‘Who could read the programme for the excursion without longing to make one of the party?’ So Mark Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City to Europe and the Ilolv Land in June 1S67.His adventures produced The Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an international star for the rest of his life. lie was making his first responses to the Old World — to Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii. Constantinople. Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem. Nazareth and Bethlehem.For the first time he was seeing the great paintings and sculptures of the ‘Old Masters’. He responded with wonder and amazement, but also with exasperation, irritation, disbelief. Above all he displayed the great energy of his humour, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries.