Roughing It

The Authorized Uniform Edition

by

Hardcover, 344 pages

English language

Published Feb. 5, 2004 by Wildside Press.

ISBN:
978-0-8095-3185-1
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OCLC Number:
65637249

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3 stars (3 reviews)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known as "Mark Twain," left Missouri in 1861 to work with his brother, the newly appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Once settled in Nevada, Clemens fell victim to gold fever and went to the Humboldt mines. When prospecting lost its attractions, Clemens found work as a reporter in Virginia City. In 1864, Clemens moved to California and worked as a reporter in San Francisco. It was there that he began to establish a nationwide reputation as a humorist. Roughing it (1891), first published in 1872, is his account of his adventures in the Far West. He devotes twenty chapters to the overland journey by boat and stagecoach to Carson City, including several chapters on the Mormons. Next come chronicles of mining life and local politics and crime in Virginia City and San Francisco and even a junket to the Hawaiian Islands. The book closes …

99 editions

reviewed Roughing It by Mark Twain

Rough times

3 stars

Probably, in all honesty, not Twain’s best work, but it helped establish him as a writer so good for those of us who are happy some of his other books, does have some good bits, and its strongest point is probably as a reflection of the author’s time and place. The strongest section is probably while he is settled in Nevada, in terms of stretches of fifty or one hundred pages. Best individual anecdote is a description of some guy on a boat to Hawaii who bothers his fellow passengers by making up brazen stories consisting of horse manure to justify why he supports the Confederates in the Civil War. Finally someone uses the dude’s tactics on him and tricks him into agreeing to some equally tall tale in support of the Union and that gets him to shut up for the rest of the trip.

reviewed Roughing it by Mark Twain

Review of 'Roughing it' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I absolutely loved this adventure through the Wild West and beyond with Mark Twain, though I found it got a lot better toward the end. When, stricken with wanderlust, he left the mines of Nevada for San Francisco, I was more than happy for the change. As a former resident of the Bay Area, I enjoyed his treatment and exploration of California. But the highlight of all was his trip to Hawaii, especially his discussion of the indigenous people's customs, religion, and history, and his into-the-caldera exploration of Kilauea. Since he wrote this book after Innocents Abroad, but it covers events prior to it, there's some interesting cross-referencing in both works, for example his comparison of Kilauea to Mt Vesuvius, and Lake Tahoe to Lake Como. And of course there is plenty of his singular humor and take on the world. Finally, I wonder if Conan Doyle was influenced by …

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rated it

2 stars

Subjects

  • Biography: general
  • Biography/Autobiography
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • Biography / Autobiography
  • Literary
  • Personal Memoirs