"Dear me! It is a strange world. Particularly the Indian division of it." Mark Twain's quip arose in the course of an around-the-world lecture tour. Driven by financial necessity, the famed humorist and student of human nature undertook a year-long series of far-flung engagements that would provide both ready cash and the material for one of his most successful books:
Following the Equator,
which recounts the author's experiences during a two-and-a-half-month sojourn through India.
A century after the publication of
Ian Strathcarron re-creates Twain's itinerary. Strathcarron — who followed Twain's journey through the Middle East in a previous travel book,
Innocence and War
— begins in Bombay, faithfully retracing his predecessor's steps through Benares, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Delhi, Lahore, and other stops along the Grand Tour of 1896. The modern-day writer offers fascinating insights into the region's timeless qualities as well as the rampant changes that have occurred in the course of the past century.