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40th out of 332 books
—
201 voters
Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
by
Mark Twain
Great writer's 1897 account of circumnavigating the globe by steamship. Brimming with ironic, tongue-in-cheek humor, the book describes shark fishing in Australia, riding the rails in India, tiger hunting, diamond mining in South Africa, much more; also peoples, climate, flora and fauna, customs, religion, politics, food, etc. 197 illustrations.
Paperback, 712 pages
Published
September 1st 1989
by Dover Publications
(first published 1897)
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Jul 08, 2007
Frederick
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of Mark Twain, and those who study Imperialism
If anybody tells you Mark Twain wasn't a liberal, find this book, put it in your posession and read every other chapter outloud to that person. Written rather late in his life (1891 or so), this is Twain's nonfiction account of a trip on a passenger ship around the equator. He writes a chapter describing a comic incident aboard ship and then the next chapter is a sober indictment of man's inhumanity to man. The chapters on Australia are most telling. He sees the Australia's treatment of Aborigin...more
Twain, Mark. FOLLOWING THE EQUATOR. (1897). *****. Here’s the Twain I know and love. Maybe because he is truly seeing some things for the first time, he is capable of being more inventive. His voyage this time follows the path of various British colonies or possessions including Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. Of course there are other stops along the way. Twain was not a patient traveler. Delays were aimed at him personally, as were bad meals and accomodations. All of these thin...more
I feel sorry for folks whose exposure to Mark Twain is limited to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Although those are good books, I really love his travel writing. Following the Equator is not a book you would want to read to find out the best route to take, the best places to eat and sleep or what to see. But, it is a book to read if you enjoy sardonic humor, with Twain's wry comments about what he sees. One surprising thing to me, given Twain's causal use of racial slurs is his outrage at how...more
Long and drawn out adventure as he circles the globe to read his works and lecture. His observations in India stood out for me, but he tends to go off on tangents that frequently have nothing to do with his , in that moment, location. His political, racial and gender perspectives during that time though were an interesting window on the world.
Some quotations: "December 17 Reached Sydney(Australia)December 19. In the train. Fellow of 30...with teeth which made his mouth look like a neglected chu...more
Some quotations: "December 17 Reached Sydney(Australia)December 19. In the train. Fellow of 30...with teeth which made his mouth look like a neglected chu...more
Twain is a delightful companion. This rambling remembrance of his round-the-world lecture tour with his wife & daughter charms & engrosses with the same warm, empathetic, critical, chuckling mind that informs his fiction.
There is only one trait that is hard to take. Twain was an unmitigated apologist for Western imperialism. He displays not the slightest understanding of why the "natives" might fail to appreciate the gifts of order & "civilization" bestowed by their conquerors.
I ca...more
There is only one trait that is hard to take. Twain was an unmitigated apologist for Western imperialism. He displays not the slightest understanding of why the "natives" might fail to appreciate the gifts of order & "civilization" bestowed by their conquerors.
I ca...more
The guy was a genius- read it. And what a sense of humor!
Not quite as enjoyable as Twain's The Innocents Abroad. The latter is more pitched toward travelogue, whereas this is a blend of travel, history, politics, and amusing digressions. This is not to say that it's not a good book, but that it ranges about in a way that readers of Oliver Sacks's Oaxaca Journal may recognize.
Readers who complain of Twain's racism seem to me to be missing the point. Give that this is a man whose childhood was before the US Civil War, he is remarkably respectful and app...more
Readers who complain of Twain's racism seem to me to be missing the point. Give that this is a man whose childhood was before the US Civil War, he is remarkably respectful and app...more
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I can hardly imagine anything better than traveling the globe with Mark Twain. His wit and keen powers of observation were abundantly apparent. Sadly, so was his prejudice; although, one must remember that this was written in an entirely different time, and that, thankfully most people have become more evolved and educated since then. One also has to remember that, as Twain reminds us himself in the book, he was brought up during slavery, to accept slavery and denigration of those of different e...more
In his later years Mark Twain was bankrupt, and in order to pay off his debts he undertook a world lecture tour. This book provides us with a picture of travel and life in the late 19th Century, as Twain and his family traveled by ship to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, India and beyond. His descriptions of day-to-day life and the sights are wonderful as well as thought provoking. Twain never just observed a place; he dug into the history and took pains to describe the human foibles in each cult...more
As usual, a highly entertaining account of Twain travels. This time he travels through the Pacific - Australia, New Zealand, India, Africa mainly - with stops at various islands and smaller countries. The chapters on India were disturbing, detailing murder and suicide in the late 19th century there. My India history is somewhat vague. I had a general idea but the specifics were hard to take. Also hard to take were all of the chapters dealing with the white man's subjugation of black natives - Au...more
while i love(ed) mark twain for many years. and "innocents abroad" or "roughing it" are a classics, this "following the equator" is a dud for the most part. he was giving "lectures" (stand-up) around the whole earth in 1897-88, and this vol. 2 covers Ceylon, India, Mauritius, and south Africa. i think he was just too busy and too wasted from work to write a good book. some little sparks of brilliance, but not much. fast read though.
I mark every summer with a reading of this book. If all you've ever read by Mark Twain is Huckleberry Finn, then you're in for a treat. His commentary on social issues in the later 19th century are a poignant today as ever. What a keen observer of life. His wry sense of humor and wit shine through as always.
Just the first inscription is as profound as the book: "Live good and you will be lonesome."
Just the first inscription is as profound as the book: "Live good and you will be lonesome."
the quote at the beginning of the book is "Be good, and you will be lonesome". not your typical Twain but if you like him, his humor and his political commentary you will love this book. it was unpublished for 100 years or so and is a play by play of his round the world lecture tour of 1895-1896. likely organized to take his mind off a number of personal tragedies (including the death of his 24 year old daughter) he paints a great picture of steamship life and the lost arts of storytelling and s...more
For my first book on my brand new nook color, I thought I would start with one of the books that I have always wanted to read, but could never find a copy. Reading it would be a new experience.
I enjoyed this book. I have always enjoyed Twain's nonfiction-- or whatever you want to call it-- immensely. This one stood up to the earlier ones that I've read until about three-quarters the way through where it moves into an essay about South African politics much like his essay on the Congo and King L...more
I enjoyed this book. I have always enjoyed Twain's nonfiction-- or whatever you want to call it-- immensely. This one stood up to the earlier ones that I've read until about three-quarters the way through where it moves into an essay about South African politics much like his essay on the Congo and King L...more
I read this book in 2011 and only wish I had found it sooner. This Mark Twain is a far cry from the Huckleberry Finn and provides so much more insight into the brillance that Mark Twain provides. A great read for anyone and a must read for any Mark Twain fan.
Somewhat uneven. Not as good as Innocents Abroad or Roughing It, but first class in stretches. Overall, pretty good.
I did not care for the first section aboard ship.
Some of my favorite parts were the historical digressions, especially the Indian revolt.
I did not care for the first section aboard ship.
Some of my favorite parts were the historical digressions, especially the Indian revolt.
Lonely Planet has nothing on Mark Twain! Twain sets sail from Victoria, BC and stops by Hawai'i en route to Australia and New Zealand. I wish I had read this before going to Tasmania last summer. It's funny and wickedly subversive and still quite informative.
Feb 11, 2013
Deon Stonehouse
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
travel-essay
Anything by Mark Twain is worth reading just for the joy of his writing. Twain was an ardent traveler, in 1897 he set out to circle the world. Hawaii, India, Africa, Australia and New Zealand are wild, beautiful places when Twain visits. It is an era when the sun does not set on The British Empire. His trip is not so long past the Indian Uprising of 1857, when the country ran red with blood. Memsahibs are a nervous lot. He is not impressed with the effects the missionaries are having on local cu...more
L'occhio di un grande scrittore su alcuni luoghi del mondo che erano e rimangono esotici e lontani dall'australia all'india un viaggio in giro per l mondo raccontato dalla penna sempre incisiva e sferzante di twain.
Descrive ottimamente luoghi e situazioni nelle quali si viene a trovare nel suo lungo viaggio. Racconta della schiavitù, dello sfruttamento e dei danni che la " civiltà" occidentale crea nelle colonie, parla dell'australasia come fosse una terra unica. Però sarà l'aria di sufficenza, sarà che a tratti facevo fatica ad andare avanti, non mi ha soddisfatto.
This book is a gift from the mature Twain on his sail around the world, past Hawaii, to Fiji, Australia, India and beyond. It's worth reading just for Puddn'head Wilson's epigraphs beginning each chapter.
I slogged through this. Picked it up because of a Jimmy Buffett song introduction.
I didn't really like it. Partly it over a century old; things aren't this way any more. There is humor in it. But it comes and goes; didn't grab and hold me as Twain described details of travel in truly a different age.
I didn't really like it. Partly it over a century old; things aren't this way any more. There is humor in it. But it comes and goes; didn't grab and hold me as Twain described details of travel in truly a different age.
Twain's account of a lecture tour that took him pretty much everywhere is a fascinating glimpse of the world of yesteryear through surprisingly unjaded eyes.
One of America's finest interpreters of life, with an all too rare understanding of how pain and humor are faces on the same coin.
Not this edition that I read. Entertaining travelogue by a great writer, but a trifle slow in bits.
The first Twain non-fiction I read. I enjoyed it, but thought it would be funnier.
I liked it. Want to read part 2 now. I thought it was interesting to read about boat travel at the turn of the century
Good to see that Australia stopped for the Melbourne Cup then as now.
I usually like Mark Twain and the fact that he "spins a tale"...this was long winded.
My least favorite of all the Twain travel books I have read thus far.
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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
More about Mark Twain...
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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“There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.”
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“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
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