My least liked book by Mark Twain thus far. The travel aspect was appealing, but the writing is richly saturated with historical and Biblical stories that relate to the group's travels by location of where they visited and the story settings. I feel like the narrative could have benefited from more anecdotes about the travels of Twain and his companions and even time on the ship or who the other travelers were. This nonfiction travel log /part history book is very much a product of its time as much as Twain was a product of the world in which he lived. The most interesting parts of the book was learning how attitudes towards different people and cultures have changed over the past more than decade. I listened to the Blackstone Audio edition narrated by Grover Gardner, and his storyteller voice kept me going. 

Intermittently interesting and humorous travelogue from Mark Twain’s 1867 trip through Europe and the Middle East, published as a book (his first) in 1869. It’s uneven, as Twain’s nonfiction sometimes is, but when it’s good it’s really good. I enjoyed the contemporaneous descriptions of places and people. I might have enjoyed his descriptions of the Holy Land if I were better acquainted with the Holy Book whose stories, people, and places he frequently referenced. I did not enjoy Twain’s mocking and sometimes disdainful (and  often racist) characterizations of the people he met. I’m not sure he was kind and respectful to any individual or group he came across. I guess the readers back home were expecting yucks at the expense of the foreigners. Ironic that one of his final observations was that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on this account. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating on one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” One of my favorite parts of the book, and where Twain casts the local citizens above his fellow Americans, is in Chapter 19 where he compares the balanced and carefree lives of people in Milan to workaholic Americans who are constantly striving and scheming, never relaxing to enjoy the moment. Still true today.