The Innocents Abroad

An annotated edition of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad, Twain's best-selling book in his lifetime, and the book that made him an international celebrity. This edition includes:All original illustrations from the first edition. Over 1200 footnotes covering the people, places, events, and even the words used in this classic travel book. Eight Appendixes, including information on the passengers, officers, and crew. A lexicon including hundreds of words, all defined in the book. A comprehensive index. Published in 1869, the book is based on what was the first organized cruise ship journey, taking a group of wealthy American tourists (and Twain) to Europe and the Middle East. Twain and his fellow excursionists visited the Azores, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, and the Ottoman Empire (in locations that today would be Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel). The book looks at Americans and Europeans, and the art and literature that made up the Western canon up to that point. Twain finds himself an art critic visiting some of the most famous works of art in France and Italy, giving his very American perspective. Twain navigates many quarantines due to cholera in that pre-antibiotic age. Woven into the book are his knowledge of the Bible and literary works. Finally his travels in the Holy Land shatter his romantic view of the land based on the Bible and previous authors' descriptions of the land.