 on page 127.
(But the story up to that point is very entertaining, well worth reading, buy from another publisher).

3 people found this helpful

Jiri

Superb book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2020

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Sehr gut

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Lilija

book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2021

Verified Purchase

Many thanks for this amazing book.

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Roughing It (Signet Classics) Mass Market Paperback – November 4, 2008

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About the Author

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Mark Twain

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