Following the Equator and Anti-imperialist Essays (1897,1901,1905) (The ^AOxford Mark Twain)

Author: Twain, Mark

Brand: Oxford University Press, USA

Edition: First Pr. Thus

Number Of Pages: 880

EAN: 9780195101515

Release Date: 05-12-1996

Package Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.5 x 2.4 inches

Languages: English

Binding: hardcover

Details: 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 social critique, 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 bears eloquent witness to the unspeakable crimes they perpetrate in the name of what he calls the "Blessings-of-Civilization Trust."