A Tramp Abroad

by
Mark Twain

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A Tramp Abroad

by Mark Twain

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 825 ratings · 109 reviews

An American in Heidelberg. His tour through Germany in 1878

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Published October 1st 1977 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 1880)

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Aug 09, 2011 Ryan Milbrath added it · review of another edition

When I think of Mark Twain I think of my sophomore year English class in High School. We read Huckleberry Finn. In eighth grade I remember reading Tom Sawyer. In both cases I remember the teacher engaging us in lengthy discussions of youth, naiveté, racism, American culture during the 1800’s, and Samuel Clemens own tramp-like background. Ever since those “teachable moments” in literature I wanted to meet this Mr. Twain. He seemed like my kind of person: witty, tongue-in-cheek, mischievous, ideal...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Rita added it · review of another edition

Shelves: travel-book

What I have is the abridged edition [300 pp only] of 1977. In his intro [which I found not terriby well written], Charles Neider gives highly useful context for the book. Twain wrote this book because he had to, he needed the money to support his family. Neider thinks it is better and funnier than Innocents -- in places. But very uneven, and that's why he produced this abridged version. I have never read Innocents, and perhaps need not attempt to...

The chapter making fun of the German language i...more

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Mar 29, 2007 Jesse rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Travellers

This is by far my favorite of Twain's works. When you go to Europe you need this book. "Paris and Venice are the two greatest lies ever told." Brilliant. Cause they are. When you read this you must realize that Twain is a sarcastic American debunking all the European myth and glory. Most of what you know about Europe has been sold as a marketing campaign. Twain realizes that reality lays not in a travel brochure but in the real travel and observation of that place. Excellent.

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Jan 31, 2011 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Funny, but not hilarious. Mostly tongue-in-cheek hyperboles, Mark Twain recounts here his 15-month walking trip through Central Europe and the Alps in 1878-1879. I have only one kind of test for humorous, or supposedly humorous, books: the sound test. Five stars if it made me laugh out loud; four stars if it made me chuckle; three stars if it made me smile; two stars if it just made light up inside; a star if I found it funny without any change in me, or if it wasn't funny at all.

In his Introduc...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Lorenzo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american, 2011-readings

I bought this book by mistake in one of those charity shops that make any idle and rainy Saturday in Oxford a treasure hunt.
What I thought I had found was actually "Innocents Abroad" by the same Mark Twain, but somehow the word "tramp" was left out of my raptorous glance.

Well, "A Tramp Abroad" revolves around pretty much the same topic of "Innocents Abroad" which is Mr Twain touring Europe proud of being an American but at the same time eager to get all that the Old Continent has to offer to h...more I bought this book by mistake in one of those charity shops that make any idle and rainy Saturday in Oxford a treasure hunt.
What I thought I had found was actually "Innocents Abroad" by the same Mark Twain, but somehow the word "tramp" was left out of my raptorous glance.

Well, "A Tramp Abroad" revolves around pretty much the same topic of "Innocents Abroad" which is Mr Twain touring Europe proud of being an American but at the same time eager to get all that the Old Continent has to offer to his transatlantic eyes.

A very good reason to grab this book is its humour.
One cannot wonder that Mark Twain was so funny a writer. Or perhaps it's just me having read "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" when I was a kid and getting bored to death with all that exhausting fence painting business and that haughty Becky Thatcher.

And yet "A Tramp Abroad" is funny, witty and it's clear how Twain got amused in writing some of its pages. It's a kind of humour that one may find in a celebrated British author of the same period (1880s) such as Jerome Klapka Jerome, but Twain adds up his American touch: the exaggeration of likelihood.

Where Jerome (an eager traveller too) loved paradoxes and observations about the cultural oddities he found while navigating the Thames or cycling in Germany, Twain liked to put himself at the centre of the scene. But he did so in a very amusing way by pretending to be the bravest person around fooling us and himself in the process.
The travels of "A Tramp Abroad" are not particularly exotic involving Germany, Switzerland and a bit of Italy and Twain is not masterful in telling us how and why he got from, say, Heidelberg to Lucerne. Where he excels is in collecting the local stories, news and legends and reporting them on his account along with amazing fictional dialogues and expeditions deign of a maharaja.

Here you can find many gems like a passionate praise of tasty American food along with a lot of sarcasm referred to European menus thay may disappoint a German or a French gourmet, but it's actually only another example of Twain's comic exaggeration.
Twain is not afraid of despising the sense of perspective and proportions of the Old Masters in painting, in calling St Mark's church in Venice "ugly" and the edelweiss flower "cigar-coloured". There is no arrogance or sense of superiority in doing this, although someone may think and may have thought the opposite.
It seems unbelievable that Henry James lived in the same years and saw a good deal of the same British-American jet-set tourism portraying it in the most solemn and antiquated terms.

And then there are appendixes, introduced by a quote by Herodotus.
Mind you, do not miss these appendixes! And if your edition of "A Tramp Abroad" doesn't include them, raise an official protest with the bookseller who sold it to you!

Appendix D, titled "The Awful German Language", is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Eighteen pages of pure intellectual pleasure dedicated to the struggle Twain had with studying German with all the grammar exceptions, peculiarities and oddities of that language he could recall crowned by eight suggestions to make German better. I have never studied German, but I laughed till tears came to my eyes in reading this stuff. And appendix F "German Journals" is irresistible too. Not to mention appendix C "The College Prison". Etc, etc.

On the whole, this book is huge and heavy and for that reason not quite comfortable to read if you're not surrounded by pillows half-lying on a double bed, but "A Tramp Abroad" is worth a try when you want to cheer up yourselves. Not a book to travel with, but a book to travel for.
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Jul 21, 2011 Nicholas During rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark Twain's voice does seem the quintessential American voice. I haven't read The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress, so I'm not sure if there is much difference, but I loved this book.

First is the voice, which is a strange, and hilarious, melange of the real Twain (I guess...), his protagonist (a fool), vivid descriptions of the sights, events, and people meet and seen on the way, and opinions that veer between complete humor and ironical common sense. And it is not just the narr...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: travel

Twain, Mark. A TRAMP ABROAD. (1880). ***. I’m a big fan of Mark Twain, but this novel is nothing more than a cobbled together series of sketches that would work better as part of his stage performances. He manages to skewer the German language and its complicated grammar. He records (or makes up out of wholecloth) a series of legends and then goes on to tear them to shreds. He spends a full chapter on the language of blue jays. His trip starts out in the Heidelberg region, then moves on to Switz...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

By the time he wrote this one, Twain had a formula he didn't mess with. This is the formula he put together in his other travel books, like "Innocents Abroad" and "Roughing It". While it's been a while since I read those others, I really liked them. This one I liked much less. I believe it is because in this book he spends a lot of time and effort on mountains and mountain climbing stories, which I got tired of. Those earlier books mixed it up better. Typical Twain, though, grousing and story-te...more

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Jun 01, 2010 John P rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having read this book many years ago, I decided it was time for a re-read since, in the intervening years, I was lucky enough to have spent considerable time in Europe.
Well, this made all the difference, as this book was a joy. Not that it wasn't enjoyable the first time around. It's just that being able to compare one's own impressions with his adds a new dimension. I would have liked to meet Mr. Twain as he had a great sense of humor, right up my alley.
Secondarily, he details some of the mecha...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, humor, travalogue

First, I'm glad I've already read The Innocents Abroad, or else at some point I'd have little to no idea what Twain is talking about when he refers to incidents on that trip, which happens occasionally. This seems a slightly more 'serious' book than that, too, which shows me some of the changes (not to mention growth) in Twain himself, which adds interest.

Beyond that, there's no easy way to categorize this book: humorous travelogue, social critique of both Europe and the U.S. (in which neither h...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, humor, travel, library-books, 2011

I read this book just after returning from a vacation to Germany and Switzerland; I wrote a travelogue about our experiences, and discovered that Twain had written about many of the same places we'd visited, especially Heidelberg.

A Tramp Abroad highly entertaining, semi-fictional account of an extended vacation in southern Germany, the Alps and Italy. Twain relates his adventures touring central Europe by foot, boat and train, accompanied by his agent (in actuality, the story is drawn from a sab...more

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Jul 12, 2010 AngelaGay Kinkead rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

During an afternoon in Heidelberg, Germany, I asked my well-read host what books I should read after returning to the States. After some thought, she said, Mark Twain wrote spent time in Heidelberg and wrote about it. A quick trip to the bookshop after lunch and we found an English copy of "A Tramp Abroad." Hadn't read Mark Twain in 30 years, so it was fun to read on the plane home. If you don't read the introduction, you won't quite get the humor. I'm looking forward to a list of other, more co...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Leorah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Forgot to add this book. I am reading it on my Kindle while vacationing in Canada. Had to leave my Cutting on Stone at home.

I downloaded this Twain classic as an appetizer for the new book Twain's Feast that is also waiting on my night table at home.

Twain's prose never disappoints the reader, but I have to admit that this was not my favorite work of his. I found that the overload of scenic descriptions did not keep me engaged in the work.

My favorite parts of the book were his detailed portrayal...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In terms of Twain travelogue, I would say this is ultimately the weakest of the lot – although, bless, that still leaves a lot to enjoy. A Tramp Abroad starts out strong in Germany and builds thrills in Switzerland before sputtering to over-lingering in the Alps and plummeting to an abrupt conclusion in Italy so startling that I had no idea that I was going to be finishing the book until I was halfway through the chapter. You can tell that Twain was tired of traveling and lecturing with this boo...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Iona rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective."

The best part of this book is Twain's essay on Die schreckliche deutsche Sprache. Despite having spent a large part of last year travelling around the same parts of Germany and Switzerland as he did, I found that his discourse on language was the only part I could really relate to. An earlier Bill Bryson he may be, but with markedly less humour and a d...more

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Mar 21, 2008 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark Twain is considered one of the great American writers of the 19th century, yah yah, you’ve heard it all before. While most people know him from the tales of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Twain also wrote non-fiction. In “A Tramp Abroad”, Twain writes about his experience travelling through Europe in the 1880s. It’s actually his second trip, the first trip he wrote about in “Innocents Abroad”.

Then an innocent, now a tramp. Nice.

It didn’t take me long to make up my mind, Twain is dope. His...more Mark Twain is considered one of the great American writers of the 19th century, yah yah, you’ve heard it all before. While most people know him from the tales of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Twain also wrote non-fiction. In “A Tramp Abroad”, Twain writes about his experience travelling through Europe in the 1880s. It’s actually his second trip, the first trip he wrote about in “Innocents Abroad”.

Then an innocent, now a tramp. Nice.

It didn’t take me long to make up my mind, Twain is dope. His masterful way of telling a story keeps your attention, but he’s also extremely funny, sometimes subtlely, other times outrageously.

I should also point out that the book is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of engravings by an artist friend who went along on the trip. Twain also includes a couple crude pictures he drew as well.

“Tramp” is quite often hilarious, as Twain is almost always poking fun at himself, other Americans abroad, or the Europeans he encounters as he goes through Germany, the Swiss alps, and Italy.

During their travels, he

* inadvertently trashes a hotel room, fumbling around in the dark
* crashes a raft against some bridge pillars, for the hell of it
* tries, and fails horribly, to appreciate the music of Wagner, and German Opera
* gets lost in the fog “mountain climbing” (to get to a hotel at the top of the mountain) only to discover he was only 100 yards from the hotel.
* wakes up early to see a sunrise in pajamas and a blanket, only to realize a few minutes later that he overslept so long, the sun is actually going down, and there is a crowd of people staring at laughing.
* decides to climb a mountain via a telescope, as physically doing it would be much too dangerous.
* has heard that glaciers actually move, so he decides to take a seat and wait for it to get him back to the town below, before figuring out that it will take over 500 years to do it.

By the end of the trip, he’s definitely ready to come home, and goes on one last tirade about European food and the cruelty to the brain that is the German language before bringing the book to an end.(less)

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Mar 31, 2012 Lori rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Its been a long time since I have read anything by Mark Twain. No reason to rush into reading any others too quickly. I finished the book only because it was one of our reading group books. Good news is that it was available free on kindle! The book was about Mark Twain's European travels. Maybe if I had been to these places or knew more about the cities he was visiting I could have related? Some of his adventures were certainly humorous, but many seemed so far fetched that it was just goofy!

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Nov 23, 2012 John Bascom rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-books, myreviews

Follows Twain's odyssey during an extensive European vacation in the late 1800s. One must pay attention at times to separate the pure fantasy-humor from actual experiences and observations. The book jumps around quite a bit and has no consistent theme, but Twain's writing skills, imagination and imagery are wonderfully on display. If you were only going to read one Twain book, this should not be your choice. But as "another side" of Twain, it was interesting and entertaining.

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Jul 12, 2007 Mark Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark Twain is my favorite author of all time, having earned a permanent place in my library for his hilarious and blasphemous autobiography. I'm on a mission to read his other works, one by one.

A Tramp Abroad purports to be Twain's semi-fictional account of a "pedestrian" journey or "tramp" around continental Europe in the late 1870s. For a man who writes in the first sentence of the book that he plans to walk around in Europe, he certainly doesn't do much walking! Most every chapter opens with...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd actually give this 2.5 stars. It's more of a collection of "episodes" than one cohesive story. And so there were certain chapters that I found interesting and pretty humorous. However, there were many parts of the book that I found unable to relate to, or frandly care about, so it was a challenge to continue to plow ahead and finish the whole book (plus appendices). My sense is that if I hadn't been living in Switzerland for the past 4 years, I would have found it even less engaging than I d...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Matthew added it · review of another edition

Shelves: unfinished

There are moments, particularly in a few aphorisms about strange American characters, where Mark Twain's voice and humor shines. Unfortunately, those moments are largely overshadowed by the monotonous, reverent tone of the rest of the story. I've read that the character "Harris" was loosely based on a minister, "Twichell" and that his tone and opinions were largely incorporated into the story. Its simply not Twain at his best, and its clear that this was a forced commercial endeavor.

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Mar 25, 2011 Strey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unfortunately, I expected more from this book than it delivered. A bit too much of the quaint (and hopefully not current!!) 'Yankie Doodle' view of good ol' Europe - which I know was indicative of the time perhaps - and I didn't 'get' some of the undoubted humour for which Twain is renowned. Still, a classic travelogue (of sorts) & a well worth addition to the 'Books To Read Before I Die' category! Do not be put off as you'll probably love it. Just don't expect too much perhaps (and if you'r...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Josh Steiner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There really aren't any superlatives to add to anything written by Mark Twain. It's Mark Twain, and therefore wonderful.

I will say that the first three-quarters of the book, representing his time in Germany, moved much more quickly and had more permanence than the final quarter. His experiences in Switzerland and Italy were rather hurried and lacked the humor of the first leg of his "pedestrian tour of Europe."

You should read this, if only for the spectacle of laughing constantly and having the...more

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Dec 11, 2010 Peregrine 12 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got this book specifically for the essay "The Awful German Language." Living in Germany at the time, I laughed my head off about the frustrations Twain describes in trying to master Deutsch. Favorite line: "I would rather decline two drinks than one German verb."

Otherwise, I read a few of the stories in this book but I didn't read the whole thing. In some places it just seemed too dense and uninteresting.

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Jun 09, 2012 Sonya rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, classic, couldn-t-finish

I am listening to the unabridged version read by Grover Gardner. It's all I can do to finish it. This is the same voice that read the "Atlas Shrugged" version on CD that I checked out earlier and just couldn't finish because this man's voice grates on my nerves. I'm trying desperately to finish this book.

eta: can't finish this. There are some good stories but most of it is just boring and the voice makes it that much more painful. I rarely don't finish a book, but this one I just can't get into...more

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Sep 15, 2008 Krissy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I my have made the mistake of reading the Tramp before the Innocence, but I still enjoyed this book. Twain grabs you with is story telling and humor. I found myself shaking my head and sometimes laughing out loud at his stories. Having been to several destinations he describes, I took joy in reading his encounters. I love how they set out to tramp "walk" the tour, but virtually never walk. I will definitely be re-reading this book shortly as I enjoyed it and his ridiculous stories and stretching...more

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Mar 30, 2012 Lisa Findley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark Twain! Always hilarious. There are a few too many wordy passages describing yet another mountain range, but for the most part it's what we expect with Twain: some good information mixed up with many amusing anecdotes that lampoon just about everyone. My favorite recurring bit was the narrator professing to want to do a walking tour of Europe, but then taking every available opportunity to do anything other than walk--he travels by boat, raft, donkey, carriage, train, etc. Some sly observati...more

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May 03, 2013 Ethan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this at a hard time, but even so Twain kept making me laugh. I can't offer any better praise.

I would suggest reading The Innocents Abroad, though, if you're only going to read one. But you should read both.

Also, the book is very heavily and charmingly illustrated, so even if you read this in ebook form you should get a hold of a physical copy so you don't miss out.

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Sep 06, 2012 Philipp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Funny stuff.
Not a single, coherent piece, necessarily, but that doesn't seem to be the point.
I bet it would have been fun to travel with him. One should strive to have that attitude of openness and willingness to gently mock through understanding or at least attempting to understand.
A how-to-travel guide more than a travel guide, if you read into it.

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Sep 09, 2012 Stuart rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I hadn't read much Mark Twain before, other than Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and a few short stories. This book revealed to me the humor that is always written about MT. He used so many humorous devices mixed in with actual travel narrative that I occasionally missed a humorous point or was waiting for the punchline that never came. Not a criticism, but rather it made me (try to be) a sharper reader. Understatements, exaggeration, sarcasm, you name it, MT used it.

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About Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also work...more

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“That's the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don't care, individuals do.” — 23 people liked it

“One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time.” — 7 people liked it

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