19th Century : A Tramp Abroad (Penguin Classics)

A Tramp Abroad (Penguin Classics)

EUR 5,77


Nearly nine decades after his death, Mark Twain remains an international icon. His white-maned, mustachioed image is instantly identifiable throughout the world, the very picture of probity and high spirits (which explains why he s become the poster boy for products as diverse as beer, billiard tables, sewing machines, pizza, and real estate). Perhaps more importantly, Twain s books have retained all their power to amuse and enrage. How is it possible for the creator of a 19th-century boy s holiday book (Twain s own description of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) to raise so many contemporary hackles? The answer is that Twain is a contemporary writer. Not, of course, from a chronological point of view--he was born in Missouri in 1835 and died in 1910 (having insisted that annihilation has no terrors for me). But Twain was the first writer to elevate the American vernacular to a high art. Sidestepping the starched-shirt diction of his peers, he created an idiom that resembled (but did not precisely duplicate) the wayward, slangy, ungrammatical music of American conversation. No serious reader of Twain will want to do without the Oxford Mark Twain. This 29-volume leviathan includes not only the major works but also a treasure trove of essays and short pieces, many of them unavailable for decades. Throw in the introductions to each volume (by such heavyweights as Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, Cynthia Ozick, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Walter Mosley), as well as the original illustrations, and you ve got the book bargain of the millennium.

Boring - Wasn t able to finish the book, 99% of it are boring. And the 1% left just isn t good enough to make up for the rest.If you find it hard to fall asleep at night: this book would be worth a try.

Uneven - This book basically is a collection of stories, bound together by a travel report. The stories vary between highly witty and almost embarrassingly average. They do not always fit together to make a consistent whole. But - if you skip some of the worst passages - this is one of the most amusing books one can find. As a German native speaker I especially enjoyed the part about the awful German language.

Supertramp - If you love, enjoy or even just barely tolerate Mark Twain you will love this book. Twain s depictions are so vivid and humerous you will feel as though you are sitting with him in his den (replete with smoking jacket and cigar) having him personally recount his traipse through Europe.Lyrically this is among his best. My favorite passage includes the phrase, Shot by a rock on a raft. Great to read on and off while you are ready more serious things -- it would be ambitious and possibly wasteful, to read this in a sitting.

i was off of my chair! - without a doubt the funniest book i have ever read. 5 stars all the way

Witty, great bedside book - A Tramp Abroad provides an insight into Europe, in all its guises. In many ways, this sparkling guide is as relevant today as it has always been. Many elements of Twain s character are portrayed in the book, including, at times, his innate childishness. His tendency to ramble, both in text and in journey, far from being irritating, quickly becomes indeering. The only thing that a reader has to fear from this book is either being late for work, or losing ribs. The most notable point about this book is the wonderful commentary Twain passes on his own artistic skills, and the way that the wholly imagined nature of the above serves perhaps as a metaphor for the whole of what he sees on his journey. Warning: not one to read when in a hurry.




A Tramp Abroad (Penguin Classics)