The Innocents Abroad

"This book is a record of a pleasure-trip... Yet not-withstanding it is only a record of a picnic, it has a purpose, which is, to suggest to the reader how he would be likely to see Europe and the East if he looked at them with his own eyes instead of the eyes of those who travelled in those countries before him."

-Mark Twain (1869)



The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims' Progress (1869), is a humorous travel book based on Mark Twain's letters about his 1867 voyage on the steamboat "Quaker City" to Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land. In a satirical manner, Twain draws a contrast between his own experiences and the contemporary often romanticized guidebooks, which were mostly used by travelers and tourists of those times.



This replica of the original 1869 edition of The Innocents Abroad, with two hundred and thirty-four illustrations by True Williams, was Twain's best-selling work during his life and one of the best-selling travel books of all time.