Roughing It

Summary

Originally published over one hundred years ago, Roughing It is Mark Twain's second major work, after the success of his 1869 travel book, Innocents Abroad. This humorous travel book, based on Twain's stagecoach journey through the American West and his adventures in the Pacific islands, is full of colorful caricatures of outlandish locals and detailed sketches of frontier life. Roughing It describes how the narrator, a polite greenhorn from the East, is initiated into the rough-and-tumble society of the frontier. He works his way through Nevada, California, and the Pacific islands as a prospector, journalist, and lecturer, and along the way he meets a number of colorful characters. Wonderfully entertaining, Twain successfully finds humor in spite of his mishaps while also giving the listener insight into that time and place of American history.