Following the Equator by Mark Twain

Following the Equator by Mark Twain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice book that give insight into the mindset of the people of the era. Mark Twain sets off from UK to traverse the world and the book gives details of the experiences of the author as he travels around.

Each chapter starts with a quote from the Pudd'nhead Wilson's new Calendar. The detailed list of epigraphs are available at http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/wilson/.... Some of them are very good do read them. Some that appealed to me are
1. Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
2. There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice

Two countries covered in detail are Australia and India. He has a lot to say about these two countries partly because these are two large countries that he visited.

While there are many prejudiced views like "The world was made for man - the white man" there are also many objective observations like "There are many humourous things in the world; among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.

The author vacillates from one extreme where he states that it is good that the savages (aborigines) in Australia were exterminated by the whites to another where he is full of praise of the lone person (Malcolm) in Australia who ensures that the few remaining aborigines were peacefully assimilated to live with the whites. He observes that the aborigines of Australia were surprised at the attempts to convert them to worship Christ as their feeling about the missionaries was that they had got everything upside down. They wondered "Why, he wants us to stop worshiping and supplicating the evil gods, and go to worshiping and supplicating the Good One! There is no sense in that. A good god is not going to do us any harm". A very sensible question indeed.

He also observes that various traditions in terms of caste system were similar between the Maoris and the "Hindoos".

It is not clear if these are from his journal or whether it is a combination of his jottings in his journal plus additions after his travel. Some parts indicate the latter as the author swings between extremes. It appears that he may have revised his thoughts after having met and after having interacted with people from different cultures.

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