The Innocents Abroad

Largely remembered for his novels, Mark Twain achieved his greatest literary success within his lifetime with The Innocents Abroad. When the fledgling journalist boarded the steamship Quaker City in 1867, it was the dawn of the age of tourism, and his acutely observed and humorous account of the five-month grand tour of Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land captivated readers … as it still does today. From Tangier to Versailles, Odessa, the Dead Sea and the Pyramids of Egypt, Twain’s acerbic reporting leaves no person or place off-limits. There are attempts to speak French to the French; fear at the hands of demon barbers; overzealous tour guides; and large doses of religious fervour. But above all, there are Twain’s mesmerising descriptions of both the overarching beauty of the Old World and its pockets of desperate poverty.