Things that have stood the test of time merit some commendation and celebration. Classics are too often overlooked, pushed aside by the marketing efforts of today’s powerful publishers. I’m endeavoring to draw attention to older books that are still great reads.
Mark Twain’s “Roughing It”
Twain seems to have written the piece “Roughing It” to draw on the interest in Westward expansion, highlighted by the opening of the transcontinental railroad.
Most of us read Twain’s adventures of Huckleberry Finn when we were in school, or at least were assigned to read it, and that, and the companion Adventures of Tom Sawyer, are certainly what he is best known for, both now and in his own time. However before he discovered his voice as a writer he had some wild adventures seeking his fortune out West. Twain’s included considerable travel throughout the rough and ready West and this book is the tale his travels.
Why Its A Good Book To Read In Our Time
This book is worth reading in our time because it’s a wild, funny and authentic depiction of what life in the old west was like.
Another blogger, Jeff Arnold in his blog Jeff Arnold’s West raves about its authenticity “The language is of the time, not a modern author’s approximation of it. How they traveled, what things cost, what people wore, what they ate, what they read and what they said are all straight from the stagecoach horse’s mouth. I
t was the vernacular American experience – at which Mark Twain excelled.”
It’s an epic journey of a young man seeking his fortune out west. He drifted through an assortment of jobs; gold prospector, reporter, and lecturer. GoodReads.com says “It is a wildly humorous adventure yarn that combines hard facts with a healthy dose of the author’s unique perspective, one that helped define the course of American literature.“
As many classics do, it starts out and moves a bit slower than we’re used to. In its day people were more patient and didn’t mind things moving slower, as we seem to. Give it the time. It’s well worth it.
Have you read “Roughing It”? What did you think of it? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.