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Start giftingFollowing the Equator
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Learn moreBound on a lecture trip around the world, Mark Twain turns his keen satiric eye to foreign lands in Following the Equator. This vivid chronicle of a sea voyage on the Pacific Ocean displays Twain’s eye for the unusual, his wide-ranging curiosity, and his delight in embellishing the facts. The personalities of the ship’s crew and passengers, the poetry of Australian place names, the success of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, an account of the Sepoy Mutiny, and reflections on the Boer War as an expression of imperialistic morality, among other topics, are the focus of his wry humor and redoubtable powers of observation. Following the Equator is an evocative and highly unique American portrait of nineteenth-century travel and customs.
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, Mark Twain spent his youth in Hannibal, Missouri, which forms the setting for his two greatest works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Trying his hand at printing, typesetting and then gold-mining, the former steam-boat pilot eventually found his calling in journalism and travel writing. Dubbed 'the father of American literature' by William Faulkner, Twain died in 1910 after a colourful life of travelling, bankruptcy and great literary success.
Reviews
“When Mark Twain took off by ship for a round-the-world lecture tour, he took along a sharp eye, a notebook, and his renowned wit. Michael Kevin reads Twain’s narrative of his experiences with a Southern-inflected drawl and an unhurried pace that sound just right. He also offers amusing individual character shadings for many of Twain’s fellow passengers, whom the great writer often quotes as well as skewers. The book is full of everything from onboard whist games to tiger hunting. Twain’s opinions are many, often mercilessly funny, and frequently ahead of their time—except when he is suddenly of his time. The result is a fully developed self-portrait, nineteenth-century mores and all.”
“An early indictment of imperialist racism that deserves rediscovery.”
“Mark Twain’s Following the Equator is one of the best of his books…Lively and interesting.”
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