The Innocents Abroad

The Innocents Abroad is a travel book by American author Mark Twain, which humorously chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City (formerly USS Quaker City) through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867. It was the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, as well as one of the best-selling travel books of all time. Innocents Abroad presents itself as an ordinary travel book based on an actual voyage in a retired Civil War ship (the USS Quaker City). The excursion was billed as a Holy Land expedition, with numerous stops and side trips along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, notably: train excursion from Marseille to Paris for the 1867 Paris Exhibition during the reign of Napoleon III and the Second French Empire journey through the Papal States to Rome side trip through the Black Sea to Odessa culminating in an excursion through the Holy Land.