Roughing It (Enriched Classics)
by Mark Twain
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Read in June, 2008
I don't know if I can honestly mark this in the "read" column since I skipped quickly to the back portion for Twain's thoughts on Hawaii before my own Hawaii trip. But time was short.
What I discovered from Twain is that Hawaii has changed quite a bit since the middle-19th century. Duh. But imagine how spectacular it would be to come across Kilauea on horseback and look as if you were the only people in the world there. Nowadays, it's just another site on the bus tour.
In Twain's...more
What I discovered from Twain is that Hawaii has changed quite a bit since the middle-19th century. Duh. But imagine how spectacular it would be to come across Kilauea on horseback and look as if you were the only people in the world there. Nowadays, it's just another site on the bus tour.
In Twain's...more
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Read in July, 2002
recommends it for:
aspiring adventurers, fans of side-splitting comedy; hoboes
This is one of my favorite books of all time, and my favorite by Twain. I like vignettes - they're easy to digest and not too hard on the constitution - and this book is full of little tales. Tales within tales, and Twain at his funniest. He's so dry you want to go get some water, but at the root of it all there's this unassuming acceptance that this is the way things are. The matter-of-fact nature is really what makes this book: Twain, a young journalist (which helps when the tales get tall; we...more
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Read in January, 1967
recommends it for:
Absolutely everyone
This is one of the greatest books ever written. One of the first I came across when I started reading for pleasure, I've been back to it about every three or four years since. It never fails to entertain and educate. Twain was my second author, after Steinbeck. I read everything I could find by both of them...this is great humor and history.
Twain had a humanitarian streak that is not evoked by his name. He had sympathy for the underdog all through his life, be that character cast by race, ...more
Twain had a humanitarian streak that is not evoked by his name. He had sympathy for the underdog all through his life, be that character cast by race, ...more
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recommends it for:
who wouldn't I recommend this to?
God this book is so good, Twain is just too good. This is a surprisingly less well known autobiographical-tumble tale of Twain headin' out west to work for his brother in his early twenties. Each chapter is a bit of a story/adventure unto itself---so witty, so sharp, and Twain is so on-point, absolutely incapable of taking himself and anyone around him seriously. Special chapters no doubt include the runaway mustang he thought he could tame, his pondering-s over how in the hell could Brigham ...more
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Read in February, 2008
I actually listened to this book on CD. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hated to see it come to an end. I loved Mark Twain's wit and laughed right out loud many times. This book is the story of his seven year sojourn into the West during the silver mine hey day in Nevada. His travels during this time also took him to San Francisco and Hawaii. His descriptions of his experiences, the people and their stories he encountered along the way, and the historical settings of his travels were colorful and in...more
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recommends it for:
Those who live or have traveled to the western US
You forget, sometimes, how well traveled Mark Twain was. Mr. Clemens travels westward and on toward Hawaii in this depiction of the frontier.
I waited in spots for some of that sharp whit that Twain usually shares, but missed them during the first read. So, I went back to some spots and re-read them. Twain, is a great storyteller who tries to catch you sleeping at the reading gates. The humor is there. Sometimes, you just have to look for it.
I particularly enjoyed this book due to rec...more
I waited in spots for some of that sharp whit that Twain usually shares, but missed them during the first read. So, I went back to some spots and re-read them. Twain, is a great storyteller who tries to catch you sleeping at the reading gates. The humor is there. Sometimes, you just have to look for it.
I particularly enjoyed this book due to rec...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone
I read this many years ago. Little did I know that I would one day live in Nevada. Now that I do, I decided to reread it.
The misty halls of memory made me think this was a biographical account, but it is fiction with a historical base. Yes, he really did have at least some of these adventures, but Twain took a bit of artistic license to make them good Wild West stories.
I think I enjoyed it more the first time around, when it was just a fun read. This time I am reading it with an ...more
The misty halls of memory made me think this was a biographical account, but it is fiction with a historical base. Yes, he really did have at least some of these adventures, but Twain took a bit of artistic license to make them good Wild West stories.
I think I enjoyed it more the first time around, when it was just a fun read. This time I am reading it with an ...more
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Read in January, 2006
Much of this book was boring, but I enjoyed certain sections.
There were some highly amusing anecdotes sprinkled in there.
I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of natural areas, especially
lake Tahoe. The description of lake Mono was interesting, as well
as the description of the Hawaiian islands. The description of the
silver refining process in the quartz mill was also interesting.
He described how mercury laden with silver would gradually become
more and more stiff, and at the end...more
There were some highly amusing anecdotes sprinkled in there.
I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of natural areas, especially
lake Tahoe. The description of lake Mono was interesting, as well
as the description of the Hawaiian islands. The description of the
silver refining process in the quartz mill was also interesting.
He described how mercury laden with silver would gradually become
more and more stiff, and at the end...more
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Read in May, 2008
So I'm currently in the middle of reading this and I've been lugging it around the country even though it weighs a ton. And then the other day I'm on a flight, sitting next to a middle-aged woman, and I look over and see that she's reading it as well. So I tell her I'm also reading it and we get to talking. I eventually mention that I'm working on getting my PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago. She responds by saying "That's funny, because I've got a PhD in philosophy from ...more
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4 comments
Read in May, 2008
When people think Mark Twain, they think Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer... two of his more mature works. Roughing It is a travel journal, itself rough in places, but still some of the funniest, most clever, exhilarating travel writing I have ever read. I read this book twice in a row, and I will probably read it again before the year is out. I still reach for it to read it out loud to my friends... This is now one of my favorite books, and truly underrated.
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Twain's Roughing It is probably my favorite Mark Twain Book. As one might expect with Twain, the line between fact and folly is sometimes difficult to discern. The book is based on his travel across the mid-19th century western United States. Highlights include his mining experience, his purchase of a "genuine Mexican plug," and his near-death experience and subsequent abstinence from tobacco. Highly recommended.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone traveling through Nevada
"Roughing It" was a great book to read while traveling "The Loneliest Road in America" through Nevada. We spent the night in Eureka, Nevada ("The Friendliest Town on the Loneliest Road in America.") In the Eureka museum we saw a 1901 copy of "The Gilded Age" which Mark Twain had given to Eureka High School. The book had resided in the school library until it was donated to the museum.
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Read in July, 2002
recommends it for:
Anyone intersted in the westward movemnt in the 1860's
This book really showed again the people and times through the eyes of Mark Twains wit adn wisdom. That he lived the life of say Little Big Man stands out so well from getting his brother to take him along to the job or roles he played it was great. This was a mix of wild west and people who didn't fit described in excellent detail.
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Read in January, 2000
Twain's first travalogue is at turns hilarious, insightful, poignant and sentimental. A great first-hand look at the true "Wild West" through the eyes of a young Samuel Clemens just coming into his special power as a writer. Fascintating and informational on top of being a rollicking good adventure yarn.
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He can drag on a bit, but Twain's travel commentary is pretty good. It's a string of short stories around the places he visits. I read this a long time ago. I still remember his accounts of Sherlock Holmes in the West, the Pony Express, the train to Hawaii and the Hawaiians' approach to Western attire.
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Read in January, 2003
Wonderfully accurate descriptions of Northern Nevada (Washoe) and the Eastern Sierra, hilarious adventures, not to mention one of the first books about the Hawaiian Islands -- it really is an entire little book, and it's perfect. Yes, Mark Twain was one of the first white men to surf.
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Well . . . I have enjoyed everything else I've read from Twain lately . . . but this one was just boring. It was interesting to see 19th century Utah, Nevada, California, and Hawaii through MT's eyes, but he just wasn't as clever and easy to read as he usually is in his fiction.
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Mark Twain Fans, Travel story fans
Mark Twain's subtle, ironic sense of humor just strikes my funny bone continually. This is a mostly-true story of his travels to the west -- from Missouri to Utah, Nevada, California and Hawaii. Quite a fun tale.
Favorite Quote: "Traps, commonly, are not set for benevolence."
Favorite Quote: "Traps, commonly, are not set for benevolence."
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Someone-- not Tolstoy-- said that there are two types of stories: A man goes on a journey; a stranger comes to town. Today's selection's are of the first type. "Roughing it" may be the best travelogue since Marco Polo. But Marco Polo wasn't an American. Happy 4th!
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Read in January, 1939
Take a young Sam Clemens and put him in the Wild West with a bunch of Yahoo gold prospectors and this is what you get. I especially like the Lake Tahoe scene where they're playing an innocent game of euchre when all Hellfire breaks loose.
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.87 (513 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.84 (391 ratings) number of reviews: 61popular shelves
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""Which is him?" The grammar was faulty, maybe, but we could not know, then, that it would go in a book someday."
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