num_pages: 880
description: In 1895, bankrupted by his investments in the doomed Paige typesetter and by the collapse of his publishing house, sixty-year-old Mark Twain was forced to embark on a world lecture tour to raise money to pay his growing debts. Following the Equator , Twain's final travel book, was the result.His readers circumnavigate the globe with one of the world's most entertaining travel companions--to Honolulu and the Fiji Islands, Sydney and Melbourne, Tasmania, Ceylon, Bombay, Calcutta, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Twain blends whimsical anecdote, sharp-eyed commentary, and serious socialcritique, assailing the contempt of whites for native traditions, and noting the striking similarity between slavery and the colonial experience. In "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" and "King Leopold's Soliloquy," also included in this volume, Twain strips the imperialist powers naked and bearseloquent witness to the unspeakable crimes they perpetrate in the name of what he calls the "Blessings-of-Civilization Trust."
language: English
title: Following the Equator and Anti-Imperialist Essays
titlecomplete: Following the Equator and Anti-Imperialist Essays
genres: Classics, Adventure, History, Travel, Humor, Biography, 19th Century, Memoir, American, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 1600
publisher: Oxford University Press