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Plus, in one instance it tapped into a personal passion: pages 426-428 describe ancient ruins in Hawaii. It is hard to remember the last fiction book I enjoyed this much. This book is the chuckles of an old-timer looking back on himself as a "newbie." Much of it is funny, pure funny, and the rest is wonderful to read.I relished it slowly, about a chapter at a time, and it took me the summer to read it. Were they Chinese.This book is the first Mark Twain I have ever enjoyed, and it reset my appreciation for him (which had been low). Next up: Twain's The Innocents Abroad.
This book is full of history , humor and Twain makes you feel the long hard ride in the Stage Coach and all the many things that happened. If you want to Read Mark Twain try this one
There's much to like in this book, particularly the first two-thirds as he describes traveling west in a stagecoach, tries his luck at silver mining in Nevada and describes early San Francisco, including an earthquake. It bogs down toward the end, though, in mostly aimless ramblings in Hawaii.For Kindle owners, you don't have to pay for this book. Like many 19th century classics, it's available for free on Gutenberg and other like-minded sites. [.].
No major women characters appear in the book as it deals with raw frontier male macho culture. Mark Twain was ready for adventure. We learn how Clemens became a gold and silver miner; his adventures as a newspaper report in Virginia City Nevada and San Francisco and the perils of stagecoach travel in 1860s America. Twain sweltered and froze as he traveled in the Rockies. The book rambles along as if we were seated around a campfire to listen to the narrator spin another story. His first book was "The Innocents Abroad" about a European trip he took with a group of church people on the ship called "The Quaker." Twain spent about seven years in the American West. Twain used his experiences of life in Nevada and California for his second published book "Roughing It".
His book "Roughing It" is a somewhat poorly organized compendium of tale tales, humor, travel notes and anecdotal stories of colorful characters. Twain wrote many travel books in his long career and this early one is a fun read. The Civil War had ended. He disliked the rampant violence and miserable living conditions. Travel was no picnic in those days. One of the most interesting parts of the book is his description of the Mormons capped off by his visit to Salt Lake City. Mark Twain is the Lincoln of our literature. It would be excellent for study of the pioneer West.
It came to the Missourian when his brother Orion was appointed Secretary for the Nevada Territority. Sometimes I found it dull as when the author explains the tedious process of filing mining claims, law cases and other matters which are of historical value but are tedious to read. Mark Twain was a master of dialect speech and his comments are often wryly ironic. Twain became disillusioned in the West. The book is humorous but does contain several accounts of tragedies. So get seated around the campfire as the night falls across the prarie and listen to an original American voice speak to you from long ago and far away.
But it does much more than that. But even those latter chapters, if skimmed thoughtfully, contain subjects of both interest and humor.In any event: if the reader seeks education, he or she will certainly enjoy learning what it was REALLY like to be a passenger on a stage coach; to prospect for silver; work in a silver mine, crush ore in a silver mill, assay ore, and work as a reporter in Virginia City. This book is quite remarkable in many ways. Mark Twain is simply a master story teller and humorist, and this book doesn't disappoint. 295-298), and `My Ride with the Retired Milk Horse' (pgs. It covers such a wide range of topics and goes so far a field that it should be of interest to anyone interested in travel, adventure, history, the old West, prospecting, mining, humor, or simply Mark Twain. But, it is also somewhat tedious in the latter chapters wherein the author describes in excruciating detail the topography and foliage of the `Sandwich Islands' (present day Hawaii).
203-207), `Buck Fanshaw's Death' (pgs. In essence, it tells of a young man's coming of age in the American West of the 1860s. And, if the reader enjoys humor, he or she certainly won't want to miss `The Sanitary Flour Sack' (pgs. But what can one say about this book and its author. Anyone interested in the "Old West", particularly in 1860s California and Nevada, will certainly find this book to be both interesting and entertaining, as well as uproariously funny in parts and quite educational in others. 215-221), `Dick Baker and His Cat' (pgs. 373-374), among many others.
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