The Innocents Abroad cover art

The Innocents Abroad

Or, The New Pilgrim’s Progress

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Innocents Abroad

By: Mark Twain
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

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

“Who could read the programme for the excursion without longing to make one of the party?”

So Mark Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City to Europe and the Holy Land. His adventures produced The Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an international star for the rest of his life. He was making his first responses to the Old 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 of the Old Masters. He responded with wonder and amazement but also with exasperation, irritation, and disbelief. Above all he displayed the great energy of his humor, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries.

Public Domain (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Travel Writing & Commentary Funny Middle Ages Middle East Witty Italy Imperialism

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Middlemarch cover art
Chapters from My Autobiography cover art
Following the Equator cover art
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court cover art
Life on the Mississippi cover art
Roughing It cover art
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer cover art
The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis cover art
An Inland Voyage cover art
Destination Mecca cover art
The Purple Cloud cover art
Selected Papers on Anthropology, Travel and Exploration cover art
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art
Twain’s Feast cover art
2001 cover art
The Word of Promise Audio Bible: Complete Bible---Hear the Bible Come Alive (NKJV) cover art

Critic reviews

“A classic work…[that] marks a critical point in the development of our literature.” (Leslie A. Fiedler, literary critic)
All stars
Most relevant
One of the best classic travel books. Shows everything which was great about Mark Twain writing, The style,The wit and the way to see everything in the world through his eyes. A journey around the world which will not be forgotten soon!

Twain at his best!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thoroughly, outrageously entertaining! Also a valuable insight into a lost era, when foreign lands were strange and exciting.

Brilliant!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A fascinating survey of France, the Mediterranean and Asia Minor in the late 1860s. It's the little snap-shots that provide most pleasure. The pen-portraits of Napoleon III and Tsar Alexander II are worth setting again more standard historical summaries. There are, as might be expected, playful digs at aristocratic pretension and the dirt, laziness and corruption of many ordinary people, but Twain is similarly unforgiven about some of his own countrymen. The Crimean War is referred to on occasion, but it is interesting to note the lack of real reference to the more recent American Civil War in a work that relies on building parallels for readers back in the USA – readers who understood the copious Biblical and classical allusions more than their more counterparts.. There is throughout a balance between naive expectation and ultimate disappointment, which will speak to many a tourist who finds that guidebooks and popular imagery often distort a more prosaic reality. I personally preferred his subsequent "A Tramp Abroad" on Germany and Switzerland, though the range of discussion is broader here. The reading in this version is faultless.

Excellent early-ish stuff

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed this audible book. It was well narrated and the narrator kept up a good pace with a humorous and warm style. The book itself was fantastic and so enlightening. Hearing about travel in the late 1800s and comparing it to the travel and places visited today made the book even more enjoyable. It was well written and I often chuckled at unexpected phrases. Of course, some descriptions of people or places would not be acceptable today but it has to be read in the context of time. I would gladly listen to this again.

So interesting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What did you like most about The Innocents Abroad?

If you've ever been to any of these cities, try some mental compare and contrasting. It's interesting to note how much/little changes.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mark. He's pretty much the only constant character.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

I loved most of the bits in the holy land.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

There and back again

Any additional comments?

He's incredibly sarcastic (I think?) about everywhere. Be warned if you hate sarcasm.

Marky Mark

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews