A Tramp Abroad (Modern Library) (Modern Library Classics (Paperback)) - Softcover

Mark Twain; Dave Eggers (Introduction)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812970039 ISBN 13: 9780812970036

Publisher: Modern Library Inc, 2003

Synopsis

A tongue-in-cheek travelogue, first published in 1876, following in the tradition of the popular "Innocents Abroad". The book describes how Twain and his mysterious travelling companion Mr Harris made their way through Germany and across the Alps into Italy. In A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain s unofficial sequel to The Innocents Abroad, the author records his hilarious and diverse observations and insights while on a fifteen-month walking trip through Central Europe and the Alps. Here you have Twain s inimitable mix, writes Dave Eggers in his Introduction, of the folksy and the effortlessly erudite, his unshakable good sense and his legendary wit, his knack for the easy relation of a perfect anecdote, and some achingly beautiful nature writing. This Modern Library Paperback Classic reproduces the text of the first American edition and features new explanatory notes and a critical Afterword by Kerry Driscoll, professor of English at Saint Joseph College in Connecticut. Since 1917 The Modern Library prides itself as The modern Library of the world s Best Books . Featuring introductions by leading writers, stunning translations, scholarly endnotes and reading group guides. Production values emphasize superior quality and readability. Competitive prices, coupled with exciting cover design make these an ideal gift to be cherished by the avid reader.

About this title

Review:

A Tramp Abroad is delicious, whether you open it at the sojourn in Heidelberg, or the voyage down the Neckar on a raft, or mountaineering in Switzerland, or the excursion beyond the Alps into Italy." --William Dean Howells

About the Author:

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, led one of the most exciting of literary lives. Raised in the river town of Hannibal, Missouri, Twain had to leave school at age 12 and was successively a journeyman printer, a steamboat pilot, a halfhearted Confederate soldier, and a prospector, miner, and reporter in the western territories. His experiences furnished him with a wide knowledge of humanity, as well as with the perfect grasp of local customs and speech which manifests itself in his writing. With the publication in 1865 of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Twain gained national attention as a frontier humorist, and the bestselling Innocents Abroad solidified his fame. But it wasn't until Life on the Mississippi (1883), and finally, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), that he was recognized by the literary establishment as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. Toward the end of his life, plagued by personal tragedy and financial failure, Twain grew more and more pessimistic an outlook not alleviated by his natural skepticism and sarcasm. Though his fame continued to widen Yale & Oxford awarded him honorary degrees Twain spent his last years in gloom and exasperation, writing fables about "the damned human race." Dave Eggers is the author of five books, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, How We Are Hungry, What Is the What, and Zeitoun. He is the editor of McSweeney s, a quarterly magazine and book-publishing company, and is cofounder of 826 Valencia, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers for young people. His interest in oral history led to his 2004 cofounding of Voice of Witness, a nonprofit series of books that use oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. As a journalist, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Believer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0812970039
• ISBN 13: 9780812970036
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400