Roughing It

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

In 1861, young Mark Twain found himself adrift as a tenderfoot in the Wild West. Roughing It is a hilarious record of his travels over a six-year period that comes to life with his inimitable mixture of reporting, social satire, and rollicking tall tales. Twain reflects on his scuffling years mining silver in Nevada, working at a Virginia City newspaper, being downandout in San Francisco, reporting for a newspaper from Hawaii, and more.

This humorous account is a patchwork of personal anecdotes and tall tales, many of them told in the “vigorous new vernacular” of the West.

Selling 75,000 copies within a year of its publication in 1872, Roughing It was greeted as a work of “wild, preposterous invention and sublime exaggeration” whose satiric humor made “pretension and false dignity ridiculous.” Meticulously restored from a variety of original sources, this text adheres to the author’s wishes in thousands of details of wording, spelling, and punctuation.

Public Domain (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Describes, in dramatic incidents, the people he met, from desperadoes to Brigham Young.” ( The Reader’s Encyclopedia)

Love Grover Gardner's Narration

Love Grover Gardner's Narration. Mark Twain is an essential voice in understanding American identity. Although some of his humor is cringeworthy today, a lot of it translates and is still hilarious.

Interesting look into life in the 1800s

There was some really interesting stories told. I think some things were inaccurate (random LDS/Mormons category) but that’s fair as it is an individual’s take on his own adventures.
Besides that it gives a lengthy story of a bunch of random events through life or rather mid to later life. Particular interests were how rough life was and simpler in some aspects. Pretty neat listen overall.

Time Traveling

Find the parts that describe Lake Tahoe (the beginning of the destruction), Mono Lake, San Francisco, etc. It takes you there when it happened.

Excellent Reading of a Classic

The reader had me convinced this was Twain’s true voice. The book is better than I remember from high school. Several drive-way moments

Excellent audible book

Thoroughly enjoyed this class Mark Twain story of his adventures in The West in the mid 1800s. Narrator did an excellent job reading the book and delivering in a fashion to keep my interest. I even enjoyed the various voices he used. I would highly recommend this entertaining Audible book.