A Tramp Abroad

Mark Twain

Description

“A Tramp Abroad” is a 1880 travel book by Mark Twain that chronicles his travels in central and southern Europe. The fourth of six such travel books written by Twain, it follows Twain and his close friend Joseph Twichel as they attempt to walk across the continent. A classic work of travel literature not to be missed by fans and collectors of Twain seminal work. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910), more commonly known under the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, lecturer, publisher and entrepreneur most famous for his novels “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876) and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884). Other notable works by this author include: “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today” (1873) and “The Prince and the Pauper” (1881). Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this fantastic novel now in a new edition complete with a specially-commissioned biography of the author.

Sujets

• Mark Twain

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 07 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528791403
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A TR AMP ABROAD
By
MARK TWAIN

First published in 1880





Copyright © 2020 Read & Co. Classics
This edition is published by Read & Co. Classics, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd. For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk


Contents
Mark Twain
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
C HAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
C HAPTER VII
CH APTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
C HAPTER XII
CH APTER XIII
C HAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
C HAPTER XVI
CH APTER XVII
CHA PTER XVIII
C HAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
C HAPTER XXI
CH APTER XXII
CHA PTER XXIII
CH APTER XXIV
C HAPTER XXV
CH APTER XXVI
CHA PTER XXVII
CHAP TER XXVIII
CH APTER XXIX
C HAPTER XXX
CH APTER XXXI
CHA PTER XXXII
CHAP TER XXXIII
CHA PTER XXXIV
CH APTER XXXV
CHA PTER XXXVI
CHAP TER XXXVII
CHAPT ER XXXVIII
CHA PTER XXXIX
CHAPTER XL
C HAPTER XLI
CH APTER XLII
CHA PTER XLIII
CH APTER XLIX
C HAPTER XLV
CH APTER XLVI
CHA PTER XLVII
CHAP TER XLVIII
CH APTER XLIX
CHAPTER L
APPENDIX
APPENDIX A
T HE PORTIER
APPENDIX B
HEIDELB ERG CASTLE
APPENDIX C
THE COLL EGE PRISON
APPENDIX D
THE AWFUL GERMA N LANGUAGE
APPENDIX E
LEGEND OF T HE CASTLES
APPENDIX F
GERMA N JOURNALS


Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pseudonym Mark Twain, was born on 30 November, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, USA. He was born the day after a visit by Halley’s Comet, and died the day following its subsequent retur n in 1910.
He is best known for the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often referred to as ‘the Great Americ an Novel’.
Hailed as ‘the father of American literature’ by William Faulkner, Twain was a friend of presidents, performers, entrepreneurs and royalty. His wit and satire endeared him to peers and critics alike. Twain spent most of his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, which provided the inspirational setting for much of his later works. It was here that Twain started writing, contributing articles to his older brother, Orion’s newspaper. After a brief, unsuccessful, spell mining in Nevada and California, twain returned to writing – penning The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County in 1865. This was a humorous tale based on a story heard at a mining camp in California, and won Twain international attention. Five years later, Twain married Olivia Langdon, the sister of Charles Langdon, a man whom Twain met on a trip to the Mi ddle East.
Upon Langdon showing a picture of his sister Olivia to Twain, Twain claimed to have fallen in love with her at first sight. Through Olivia, Twain met many prominent liberals, socialists and political activists, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, the abolitionist and author, as well as the utopian socialist, William Dean Howells. These connections deeply influenced Twain’s later political outlook, remaining firmly anti-imperialist, anti-organised religion, an abolitionist and a steady supporter of the labour movement. Twain and Olivia had three daughters, Susy, Clara and Jean, and one son, Langdon. Unfortunately Langdon died whilst he was still in infancy. The family spent many happy summers at Quarry Farm - Olivia’s sister’s home on the outskirts of New York, where Twain wrote many of his classic novels; The Adventures and Huckleberry Finn , as well as The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). Despite these successes, financial as well as literary, Twain lost a great deal of money through investing in new technologies. His love of science and invention led him to invest a massive 300,000 dollars (about 8 million dollars today) in the Paige typesetting machine. This mechanical marvel was made redundant before it was even completed however, by the Linotype machine, and Twain lost his entire investment. As a result of this, on the advice from a friend, Twain filed for Bankruptcy. Fortunately, he was heavily in demand as a featured speaker, and embarked on a massive worldwide lecture tour in July 1895 to pay off all his creditors. After nearly five years travelling, Twain returned to America having earned enough money to pay off his debts. On his homecoming, Twain sadly suffered a period of deep depression, which began on his daughter Susy’s death in 1896, and worsened on the death of his wife in 1904 and his other daughter Jean in 1909. Twain died of a heart attack on 21 April, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut. He had predicted his death, the day after Halley’s comets closest approach to Earth; ‘It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out t ogether.’’
He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira , New York


CHAPTER I
THE KNIGHTED KNAVE OF BERGEN
One day it occurred to me that it had been many years since the world had been afforded the spectacle of a man adventurous enough to undertake a journey through Europe on foot. After much thought, I decided that I was a person fitted to furnish to mankind this spectacle. So I determined to do it. This was in Ma rch, 1878.
I looked about me for the right sort of person to accompany me in the capacity of agent, and finally hired a Mr. Harris for thi s service.
It was also my purpose to study art while in Europe. Mr. Harris was in sympathy with me in this. He was as much of an enthusiast in art as I was, and not less anxious to learn to paint. I desired to learn the German language; so d id Harris.
Toward the middle of April we sailed in the Holsatia , Captain Brandt, and had a very pleasant tri p, indeed.
After a brief rest at Hamburg, we made preparations for a long pedestrian trip southward in the soft spring weather, but at the last moment we changed the program, for private reasons, and took the expr ess-train.
We made a short halt at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and found it an interesting city. I would have liked to visit the birthplace of Gutenburg, but it could not be done, as no memorandum of the site of the house has been kept. So we spent an hour in the Goethe mansion instead. The city permits this house to belong to private parties, instead of gracing and dignifying herself with the honor of possessing and prot ecting it.
Frankfort is one of the sixteen cities which have the distinction of being the place where the following incident occurred. Charlemagne, while chasing the Saxons (as he said), or being chased by them (as they said), arrived at the bank of the river at dawn, in a fog. The enemy were either before him or behind him; but in any case he wanted to get across, very badly. He would have given anything for a guide, but none was to be had. Presently he saw a deer, followed by her young, approach the water. He watched her, judging that she would seek a ford, and he was right. She waded over, and the army followed. So a great Frankish victory or defeat was gained or avoided; and in order to commemorate the episode, Charlemagne commanded a city to be built there, which he named Frankfort—the ford of the Franks. None of the other cities where this event happened were named for it. This is good evidence that Frankfort was the first place it oc curred at.
Frankfort has another distinction—it is the birthplace of the German alphabet; or at least of the German word for alphabet— buchstaben . They say that the first movable types were made on birch sticks— buchstabe —hence the name.
I was taught a lesson in political economy in Frankfort. I had brought from home a box containing a thousand very cheap cigars. By way of experiment, I stepped into a little shop in a queer old back street, took four gaily decorated boxes of wax matches and three cigars, and laid down a silver piece worth 48 cents. The man gave me 43 cen ts change.
In Frankfort everybody wears clean clothes, and I think we noticed that this strange thing was the case in Hamburg, too, and in the villages along the road. Even in the narrowest and poorest and most ancient quarters of Frankfort neat and clean clothes were the rule. The little children of both sexes were nearly always nice enough to take into a body’s lap. And as for the uniforms of the soldiers, they were newness and brightness carried to perfection. One could never detect a smirch or a grain of dust upon them. The street-car conductors and drivers wore pretty uniforms which seemed to be just out of the bandbox, and their manners were as fine as thei r clothes.
In one of the shops I had the luck to stumble upon a book which has charmed me nearly to death. It is entitled The Legends Of The Rhine From Basle To Rotterdam , by F. J. Kiefer; translated by L. W. Gar nham, B.A.
All tourists mention the Rhine legends—in that sort of way which quietly pretends that the mentioner has been familiar with them all his life, and that the reader cannot p