Roughing It, Part 2.

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.4

Word count: 110K words
Chapters: 12

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Roughing It, Part 2. by Mark TwainAuthor: Twain, Mark, 1835-1910,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 2, 2004

Editor's review

Roughing It is a semi-autobiographical travelogue based on Mark Twain's early experiences in the American West and Hawaii; this volume is Part 2. With his signature exaggeration and deadpan satire, Twain depicts the towns, mines, hotels, and assorted characters of the gold-rush era, and also records Hawaii's natural scenery and local life. The prose is vivid and packed with anecdotes, offering both adventure stories and a sense of the absurdity and energy of nineteenth-century Western American society. As the middle of the whole work, this volume suits readers who have finished Part 1 and wish to continue; read on its own, it still offers a run of entertaining episodes, though the threads of character and incident are less complete than when read from the beginning. This public-domain English original is suitable as reading material for English literature or for learning about the American Western narrative tradition and Twain's comic technique.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who enjoy Mark Twain's humorous and satirical style
Readers who want to learn about society in the American West during its development
Learners with some English proficiency who wish to read English originals
Readers interested in American travel writing and autobiographical narrative

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a complete, continuous story and prefer not to read in parts
Readers with weak English reading skills who need Chinese annotations

Reading tips

Read Part 1 first, then this volume, to keep the threads of character and journey连贯.["Read Part 1 first, then this volume, to keep the threads of character and journey coherent."]
Read one or two chapters a day, jotting down amusing anecdotes and character descriptions as you go.
When encountering historical place names and Western slang, use annotations or background materials to aid understanding.
If using the book for English study, select dialogue and descriptive passages for close reading and retelling.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this book be read on its own?

Yes. This volume contains relatively self-contained chapters and anecdotes, and reading it alone still conveys Twain's humor and Western observations. But it is, after all, part of a whole work, and the threads of character and journey connect to earlier text; for the full picture, start from Part 1.

What English level is needed to read this original?

The text is nineteenth-century English, with period features in syntax and diction, and involves American Western place names, mining terms, and slang. It suits readers with college-level English reading ability who are willing to look up words; beginners may read it alongside an annotated edition or a Chinese translation.

What is this book mainly about?

It is based on Mark Twain's early experiences in the American West and Hawaii, describing in semi-autobiographical, semi-travelogue fashion the towns, mines, hotels, and assorted characters of the gold-rush era, interspersed with many exaggeratedly humorous anecdotes, and also recording Hawaiian scenery and customs.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 Author

Mark Twain (1835–1910), born Samuel Clemens, was an American writer known for his humorous, satirical style and colloquial narration. The library holds 161 of his works, including Roughing It, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His fiction often draws on life along the Mississippi River, depicting boyhood adventures and travel experiences in lively language, frequently using characters' voices to satirize social customs and human weaknesses. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, noted for its use of dialect and everyday speech, has had a lasting influence on the language style of later American literature. Public information is limited, so his biographical details are not elaborated here; the focus is on the subjects and writing features of his works.