America's post-Civil War years brought a renewed interest in the European scene. Journeys
known as Grand Tours led tourists to take ship to the Continent. They fanned out across the
landscape with the intent to "know Europe." Their return home resulted in a flurry of
published accounts. Twain satirizes both the tourists and their writings with delicious
wit. Ever a man to play with words, his "tramp" refers to both himself and the walking tour
of Europe he purports to have made. By the time you've reached the end of the account of the
"walking tour" incorporating trains, carriages and barges, you realize that the longest "walk"
Twain took occurred in dark hotel room while trying to find his bed. He claims to have
covered 47 miles wandering around the room.

Twain was interested in everything, probing into both well-known and obscure topics. His
judgments are vividly conveyed in this book, standing in marked contrast to his more
reserved approach in Innocents Abroad. A delightful overview of mid-19th Century Europe,
Tramp is also interlaced with entertaining asides. Twain was deeply interested in people, and
various "types" are drawn from his piercing gaze, rendered with acerbic wit. Some of these
are contemporary, while others are dredged from his memories of the California mines and
other journeys. He also relished Nature's marvels, recounting his observations. A favourite
essay is "What Stumped the Blue-jays." A nearly universal bird in North America, Twain's
description of the jay's curiosity and expressive ability stands unmatched. He observes such
humble creatures as ants, Alpine chamois, and the American tourist. Few escape his
perception or his scathing wit. This book remains valuable for its timeless rendering of
characters and the universality of its view. It can be read repeatedly for education or
entertainment.

All these volumes are self-recommending except, perhaps, to those poor, misguided people who continue to pigeon-hole one of the world's great writers. Yes, Twain was a humorist who virtually invented modern American English as a literary language. But the sheer range of his achievement is staggering. And the best way to experience it is altogether. And the best "altogether" is this magnificent 29 volume set from Oxford. Other people can speak with more authority about Twain the author. I want to speak a little about how delicious it is to encounter him in these books. They are reproductions of the original American editions and the facsimiles are beautifully rendered. But this isn't important in itself; we're not about to spend [...] for a little bit of nostalgia. Rather, just open any one of these 29 volumes and see what a difference its admittedly antique printing style makes. White spacing between the printed lines is generous to an unbelievable degree, as are the page margins. Your eyes don't tire. You can savour each page at whatever pace you want to set for yourself. Worlds open and invite. This is how people read books a hundred years ago. This is the way to read books!

I have not read Twain since High School twenty five plus years ago but a friend on a newspapers book forums got me to read him again and A Tramp Abroad is the first book I picked. For the current generation this book may drag but for those of us who grew up reading books instead of playing computer games this is Twain at his best. One has to actually read into his writing to appreciate a lot of the irony but when this book is really on like the mountain climbing near the Matterhorn ,Twain makes Seinfeld seem like he's talking about something. A brilliant travel essay and by the way the Penguin Classics edition of this book in paperback is 411 pages long, not 670 pages .

Washington Irving's biography on Washington is by far the most detailed review on our first President from youth through his post Presidential years. Given that Mr. Irving personally met George Washington at the young age of 7, Irving's book has all the more relavence than today's revisionist historians can ever provide. However, the "old english" that Washington used in his correspondence makes for difficult comprehension. It is interesting to note that by 1850 the change to a more modern writing style by Irving presents a clearer picture of Washington's time, but it still requires an occasional re-read to fully understand Irving's point. A person with a limited interest in the Revolutionary War may be better suited to purchasing a more contemporary biography for ease of reading.

However, this book does provide such insite into the minds of Washington and those around him and it allows the reader to finally start to understand why our Founding Fathers risked all for the sake of freedom and liberty from the English. Today we take for granted rights that never existed anywhere in the 1770's and such historical works penned in the mid 1850's provides an insite that should be required reading for both liberals and conservatives. Overall, the book is long and difficult to read, but well worth the time, effort and cost.

The life of Washington should be required reading for everyone. The amount of difficulty he faced throughout his life is unimaginable to modern man. Washington had a life of privilege which is the main reason he was placed in a position of responsibility so early in life. However, in all of his campaigns he was dealing with shortages, sicknesses and other difficulties that make our own seem not so difficult.
Reading this work will provide the reader with an understanding how lucky America was to have a man of such temperament at her founding. Washington was a man of great intellect. He proved that by defeating the British on a number of occasions. He was a man of high honor which he proved when the various cabals tried to remove him from his office and he answered them with excellent performance and an absence of the acrimony so many would have used. He was a man of incomprehendable determination. The crossing of the Deleware, the winter at Valley forge and hundreds of other examples prove this. He was a man of tremendous resourcefulness as is shown by his ability to field an army when provisions were always in want for many years and at the same time attend to so many other details.

Washington Irving's work will provide the reader with an excellent understanding of all of these qualities. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Washington's life. The vast majority of this work deals with the revolution so if you are interested in the early years or the later years you will not find a great deal of detail in this particular work.

The life of Washington should be required reading for everyone. The amount of difficulty he faced throughout his life is unimaginable to modern man. Washington had a life of privilege which is the main reason he was placed in a position of responsibility so early in life. However, in all of his campaigns he was dealing with shortages, sicknesses and other difficulties that make our own seem not so difficult.

Reading this work will provide the reader with an understanding how lucky America was to have a man of such temperament at her founding. Washington was a man of great intellect. He proved that by defeating the British on a number of occasions. He was a man of high honor which he proved when the various cabals tried to remove him from his office and he answered them with excellent performance and an absence of the acrimony so many would have used. He was a man of incomprehendable determination. The crossing of the Deleware, the winter at Valley forge and hundreds of other examples prove this. He was a man of tremendous resourcefulness as is shown by his ability to field an army when provisions were always in want for many years and at the same time attend to so many other details.

Washington Irving's work will provide the reader with an excellent understanding of all of these qualities. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Washington's life. The vast majority of this work deals with the revolution so if you are interested in the early years or the later years you will not find a great deal of detail in this particular work.

Once past the alarmingly dull first chapter - a detailed treatise on Antarctic law which combines the style of a superannuated college professor with that of an assiduous low-level bureaucrat - "Beyond Cape Horn" settles into an enjoyable though disjointed read.
Neider's book is a happy democracy in which all facts are equal and each anecdote merits the same amount of space and generous allotment of adjectives. He does not sift the wheat from the chaff, prioritize, or even impose much order. An account of Shackleton's Endurance expedition, a vivid depiction of life aboard an icebreaker and interviews with members of the Scott and Byrd expeditions jostle for space amid a list of condiments available in the base mess hall, a biographical paragraph or three on every explorer who ever ventured near the Antarctic regions, and a meditation on the life of Rachel the Husky. (We also get a blow-by blow description of the men butchering a seal for Rachel.)
There is something endearing in this. Neider is like an enthusiastic hobbyist, full of information and bursting to tell us all about it. He draws us in, whether he is watching killer whales at play, examining gorgeously-colored caverns of glacial ice, or musing on the moral probity of a helicopter crew filming a penguin "in a panic which [they themselves] have caused."
And it is hard to dislike a writer who refuses to take sea-sickness pills because Darwin had none on the Beagle.

Beyond Cape Horn: Travels In The Antarctic is a personal experienced based account of the wonders of Antarctica's landmass and the ocean surrounding it. Written by the late scholar and three-time Antarctic explorer Charles Neider (1915-2001), Beyond Cape Horn is drawn from his third navigation in 1977 of the Antarctic seas on a mission to observe the habitat of the Southern Ocean as it was changing in response to increasing commercial activity. Neider surveys the land, the water currents, the natural life that flourishes in spite of the cold and otherwise inhospitable climate. A vivid and memorable account which is enhanced by extensive interviews with Antarctic explorers such as Sir Charles Wright, Laurence Gould, and Sir Vivan Fuchs (the first man to cross Antarctica's landmass), Beyond Cape Horn is an exceptional blend of personal memoir and scientific treatise which is particular recommended for those who appreciate travel, exploration, and the magnificence of untamed nature.

Considered by many to be the great American novel, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the story of a boy, Huck Finn, and a runaway slave, Jim, as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the sequel to Twain's novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". Where "Tom Sawyer" was more a care-free children's book, "Huck Finn" is a far darker less childlike book.

Judging from my rating you can see that I do not agree that this is in fact the great American novel. Twain seemed far too unsure of what he wanted to accomplish with this book. The pat answer is to expose the continuing racism of American society post-Civil War. By making Jim simultaneously the embodiment of white racist attitudes about blacks and a man of great heart, loyalty, and bravery, Twain presented him as being all too much of what white America at the time was unwilling to acknowledge the black man as: human.

However noble the cause though, Twain's story is disjointed, at times ridiculous, and, worst of all (for Twain anyway), unfunny. The situations that Huck and Jim find themselves in are implausible at best. Twain may not have concerned himself too much with the possibleness of his story; but, it does detract from your enjoyment of a story when you constantly disbelieve the possibility of something happening.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is an important book in that it did affect much of the American literature that followed it. However, this is another novel which is more important to read for its historical significance than for its story.

Want a book with an adventurous twist? Then Huckleberry Finn is the book for you. Not only is Huckleberry Finn an adventurous book, it is also can be comical and light, though the book has a grave meaning, showing the wrongs in society at the time in the late 19th century.
The book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer precedes Huckleberry Finn, where in the beginning of Huckleberry Finn, Huck lives with the widow Douglas, though doesn't like the high class living, and frequently leaves to see his father, who's always drunk, or just hangs out in the woods. While in the woods, Huck meets Jim, a slave who escaped and needs to cross the Mississippi River to the freedom on the other side, in Illinois. Although this book portrays a serious meaning, it can also be funny and witty.
I liked this book because it was witty and comical, though it had an important message at the same time. I really liked this book because of this, though the southern accent complicates the understanding of the book. Overall, I thought this book is definitely a classic and a must read for all age levels.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was one of the best books that I have read in a long time. The way the Huck lives his life is very interesting in ways that I can relate. Whether Huck is sneaking out of the house or talking to his best friends about big plans they have, it all makes sense to me. Mark Twain did an excelent job with all the characters and how they all have different problems at home or with some of their friends. He also shined in this book when he came up with all the ideas for the kids to get in trouble with, like starting a gang or running away and taking off down the river and getting caught up with con artists. In my opinion the best part of the book is right off the start when the Widow adopts Huck and tries to clean him up and get him to study and learn new things, and huck wants absolutely nothing to do with any of it. Then right when Huck gets to the point of losing it, he runs off until Tom tells him to come back so they can start their new robbery gang, which meant that Huck must return. When Huck returns the Widow Douglass' sister Miss Watson is living their now with Huck and the widow and the head servant Jim. Overall, I would have to say the this book was very well written and explained and I would have to give this book 4 out of 5 possible stars for my grade. So if you like funny books with some action in them, this book is for you.

I found this an absorbing personal account of a thoughtful layman's encounter with prostate cancer. At age 78, with a PSA of 14 and a Gleason of 6, Neider choose treatment by external beam radiation. He describes this experience, which began in 1993, in absorbing daily detail. Neider is curious but not contentious. He questions his own doctors and technicians, and he listens to other patients. He patiently records not only his own thoughts but the shared details of others' encounters with cancer.
Two years later his radiation oncologist pronounces him cured -- with a PSA of 3.4. The book closes on this hopeful note in 1995. Six years later the book is published and the author is dead (of cancer?). That's the book's weakness; it closes with the story well begun but only partly told.

Don't buy this book! The stories, of course, are classic Mark Twain- one of the most thoughtful, humorous, and clear thinking writers ever born. But the Bantam edition is unreadable.
To save money, the margins run from 1/4 to 1/8 an inch. Not too bad on the outside edges, but on the inside edge near the spine the words are nearly hidden by the curve of the page. Either you break the spine to read the words, or you are forced to slide your thumb along the inner edge to reveal Twain's words. Find another edition.

It is hard to believe that one writer could create such a diverse group of stories on all kinds of subject matter; each one written with Mark Twain's unique sense of humor and extraordinary gift of imagination.
These stories also stand the test of time as they are every bit as entertaining now as they were over 100 years ago.
Some of the ones that I enjoyed the most;
The Canvasser' Tale; the story of a man's collection of echoes
The Diary of Adam and Eve; a humorous look at what Adam and Eve's first thoughts of each other and the world around them.
The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm.
The Californian's Tale with a twist at the end.

This collection is writing at its very best; a treasure of American story telling.

The funniest, sweetest, truest book ever written. "Political Economy" and "Science vs. Luck" are very short and howling funny. "The Diaries of Adam and Eve" will make you laugh and cry. "The Mysterious Stranger," "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven," and "Was it Heaven, or Hell" are masterpieces of religion, ethics, and humor. "What Stumped the Bluejays" is a believable account of a sense of humor in birds.

This is a collection of various accounts of individuals who were cast ashore from shipwrecks, marooned, or deserted ships. For some reason the author included the tale of Scott's trek to the South Pole which was a land adventure not involving ships (I am looking at the hardcover edition). The stories are of varying length and interest, and give a picture of the hazards involved in setting out to sea.