51 pages • 1 hour read
Mark TwainA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Note: The contents of Chapter 1 correspond to Chapters 1-18 in print editions of the book.
The book begins in 1861 with the author stating his intention to travel west. His brother has just been appointed secretary to the governor of the Nevada Territory. At the time, Twain is 26 and enthused at the ideal of journeying on the Overland Stage Line. He is keen to be a hero and write home about his adventures: “Among the mountains of the Far West, [he] would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and may be get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time” (19). Twain anticipates a pleasure junket that will last three months but informs the reader that he won’t end up returning home for almost seven years.
The overland stagecoach route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, is 1,900 miles long and takes about 18 days to complete, though Twain’s party will disembark short of that point in Carson City, Nevada. Twain and his brother will board a coach that travels day and night. The driver and conductor may be switched at one of the many stations that are maintained at regular intervals along the route.
By Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Mark Twain
A True Story
Mark Twain
Letters from the Earth
Mark Twain
Life on the Mississippi
Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
Mark Twain
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Mark Twain
The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner
The Innocents Abroad
Mark Twain
The Invalid's Story
Mark Twain
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Mark Twain
The Mysterious Stranger
Mark Twain
The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Mark Twain
The War Prayer
Mark Twain