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    Roughing It
    Roughing It
    Roughing It
    Audiobook20 hours

    Roughing It

    Written by Mark Twain

    Narrated by Robin Field

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    To Calvin H. Higbie, of California, an honest man, a genial comrade and a steadfast friend, this book is inscribed by the author, in memory of the curious time when we two were millionaires for ten days. So the witty Mark Twain dedicates his second travelogue and charming SEMI-sequel to The Innocents Abroad. Listeners to Roughing It will find themselves laughing along with the author, as the Wild West gets a little bit wilder in this charming edition of Twain's American adventures, mishaps and musings.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristianAudio.com
    Release dateJul 1, 2010
    ISBN9781596449824
    Author

    Mark Twain

    Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Missouri in 1835, the son of a lawyer. Early in his childhood, the family moved to Hannibal, Missouri – a town which would provide the inspiration for St Petersburg in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. After a period spent as a travelling printer, Clemens became a river pilot on the Mississippi: a time he would look back upon as his happiest. When he turned to writing in his thirties, he adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain ('Mark Twain' is the cry of a Mississippi boatman taking depth measurements, and means 'two fathoms'), and a number of highly successful publications followed, including The Prince and the Pauper (1882), Huckleberry Finn (1884) and A Connecticut Yankee (1889). His later life, however, was marked by personal tragedy and sadness, as well as financial difficulty. In 1894, several businesses in which he had invested failed, and he was declared bankrupt. Over the next fifteen years – during which he managed to regain some measure of financial independence – he saw the deaths of two of his beloved daughters, and his wife. Increasingly bitter and depressed, Twain died in 1910, aged seventy-five.

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    Reviews for Roughing It

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      This is, without a doubt, one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. Like most other boys, I had read "Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in grammar school and loved them. They were, of course, written for young boys seeking adventure. However, I hadn't read any of Twains' work in many years but the accident of pickinig up "Roughing It" and reading a few pages had me laughing and thoroughly enjoying Twains' presentation style and self-effacing humor. His descriptions of the events, adventures, and places are priceless. Exaggerations all, of course, but told in a style that is distinctly his own. Humor doesn't get any better than this story. His version is humorous, but in reality, many of his stories are simply amplified versions of real events written in his own style. This book prompted me to read his other books. He was a talented author which we may not see again. For me, he was to American English, what Shakespeare was to Englands' English. His creativity is highlighted in "A Yankee iin King Arthur's Court." The "Prince and the Pauper" is another tal well told.
    • 1/5
      I know this is supposed to be one of the all-time classics in adventure literature... but I quit reading halfway through because I just couldn't take anymore of Twain's style, which I found stilted and painfully slow. The anecdotes were just so long and tedious that I was happy by the time even the interesting ones were over. I've never particularly enjoyed Mark Twain's work... making this book a poor fit for me.... but it disliked it more than his works of fiction.
    • 5/5
      Funny stories and good insight into day to day life in Nevada and Hawaii circa 1861-70.
    • 4/5
      Roughing It is semi-non-fiction travel literature about Mark Twains six-years "out west" from 1861-1867 in his late 20s and early 30s prospecting for gold and finding his way in life to become a writer. It was influential in the mythical creation of the Old West.It is a mixed bag of stories and anecdotes, but most importantly it is one of the most influential books of early American travel literature genre and captured the imagination of the "Old West". Much of it seems cliche now, but it was in part Twain who helped invent and popularize it. It is an authentic primary source that captures the feel and flavor of its time, including a few tall tales. Having traveled out west myself on a number of exploratory mis-adventures I could really visualize and understand Twains sense of awe and wonderment, in fact its part of the American psyche, a part of me, and this book was a key in that mythical creation.Gutenberg has a HTML version online which includes scans of the lithograph pictures from the original which is recommended since many books omit the pictures, which are otherwise numerous and good. It was originally released on a subscription-basis. Twain had difficulties completing it with deaths in the family and writers block (it was his 3rd book and by far his longest at 600 pages). It didn't sell well at first, his earlier book Innocents Abroad did much better, which takes place after the Roughing period, but was written before, and is also a travel narrative, about a trip to Europe and Asia Minor.
    • 4/5
      Similar in style to Innocents Abroad, but a bit more disjointed. I think that occurs because of the length of time this book covers. There's a lot about gold/silver mining and interesting characters from the West, as well as commentary on a trip to Hawaii, and some interesting takes on various peoples, including early Mormons (there's an interview with Brigham Young and additional appendixes about the Mormons).
    • 4/5
      The first American road novel is not only an entertaining read but a detailed account of an era long past. All American writers can (or should) point to Twain as a major influence; the following passages contain hints of what would later become Jack Kerouac and Hunter Thompson:"I never had been away from home, and that word 'travel' had a seductive charm for me. Pretty soon we would be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and maybe get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it, and be a hero.""We jumped into the stage[coach], the driver cracked his whip, and we bowled away and left 'the States' behind us. It was a superb summer morning, and all the landscape was brilliant with sunshine. There was freshness and breeziness, too, and an exhilarating sense of emancipation from all sorts of cares and responsibilities, that almost made us feel that the years we had spent in the close, hot city, toiling and slaving, had been wasted and thrown away."
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable look at the Old West through the eyes of one who lived there. A great picure of a greenhorn, yet through the eyes of an old hand, and they are one and the same man. He has an extraordinary talent for exploring serious subjects, yet in looking back at them, because of the distance, he is able to find humor in them. It is not a humor that is in jest or makes light of the problem, but the humor of experience and time. I have never wanted to visit Hawaii before, yet after reading this, I would like to. I might be hard-pressed to find the places he talks about though.
    • 3/5
      Mark Twain's memoirs of his youthful travels straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction. Regardless of how accurate these stories are, they are fun to read.
    • 4/5
      Another book I chose to read while on our California trip. Roughing It is an account of Twain’s life in the West. Twain travels with his brother to California and Nevada during the time of the Gold Rush. Twain looks for silver, has run-ins with bad guys, and observes the West in its early days with humor and cleverness. Lots of politically incorrectness that probably struck the readers of the day as hilariously funny.