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A Tramp Abroad Audiobook
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(3.64) - 25 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
In April 1878, Mark Twain and his family traveled to Europe. Overloaded with creative ideas, Twain had hoped that the sojourn would spark his creativity enough to bring at least one of the books in his head to fruition. Instead, he wrote of his walking tour of Europe, describing his impressions of the Black Forest, the Matterhorn, and other attractions. Neglected for years, A Tramp Abroad sparkles with Twain’s shrewd observations and highly opinionated comments on Old World culture and showcases his unparalleled ability to integrate humorous sketches, autobiographical tidbits, and historical anecdotes in a consistently entertaining narrative. Cast in the form of a walking tour through Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, and England, A Tramp Abroad includes among its adventures a voyage by raft down the Neckar and an ascent of Mont Blanc by telescope, as well as the author’s attempts to study art—a wholly imagined activity Twain “authenticated” with his own wonderfully primitive pictures. This book reveals Mark Twain as a mature writer and is filled with brilliant prose, insightful wit, and Twain’s unerring instinct for the truth.
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"Mark Twain's travels through Europe and his sharp commentary on society and culture and relevant AND funny over a century later. My fave book. I lurrved it. "
— M (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“[A Tramp Abroad] is delicious, whether you open it at the sojourn in Heidelberg, or the voyage down the Neckar on a raft, or the mountaineering in Switzerland, or the excursion beyond the Alps into Italy.”
— William Dean Howells -
“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.”
— Amazon.com, editorial review -
“In A Tramp Abroad [Twain] returned to Europe with a reporting style that deftly skewered old–world pretensions.”
— Telegraph (London)
A Tramp Abroad Listener Reviews
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Colder68, 6/25/2023
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" Twains 1867 Travels abraod. Long voyage. Humor clear. Sarcastic wit. No strong anti-relig. Pokes fun at self for being beguiled into buying kid gloves that don't fit, in Gibralter. Wowed by Tangiers. Description of dancing on board ship as it dips and rolls ain sea, hilarious. "
— Lorin, 7/13/2013 -
" The writing was great--the type, not so much so. Font size ranged from small to downright painful and increases read time significantly. Mark Twain at his dry, witty best. "
— Audrey, 1/20/2013 -
" LOVE the section at the end about the German language... Amazing to believe that Mark Twain was tamping about the same places as me:-) "
— Carmen, 2/12/2011 -
" A slow read, to keep by the bed and consume in delicious small bites. If you want farce and hilarity, this is your read! Especially when it comes to all things mountaineering... "
— Mrs., 9/11/2010 -
" Oh boy! I absolutely adore Mark Twain's writing. I am looking forward to this. <br/> <br/>Not my favorite work of Twain's. A bit of a tedious diary read. Some very witty bits. "
— Judi, 8/23/2010 -
" A few good parts hidden in the long boring passages about who knows what. "
— Laura, 4/18/2010 -
" too wordy but a chance to see Europe through Twain's elitist eyes. "
— David, 3/26/2010 -
" I guess I'm not as big a fan of the more "adult" Twain stories. This started off well, but then I got tired of satire I didn't quite get. The friend who recommended it to me loves it, but I think it's just not for me. "
— Amy, 2/9/2010
About Mark Twain
Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), was born in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal on the west bank of the Mississippi River. He attended school briefly and then at age thirteen became a full-time apprentice to a local printer. When his older brother Orion established the Hannibal Journal, Samuel became a compositor for that paper and then, for a time, an itinerant printer. With a commission to write comic travel letters, he traveled down the Mississippi. Smitten with the riverboat life, he signed on as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot. After 1859, he became a licensed pilot, but two years later the Civil War put an end to the steam-boat traffic.
In 1861, he and his brother traveled to the Nevada Territory where Samuel became a writer for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and there, on February 3, 1863, he signed a humorous account with the pseudonym Mark Twain. The name was a river man’s term for water “two fathoms deep” and thus just barely safe for navigation.
In 1870 Twain married and moved with his wife to Hartford, Connecticut. He became a highly successful lecturer in the United States and England, and he continued to write.
About Grover Gardner
Grover Gardner (a.k.a. Tom Parker) is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.