I wanted to read this book because I went on a Rhine cruise and Switzerland, and traveled to alot of the spots Mark Twain writes about in this book. I know - I was a hundred years later - but alot of my impressions were the same. Yes, the German language is silly to Americans. Yes, the people were friendly, yes the views are gorgeous. The best parts of this book are the little side stories - nothing to do with traveling, but hilarious.

It does have its ho-hum passages, and overall Twain's journey through Germany and Switzerland doesn't have quite the zing or variety as Innocents Abroad or Roughing It. But that's why this is a 4-star rather than 5-star review. It's wry, smart, sly, insightful, lovely and hilarious. You owe it to yourself to read Chapter 13, in which Twain stumbles around his hotel room in the dark rather than risk awaking his travel companion.

This is definitely not my favorite Mark Twain book. I skimmed through the introduction and it was said that he wrote this book because he was compelled to by financial reasons and not only that, but he had to extend its length longer than he would have prefered so that it could be published in serials as was the style back then. Unfortunately, you can tell that Mark wasn’t as eager and motivated to write this book as his others. You could’ve cut 150 pages and it wouldn’t have hurt the story too much. I still give it three stars because he was incredibly funny, his sense of humor was all about ridiculous exaggerations and sarcasm. And as an American who lived in Germany and speaks German, ‘The Awful German Language’ is actually my favorite piece of writing by Mark Twain aside from the part of Huck Finn where he decided to go to hell; I was laughing out loud and reflecting on how ridiculous the Germans, Germany, and the German language are.

I hadn't read much Mark Twain before, other than Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and a few short stories. This book revealed to me the humor that is always written about MT. He used so many humorous devices mixed in with actual travel narrative that I occasionally missed a humorous point or was waiting for the punchline that never came. Not a criticism, but rather it made me (try to be) a sharper reader. Understatements, exaggeration, sarcasm, you name it, MT used it.