Hardcover, 359 pages
English language
Published Sept. 16, 2004 by Collector's Library.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain is one of the truly great American novels, beloved by children, adults, and literary critics alike. The book tells the story of “Huck” Finn (first introduced as Tom Sawyer’s sidekick in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), his friend Jim, and their journey down the Mississippi River on a raft. Both are on the run, Huck from his drunk and abusive father, and Jim as a runaway slave. ate a ton of nothing and almost died a couple hundred times. As Huck and Jim drift down the river, they meet many colorful characters and have many great adventures. The true heart of the story, however, is the friendship between Huck and Jim. A constant theme throughout the book is Huck’s internal struggle between what he has been taught, that helping a runaway slave is a sin, and what he truly believes, that Jim …
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain is one of the truly great American novels, beloved by children, adults, and literary critics alike. The book tells the story of “Huck” Finn (first introduced as Tom Sawyer’s sidekick in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), his friend Jim, and their journey down the Mississippi River on a raft. Both are on the run, Huck from his drunk and abusive father, and Jim as a runaway slave. ate a ton of nothing and almost died a couple hundred times. As Huck and Jim drift down the river, they meet many colorful characters and have many great adventures. The true heart of the story, however, is the friendship between Huck and Jim. A constant theme throughout the book is Huck’s internal struggle between what he has been taught, that helping a runaway slave is a sin, and what he truly believes, that Jim is a good man and it couldn’t possibly be wrong to help him.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was unique at the time of its publication (1884) because it is narrated by Huck himself and is written in the numerous dialects common in the area and time in which the book is set. Although the book was originally intended as a sequel to the children’s book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, as Twain wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it progressed into a more serious work. Twain’s views on slavery and other social issues of the time become clear through the words, thoughts, and actions of Huck Finn. The book has always been the subject of great controversy, and according to The American Library Association it was fifth on the list of most frequently challenged books in the 1990s. (Summary by Annie Coleman)
Also contained in:
It was great until Tom Sawyer showed up
There's nothing I can say about this book that hasn't been said better. This is just a note about the BBC Audio CD: it's terrific.
I first read this in 1974, when I was a little older than Huckleberry's age, which is fourteen, and reread it summer of 2023. I was surprised by how much of it I remembered. And I noticed things that I was either oblivious to at that age, or forgot about since. While it's written in the voice of a teenager in 1840, [a:Mark Twain|1244|Mark Twain|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1322103868p2/1244.jpg] was in his late forties when it was published, 1884 in England and Canada, 1885 in the U.S., and there are passages that mean more to me now, like the one below.
One thing [b:The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|2956|The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Mark Twain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546096879l/2956.SX50.jpg|1835605] has made me revise is my dislike of dialect. This book is entirely in dialect—Huckleberry narrates it—but I liked that about it.
When I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and sunshiny; the hands was …
I first read this in 1974, when I was a little older than Huckleberry's age, which is fourteen, and reread it summer of 2023. I was surprised by how much of it I remembered. And I noticed things that I was either oblivious to at that age, or forgot about since. While it's written in the voice of a teenager in 1840, [a:Mark Twain|1244|Mark Twain|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1322103868p2/1244.jpg] was in his late forties when it was published, 1884 in England and Canada, 1885 in the U.S., and there are passages that mean more to me now, like the one below.
One thing [b:The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|2956|The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Mark Twain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546096879l/2956.SX50.jpg|1835605] has made me revise is my dislike of dialect. This book is entirely in dialect—Huckleberry narrates it—but I liked that about it.
When I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and sunshiny; the hands was gone to the fields; and there was them kind of faint dronings of bugs and flies in the air that makes it seem so lonesome and like everybody's dead and gone; and if a breeze fans along and quivers the leaves it makes you feel mournful, because you feel like it's spirits whispering—spirits that's been dead ever so many years—and you always think they're talking about you. As a general thing it makes a body wish he was dead, too, and done with it all.
