I read the edited & abridged version by Charles Neider. Twain's trademark wit & humor are evident here, but even with heavy editing this volume is still rather disjointed and uneven. Some of the stories have already become some of my favorites by Twain, while others are unforgivably flat and dull.

Twains Auslassungen zur Sprache sollte ich mir durchlesen. Sehr vergnüglich. Aber als Reiseleiter bzw - Begleiter kann ich ihm nichts abgewinnen.

I'm only on page 20 but blown away by similarities in Twain's observations of the beer-drinking hijinks of university students in His day in Heidleberg and my own observations of modern day university students and their quest of the same sorts of drunken prowess.

I have not read a lot of Mark Twain but I found this self narrative interestingly different due to the style and the subject matter. There are some real gems inside the covers of this book, but I found them too far apart to rate higher than 3 stars.

As expected, there is plenty of social commentary on European living that is both insightful and humorous. For some reason though, some of the chapters seemed to lack direction and/or the expected wit of Mark Twain.

All in all, an enjoyable book that did not quite meet expectations.

Mit Mark Twain durch Europa zu bummeln, ist eine Reise in die Vergangenheit und muss mit viel Muße angegangen werden. Mark Twain reist noch recht munter und flott durch Deutschland, bleibt etwas länger im Heidelberger Studentenleben hängen und versüßt dem Zuhörer die Zeit mit Humor und Ironie. Mit ihm in der Oper zu sitzen, brachte mich zum Lachen. Sein Erstaunen über das deutsche Verhalten in der Oper und die Beschreibungen der Opern waren sehr amüsant. Auch die Beschreibungen seiner Unterkünfte waren komisch und unterhaltsam.

Leider hält er diesen Humor nicht die komplette Reise durch. In der Schweiz bringt ihn die Bergbesteigung an seine Grenzen und leider auch seinen Humor. Diesen Reiseabschnitt fand ich eher zäh und langatmig. Es wurde dann wieder etwas interessanter in Italien und Frankreich.

Man muss bei der Geschichte stets im Kopf behalten, dass Mark Twain 1878 reiste und somit noch andere Vorstellungen, Werte und Ansichten galten. Seine Berichte sind teilweise schonungslos ehrlich und direkt und er hält sich auch mit den Beschreibungen von hässlichen Dingen und Menschen nicht zurück. Deshalb immer daran denken, 1878.

Das Sahnehäubchen ist das Essay "Die schreckliche deutsche Sprache". Hier gibt er noch einmal alles und schafft es fast, dass man die langweilige Schweiz vergisst. Aber eben nur fast.

Trotz der kleinen zähen Abschnitte sollte man mal mit Mark Twain gereist sein. Man kann sich auch nur Deutschland aussuchen, statt mit ihm durch halb Europa zu reisen. Egal für was man sich entscheidet, man sollte sich dafür Zeit nehmen, um wirklich alles mitzubekommen, denn oftmals steckte der Humor in den kleinen Nebensätzen.

Twain is absolutely hilarious. His satire is always firmly focused on pretension, and it never misfires. I was laughing out loud throughout the entire book. When there was nobody to humble and no pretension to mock, he could in turn give wonderful descriptions of scenery, peoples, and customs. As imaginative and bitingly hilarious as Swift, but with one foot always firmly on the ground.

"I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective."

The best part of this book is Twain's essay on Die schreckliche deutsche Sprache. Despite having spent a large part of last year travelling around the same parts of Germany and Switzerland as he did, I found that his discourse on language was the only part I could really relate to. An earlier Bill Bryson he may be, but with markedly less humour and a drier style of writing.

A laugh per page it certainly isn't, but when Twain's wit does rear it's head, it really is spectacular:

"The Germans are exceedingly fond of Rhine wines; they are put up in tall, slender bottles, and are considered a pleasant beverage. One tells them from vinegar by the label."

I won't write him off completely, I'm more than prepared to give his works of fiction a go, but his travel writing did very little for me. There are only so many times you can turn the page and read descriptions of yet another mountain...

That said, it is a classic, and probably for good reason. His descriptions of the Heidelberg region were really beautiful, and the random historical and political tangents certainly kept things rolling along nicely.

I read this book just after returning from a vacation to Germany and Switzerland; I wrote a travelogue about our experiences, and discovered that Twain had written about many of the same places we'd visited, especially Heidelberg.

A Tramp Abroad highly entertaining, semi-fictional account of an extended vacation in southern Germany, the Alps and Italy. Twain relates his adventures touring central Europe by foot, boat and train, accompanied by his agent (in actuality, the story is drawn from a sabbatical to Europe with his family, during which he worked on his masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn). The narrative alternates between straightforward description of the land and people of Europe, and satire poking fun mainly at contemporary travel guides.

At times, Twain goes a little overboard with the satire, as in his story of an expedition from Zermatt, Switzerland, to the Riffelberg Hotel (on the slopes of the Matterhorn), in which he hires dozens of guides and porters, spends days in the wilderness repeatedly getting lost, on what is really a three-hour hike along a well-traveled road.

Most of the time, however, his humor is spot-on. His ascent of Rigi-Kulm, above Lake Lucerne, to see the sun rise is side-splittingly funny, and his recollection of participating as second in a French duel (very early in the book) is a masterpiece. The descriptive sections, while not particularly humorous, are also well worth reading.

Stellenweise ganz nett, aber hat mich ehrlich gesagt nicht so wirklich gefesselt.

I'd give it 3 and 1/2 stars if that was possible.

tI listened to this as an audio book starting on a long trip from Boise. It was just right for listening to in the car. It is quite entertaining but not so compelling that you feel you need to sit in the driveway to find out what comes next. It is a series of essays about travel in Europe which are very loosely tied together. Some of them are really funny. Don't miss the appendix where he expounds on the problems with the German language, offering suggestions for improving it.

Mark Twain! Always hilarious. There are a few too many wordy passages describing yet another mountain range, but for the most part it's what we expect with Twain: some good information mixed up with many amusing anecdotes that lampoon just about everyone. My favorite recurring bit was the narrator professing to want to do a walking tour of Europe, but then taking every available opportunity to do anything other than walk--he travels by boat, raft, donkey, carriage, train, etc. Some sly observations on the habits of American tourists, as well.