This one was kind of hard to rate. Despite this diary confirming my firm stance on disliking Mark Twain, there were some funny bits, as well as a good amount of interesting history. I'm grudgingly settling on three because I feel I must take "the times" into consideration, to some degree; yet I more than once thought him to be an arrogant and hypocritical Colonial. I long ago took up offense toward him for his disparaging remarks on Jane Austen, but I do love a good travel diary and thought I'd give this short book a try. Despite my prejudice toward him, I'll admit there some humorous bits. He reminds me of my Dad a little with his sarcasm and plays on words. Unfortunately, he repeatedly ruins the mood by mocking and belittling the native people: making sweeping generalizations and crudely joking about their funeral practices or civil ceremonies.

I found some of his cultural notes to be interesting, though, as now they're a matter of the history of old Hawaii. For instance, he states the pronunciation of "Oahu" to be "O-waw-hee", which sounds very similar to "Hawaii". He never mentions these islands by the name "Hawaii", but I think it's interesting that we now pronounce it "O-Ah-Hoo" but use the similar sounding name for the islands as a collective. Another anecdote describes the people moving a sick person to a different room for meals as it was considered "pollution" to eat in the same room one slept in. Their carrying on of YHWH's provision for a City of Refuge was also fascinating --- further proof that His ways are eternal, even if they're being carried out in a culture that doesn't acknowledge Him. I also made some notes in my book updating the history of Kilauea --- the story of him and his friends jumping around out there was incredible.

As for this particular edition of this book, I do not recommend. It contains a quite unnecessary and spoiler-filled introduction, several spelling and grammar mistakes, and a random change to smaller font about half way through. To top it off, all applicable pictures are at the back of the story, rather than being inserted in places that would add to the reader's understanding.

I don't know if I'll be looking for more by Mark Twain in the future, but I'll definitely be looking for a different edition of this book for my travel diary collection. ( )

Not Twain's best, but entertaining nonetheless for period commentary on Hawaiian culture. I hadn't even known he'd come here until a tourist told me about it! ( )

Not Twain's best, but entertaining nonetheless for period commentary on Hawaiian culture. I hadn't even known he'd come here until a tourist told me about it! ( )

Errr I don't know how I feel about this.
I picked it up at a used bookstore for a buck or two since I thought oh Mark Twain and Hawaii why not?

However, the book was not great. It's one thing to be able to get past how poorly the talks about and treated the natives, however the overall flow of information and storytelling was rough. I get it, this is done long after he visited and the writing style was different back then but the book just wasn't enjoyable to me much at all. ( )

This book was shorter than I expected at 84 pages, with more padding after that consisting of many black and white pictures of Hawaii and important people mentioned in Twain's letters. Twain's writing still makes for an easy, witty read. His more racist observations made me wince yet they remain important within the context of his period.

Twain visited Hawaii at such an interesting time. The native population had been decimated--as he himself observes at one point, a population of 400,000 to 55,000 in 80 years, and more than enough cats for all--and foreign whites were coming in to trade. Sugarcane plantations were just being established. Most relevant to my research needs was his travel to the Big Island, where he offered blithe commentary on Captain Cook's fate and was suitably awed by Kilauea. The foreword by A. Grove Day points out that Twain padded some details--as there was no eruption of Twain's description otherwise chronicles during that time--but that was all part of Twain's storytelling verve. ( )