Roughing It

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: Jim Foster

An American classic of wild humor and rugged adventure.

In Roughing It, Mark Twain recounts his real-life journey across the American West with wit, grit, and wide-eyed wonder. Originally published in 1872, this semi-autobiographical travelogue follows Twain as he joins his brother—appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory—on an epic overland stagecoach ride from Missouri to the frontier. Along the way, he encounters a colorful cast of characters, from outlaws and prospectors to pioneers and desperados, all set against the backdrop of dusty deserts, fledgling mining towns, and gold rush chaos.

With his trademark sarcasm and sharp observational humor, Twain paints a vivid and comical portrait of life on the edge of civilization, celebrating both the absurdity and grandeur of the American frontier. Part memoir, part satire, Roughing It remains one of the most entertaining explorations of the Wild West ever written.

Public Domain (P)2024 Anthony Pica Productions, LLC

Wonderful real-life adventure

If you like Mark Twain fiction, you're going to love his real-life adventure. His descriptions and wit, coupled with him being an inexperienced greenhorn, makes his story even better. There are several versions of this account, but I liked the narrator, Jim Foster, the best.

Skip around - there's some good stuff in there!

"Roughing It" was not interesting all the way through, but I recommend it as a great book to skip around in. It's written in many short chapters - just a page or two each - I think it might have been serialized for the newspaper originally. There is not a story line that you need to follow all the way through the book - it's basically a travel journal. The narrator Jim Foster is fantastic and has just the right gruff voice and Missouri accent you expect Twain to have.
I really enjoyed the first part of the book - riding through the desert in a stagecoach with 2 other men and the occasional woman. Stopping at the truck stops of the day. But once in Nevada, it bogged down for me, with many chapters about mining for silver. I know Nevada and Carson City pretty well so it had some interest for me, but ultimately it was a bunch of scruffy guys trying to strike it rich. The book picked back up for me once we went to San Francisco, and then on to Hawaii. It's fascinating to see familiar places through the eyes of someone who saw it all at the very beginning.
Mark Twain is funny and has a sardonic sense of humor but it was written 150 years ago so there are terribly derisive passages about Indians, black people, Mormons (Utah was not yet a state). But his favorite target is politicians, and he pokes fun at types that are familiar, like the old guy who tells the same story over and over. I laughed out loud more than once!