In June 1867, Mark Twain lay out for Europe and the Holy Land around the paddle steamer Quaker City. His enduring, no-nonsense guide for the first-time traveler also served as an antidote to the insufferably intimate travel books of the time.

“Who could browse the programme for the excursion without longing to make among the party?”

So Tag Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City to Europe as well as the Holy Land. His adventures produced The Innocents Overseas, a book therefore funny and provocative it made him a global star for the rest of his existence. He was producing his first reactions to the Aged World-to Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Constantinople, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. For the first time he was seeing the great paintings and sculptures from the Aged Experts. He responded with question and amazement but also with exasperation, discomfort, and disbelief. Most importantly he displayed the fantastic energy of his humor, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries.