Books

A Tramp Abroad

Mark Twain does Central Europe. It’s all the usual wit and humor, applied to the very low hanging fruit of Teutonic seriousness and bumbling tourists. 

He lays it on unusually thick in this one, telling patently fictional stories, including one about preposterously over equipped alpine adventure. He’s also a good deal more harder on “himself” (as a stand in for the prototypical tourist) and the things he encounters in this book. The idea is at least as much to parody the typical travel book as it is to report his own experience.

But as always, between the lines there’s an excellent travelogue. The section on German academic fencing sticks with me in particular. 

The appendix on the German language slays and can be read independently. Highly recommended for anyone who has studied German at all:

https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/twain.german.html

Four and a half stars. It’s the weakest of the Twain travel books I read, but it’s still outstanding.

Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion 

Mark Twain effusively reports on Bermuda. 

If you have an hour and change to read today, just skip my review and read it yourself:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3182/3182-h/3182-h.htm

I’ve never been to Bali, Vietnam, or Greece, so take it with a grain of salt. But in my opinion, Hawaii is the king of island experiences and Bermuda is the queen. 

Mark Twain would probably not object too strongly, if this short book is to be believed. 

It gives you a charming tour of a charming island, at a charming time. It’s every bit as funny as the rest of his work, but Bermuda manages to take some of the acerbity out of even Twain. 

If you’ve been to Bermuda, definitely read this. If you’ve never been, definitely read this and then visit Bermuda. 

This is the last of my Mark Twain travel book reviews, so I want to reiterate: these books absolutely slay. If you like Twain, Bryson, or Barry, don’t sleep on them. 

Five stars.