| Mark Twain was popular in Europe from the start. His bitter satire and his humor appealed to European readers. "We are all offspring of Europe," Twain once said, and he was fascinated by the Old World throughout his career. First in The Innocents Abroad the writer traveled in European countries as an innocent tourist to experience European history and culture. He came to see, though, that the Catholic Church had excessive power there, that there were beggars and filth everywhere, and that the old masters' paintings were neglected. A Tramp Abroad continued satirizing the living conditions in Europe. The tone in the latter book is mostly pessimistic, and the author's increasing bitterness toward the Old World is well revealed in it. |
