num_pages: 704
description: "It wasn't clear in 1870 what sort of sequel Twain might devise after the triumph of The Innocents Abroad , but all indications suggest that he would continue to excel as a writer of humorous travelogue. Instead, he surprised readers and himself by taking an enormous step in the direction ofliterary fiction, creating a book that continues to dazzle with the variety of its many idioms and the sheer exuberance of its depiction of frontier life," Henry Wonham tells us in his afterword. Marking a crucial phase in the author's life and career, Roughing It vividly recounts Twain's adventuresin the West. Twain blends autobiography and tall tale to produce this engaging humorous account of six boisterous years in Nevada, San Francisco, and Hawaii. Genteel culture meets frontier culture head-on in this wildly inventive, high-spirited book, and neither will ever be the same.
language: English
title: Roughing It
titlecomplete: Roughing It
characters: Mr. Ben Holliday, Markiss, Scotty Briggs, Mr. W., SIMON ERICKSON, Roop, Bill Noakes, John James Godfrey, John B. Winters, Mrs. Beazely, Kalaimoku, Mormondom, Kamehameha I, Young Claggett <sic>, Mr. Blucher, Mr. Curry, Mrs. O'Flannigan, Uncle Lem, Mrs. C. V. Waite, Miss Wagner, Mr. Ballou, George Gumbert, Kaahumanu, Mr. Arkansas, J. Smith, Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens, Marshall Rodgers, Sile Hawkins, Philip Lynch, King Liholiho, Mr. Van Dorn, Tom Reeder, Martin Harris, Buck Fanshaw, Mr. Higbie, John H. Morgan, Ned Blakely, William Kanui, Alexander Davis, Col. Jack, Jules Beni, J. A. Slade, Joe McGee, Buncombe, Mr. Street, Mr. Dimsdale, Dollinger, Judge Cradlebaugh, Winthrop L. Willis, Mr. Jules, Miss Jacops, Dr. Owens, Ollendorff, Oliphant
genres: Classics, Adventure, American, Travel, Humor, Westerns, Literature, Historical Fiction, 19th Century, Fiction
ratings_count: 9265
places: Mount Davidson, Overland City, Coriantumr
publisher: Oxford University Press