The Innocents Abroad

My recent literary quest across the Levant ends around 6000 years ago. A few years later, at the end of the 19th century, Twain made his journey in the same region. Surprisingly, not much has changed.

His book is a witty, arrogant, and very funny look at a land full of history…and annoying flying insects. 

Everyone knows about Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, but don’t forget Innocents Abroad. I recently read this because I also write travel pieces.

Mark Twain is one of my idols and I am inspired by his humor and the way he utilizes “the tall tale” even in his travel writing. Innocents Abroad is a travelogue about his experiences on what he called the “Great Pleasure Excursion,” or the European Tour in 1867. No one escapes his eagle eye—snobbish Americans and con operators in the Holy Land, alike.  

The Innocents Abroad is the classic travel diary written by America’s most celebrated, tongue-in-cheeky humorist Mark Twain. For the five months that you are sailing with him and his select companions, you are privy to what he does and doesn’t like about his adventures on land -- Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land -- as well as at sea. Twain’s laser focus on human foibles -- his own American-style arrogance and that of his fellow passengers -- is both hilarious and spot on. Written in 1869, his insights into human nature and travel still ring true.