an authoritative text, contexts and sources, criticism A Norton critical edition
Paperback, 402 pages
English language
Published July 20, 1999 by W. W. Norton.
This perennially popular Norton Critical Edition reprints for the first time the definitive Iowa-California text of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, complete with all original illustrations by Edward Windsor Kemble and John Harley. The text is accompanied by explanatory annotations.
"Contexts and Sources" provides readers with a rich selection of documents related to the historical background, language, composition, sale, reception, and newly discovered first half of the manuscript of Mark Twain's greatest work. Included are letters on the writing of the novel, excerpts from the author's autobiography, samples of bad poetry that inspired his satire (including an effort by young Sam Clemens himself), a section on the censorship of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by schools and libraries over a hundred-year period, and commentary by David Carkeet on dialects of the book and by Earl F. Briden on its "racist" illustrations. In addition, this section reprints the full texts of both "Sociable …
This perennially popular Norton Critical Edition reprints for the first time the definitive Iowa-California text of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, complete with all original illustrations by Edward Windsor Kemble and John Harley. The text is accompanied by explanatory annotations.
"Contexts and Sources" provides readers with a rich selection of documents related to the historical background, language, composition, sale, reception, and newly discovered first half of the manuscript of Mark Twain's greatest work. Included are letters on the writing of the novel, excerpts from the author's autobiography, samples of bad poetry that inspired his satire (including an effort by young Sam Clemens himself), a section on the censorship of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by schools and libraries over a hundred-year period, and commentary by David Carkeet on dialects of the book and by Earl F. Briden on its "racist" illustrations. In addition, this section reprints the full texts of both "Sociable Jimmy," upon which is based the controversial theory that Huck speaks in a "black voice," and "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It," the first significant attempt by Mark Twain to capture the speech of an African American in print.
"Criticism" of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is divided into "Early Responses" (including the first negative review) and "Modern Views" by Victor A. Doyno, T. S. Eliot, Jane Smiley, David L. Smith, Shelley Fisher Fishkin (the "black voice" thesis), James R. Kincaid (a rebuttal of Fishkin), and David R. Sewell. Also included is Toni Morrison's moving personal "Introduction" to the troubling experience of reading and re-reading Mark Twain's masterpiece.
“A Chronology and Selected Bibliography” are also included. (back cover)
Honestly there's a lot to be said about this book, but I mostly just want to say Tom Sawyer is the WORST.
Gdzieś w blogosferze, może też na samym Goodreadsie przeczytałem, jakoby Huckleberry Finn był powieścią „antyrasistowską”. W podobnym tonie została przygotowana przedmowa do mojego Penguinowego wydania, w której to wielokrotnie podkreślano przełomowość samej książki w kwestii traktowania Czarnych. Wskazano, jak to sama powieść tuż po samej publikacji była wielokrotnie wstrzymywana w dystrybucji czy zakazywana w bibliotekach, lecz nie ze względu na samą postępowość w kwestii podejścia do traktowania Czarnych czy samej instytucji niewolnictwa, lecz tylko z powodu niepoprawnego użycia języka czy opisów niezwykłej przebojowości i zuchwałych czynów samego Hucka, sprowadzających na złą drogę inne białe dzieci, w których to rękach ten Huck w jakiś sposób by się znalazł.
Oczywiście, łatwo stawiając jakiekolwiek zarzuty wobec ksiązki napisanej w XIX wieku na południu Stanów Zjednoczonych można być posądzony o anachronizm. Należy przyjrzeć się kilku kwestiom i jedynie zadawać pytania.
Czy rzeczywiście potrzebnym zabiegiem był ten n-word, używany ponad 200 razy na obszarze całej …
Gdzieś w blogosferze, może też na samym Goodreadsie przeczytałem, jakoby Huckleberry Finn był powieścią „antyrasistowską”. W podobnym tonie została przygotowana przedmowa do mojego Penguinowego wydania, w której to wielokrotnie podkreślano przełomowość samej książki w kwestii traktowania Czarnych. Wskazano, jak to sama powieść tuż po samej publikacji była wielokrotnie wstrzymywana w dystrybucji czy zakazywana w bibliotekach, lecz nie ze względu na samą postępowość w kwestii podejścia do traktowania Czarnych czy samej instytucji niewolnictwa, lecz tylko z powodu niepoprawnego użycia języka czy opisów niezwykłej przebojowości i zuchwałych czynów samego Hucka, sprowadzających na złą drogę inne białe dzieci, w których to rękach ten Huck w jakiś sposób by się znalazł.
Oczywiście, łatwo stawiając jakiekolwiek zarzuty wobec ksiązki napisanej w XIX wieku na południu Stanów Zjednoczonych można być posądzony o anachronizm. Należy przyjrzeć się kilku kwestiom i jedynie zadawać pytania.
Czy rzeczywiście potrzebnym zabiegiem był ten n-word, używany ponad 200 razy na obszarze całej powieści? Czy to oddaje rzeczywistość epoki? Czy biali południowcy nie używali synonimów tego określenia? Jaki był tego cel? Czy tu chodzi jednak o traktowanie powieści jako przestrzeni dla perwersyjnej przyjemności pisarza z ciosania tego słowa ? Oczywiście, ówczesne użycie tego sformułowania nie powodowało żadnych negatywnych konsekwencji wobec posługującego. Lecz czy wobec „inteligenta, "burżuazyjnego liberała" za jakiego Marka Twaina uznają, należy zawieszać tak samo nisko poprzeczkę jak wobec innych ówczesnych białych? Tak, doskonale sobie zdaję sprawę, że książka wywoływała (no i jak widać wciąż wywołuje) szok swoim językiem. Nadal - co ten zabieg wprowadził?
Należy wskazać, że w „Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Jim został sportretowany przez Twaina po prostu jako debil. Odgrywa rolę stereotypowego Czarnego, zahukanego niewolnika. Nie zapominajmy, że jest to druga najważniejsza postać w książce, która adresowana była do białego (no przecież) audytorium. Jim miał więc po prostu odgrywać rolę klauna, który rozśmiesza swoją tępotą i prymitywizmem czytelnika. Jim jest łątwowierny, prymitywny, kierujący się w życiu podstawowymi pragnieniami i przesądami. Tak jak sam Huck wspomina: "Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn’t believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me.” Oczywiście stereotypowo spożywa, jak inni czarni w powieści, arbuzy oraz jest wielokrotnie ratowany od śmierci przez białego - wybawiany.
Co jest chyba jednak najważniejsze, to sam fakt stworzenia takiej postaci przez Twaina, która ze względu na swój kolor skóry nie posiada autonomicznego prawa do głosu. Jego wypowiedzi, w 99% lakoniczne, są uruchamiane tylko w momencie, kiedy to Huck natrafia na pewne odkrycie, chce podzielić się uwagą czy dręczącymi go okolicznościami. To Huck inicjuje konwersacje. To dzieciak kieruje trasą, ma wiedzę, odwagę i opiekuńczo dzieli się nią z Jimem, mimo swojego wieku. Taki jest ten „antyrasizm” Hucka - biała łaska.
Wnikliwa, spokojna lektura „Hucka” Twaina, nie daje mi podstaw, by sądzić że autor stworzył ją żeby w jakikolwiek sposób wpłynąć na sumienia ówczesnych czytelników. Książka miała być wesołą przygodówką, bez żadnej większej misji. Wykreowany przez niego Huck podziela poglądy białej większości - kiedy zastanawia się nad faktem wspólnej wędrówki z Jimem, kontastuje krótko: "All right, then, I’ll go to hell”. Nie uważa Jima za równego sobie. Sam fakt wspólnej ucieczki nie był przecież planem Hucka na uwolnienie niewolnika, ale miała stać się przygodą - taką o której mówił słowami Sawyera sam Huck. Przez całą powieść wszelkie różnice między bohaterami są tłumaczone przez pryzmat rasowy, oczywiście w sposób negatywny.
Faktycznie, jak pisał Ernest Hemingway, nie ma większego sensu czytanie „Hucka” po zniknięciu Jima. Tak, to był po prostu koniec tej powieści, na rozdziale XXXI. Później mmay do czynienia z ostrą jazdą po bandzie, pojawieniem rodziny Sawyera i szybkim jego objawieniem. Jest to tak wysoce skondensowaney fabularnie zapis, że należy to po prostu nazwać pisaniną na kolanie.
Wiele lat po wydaniu „Hucka” sam autor brał udział w zakładaniu American Anti-Imperialist League, wypowiadając się jednocześnie głośno o ataku Stanów Zjednoczonych z 1899 r. na nowo powstałą Republikę Filipin. Ale to już nie ma znaczenia. Słowa w książkach pozostały.
I get the importance of this book, but it doesn't make me like it anymore. I tried it in print and gave up. Then I listened to it, but couldn't really pay close attention. The dialect drove me crazy, along with the constant use of the "n" word. Plus, if you asked me if I'd like to read a book about some guys floating down the Mississippi in the 19th century on a raft having adventures, I would absolutely not be interested. I do understand why a book written not too long after the Civil War about a runaway slave being helped to freedom by a white boy must have been remarkable, but it just wasn't for me. I read Percival Everett's book James immediately afterward, and liked it way more than the original.
It was a decent read, but Tom Sawyer ruined my enjoyment of the story.
In the words of one of my students, "Sometimes I forget that Huck isn't real."
Very good book.
Ha sido una historia tierna con una relación sencilla.
Too much tell and not enough show. Both MC's spent too many pages in their heads instead of interacting. Skimmed dozens of pages of gratuitous sex scenes. Not much plot in this one.
It is bizarre reading this in 2020 in the context of the protests and Black Lives Matter, but it is illuminating, at least insofar as it regards from where this all has sprung. I don't know that I can recommend the read while all this is so raw.
Audible. Elijah Wood was outstanding as the narrator.
A really good read, much better than Tom Sawyer. It was funnier and more heartfelt than Tom, with a character who thought he wasn't any good but really was a great kid, despite his challenges. Catching up late on these two classics, but this one had way more memorable characters and told a more interesting story.
It's biggest drawback was that it was a "quest" story. I am not a big fan of quest stories. These are usually the domain of fantasy or science fiction, so the author can throw all kinds of disconnected but "interesting" vignettes at you. They never seem to hang together all that well for me, and don't tell a cohesive story. It is kind of like a dream sequence, where there are no repercussions or any need for connections as the story goes along.
So I often find it hard to pay attention. This …
A really good read, much better than Tom Sawyer. It was funnier and more heartfelt than Tom, with a character who thought he wasn't any good but really was a great kid, despite his challenges. Catching up late on these two classics, but this one had way more memorable characters and told a more interesting story.
It's biggest drawback was that it was a "quest" story. I am not a big fan of quest stories. These are usually the domain of fantasy or science fiction, so the author can throw all kinds of disconnected but "interesting" vignettes at you. They never seem to hang together all that well for me, and don't tell a cohesive story. It is kind of like a dream sequence, where there are no repercussions or any need for connections as the story goes along.
So I often find it hard to pay attention. This one managed to avoid that for a while, as Huck Finn and Jim, thrown together by accident, float down the mighty Mississippi. Perhaps because Twain didn't feel like he was in a rush to tell stories, the story felt as languid and deep as the river itself.
There were a couple interesting incidents. I particularly liked the one where Huck Finn, for reasons that escape me, dressed up as a girl and ended up in a long conversation with a woman in her home. He was trying his best to keep up the facade, but you could tell she saw right through him. I really liked the bit where she threw something heavy at him and he caught it in his dress. Later, she explained that she knew he was a boy because he caught it by bringing his knees together, where a girl would have spread her legs to catch it in the dress itself. Small insights like these are what really kept Huck Finn interesting for me.
But eventually the traveling down the river just took too long. While the King and the Duke were interesting for a bit, for a pair of frauds, that went on for a little too long. And how he ended up running back into Tom Sawyer required a real suspension of disbelief. And the whole time Tom Sawyer was around, while there were some pretty funny incidents, especially as they made Jim act out Tom's ideas of a book perfect escape, also went along too long and stretched credulity to the far limits.
Much like Tom Sawyer, the casual vicious racism of the period depicted is both jarring and depressing. Written in 1884, and set in the 1840s, it really is nightmarish just how sub-human the whites of the time felt the African Americans were. This book emphasizes in a few places just how the white folks, even the poorest of them, held the slaves and ex-slaves as barely above, or probably equal to, dogs in the social scale. The way the N word is tossed around is just so hard to take. I think Mark Twain realized it too, because he probably humanized Jim more than most authors would have at the time, but it still burns a hole in your soul just reading about it.
So in the end, probably more of a 4.5 book. But I laughed enough and enjoyed the growth of Huck Finn enough, that it is easy to round it up to a 5 star book. I am not sure but you probably ought to make sure you read Tom Sawyer first. This is, in my opinion, a far superior book, but I think you'll understand the characters and setting more if you read Tom first. But, in any case, highly recommended. And the audiobook, read by Grover Gardner, is really well done. The vernacular is pretty heavy in this book and he does a fantastic job with all of them.
Man, it's been a while and I forgot how annoying Tom Sawyer can be.
A bloody good adventure, Huck is the man, he hunts, can read the river well, when stuck in a dire situation he is calm as a cucumber and will swim down to the river bed to avoid a steam boat wheel and his final gift is the ability to weave a story at a moments notice.
Then you got Jim, a runaway slave, made out to be a bit slow like all slaves were considered turns out to be a bright spark with as much wit about him as Huck has.
The third character appears in the last third of the book, the mighty Tom Sawyer himself. The guy is a genius of madness. You gotta feel sorry for Jim for having to put up with Tom's schemes, but at least he is game to go along with them.
There seems to be a lot of complaint about the racism …
A bloody good adventure, Huck is the man, he hunts, can read the river well, when stuck in a dire situation he is calm as a cucumber and will swim down to the river bed to avoid a steam boat wheel and his final gift is the ability to weave a story at a moments notice.
Then you got Jim, a runaway slave, made out to be a bit slow like all slaves were considered turns out to be a bright spark with as much wit about him as Huck has.
The third character appears in the last third of the book, the mighty Tom Sawyer himself. The guy is a genius of madness. You gotta feel sorry for Jim for having to put up with Tom's schemes, but at least he is game to go along with them.
There seems to be a lot of complaint about the racism in this book, but I think it is necessary, that was how things were in those days. Reading what is going on in huck's head as he battles what has been ingrained in his brain, he starts to realise that Jim is a person and deserves freedom made for some great reading.
I had a massive grin on my face for the last 50 pages or so, brilliant fun and very moving at times, I really enjoyed this adventure.
The audio quality was not so great on this one.
More like 3.5
