“A Tramp Abroad” by Mark Twain
I’ve just finished listening to A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain, from LibriVox (http://librivox.org/a-tramp-abroad-by-mark-twain/) read by John Greenman. Its quite interesting, the chronicle of a trip to southern Europe, which Twain intended to spend walking (i.e. “tramping”) although he kept finding reasons to take other forms of transportation, some of which are quite amusing.
Mark Twain sees things and tells us about them from a sometimes unique point of view, quite convinced that he is entirely correct, despite the guidebooks and facts to the contrary. There are numerous episodes where he is the butt of his own story, although the narrator voice doesn’t seem to know it. Which is of course the source of the humor.
The reader, John Greenman, is very effective, changing voicing for some characters, and managing multiple languages and accents adroitly. The running time is about 15 hours, and I quite enjoyed it. Well worth a listen.