I wish Tom Sawyer didn't show up
3 stars
It was a decent read, but Tom Sawyer ruined my enjoyment of the story.
327 pages
English language
Published July 10, 2002 by Penguin Classics.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
4 stars
(283 reviews)
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)
Aidan Reads reviewed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
In the words of one of my students, "Sometimes I forget that Huck isn't real."
JJ.Boston reviewed Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
A classic for a reason.
4 stars
Very good book.
coffeemonk reviewed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
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.
Zelanator reviewed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Audible. Elijah Wood was outstanding as the narrator.
Jonathan Arnold reviewed Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Review of 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
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.
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Man, it's been a while and I forgot how annoying Tom Sawyer can be.
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
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.
seabelis reviewed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
The audio quality was not so great on this one.
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
More like 3.5
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin Classics)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain's most famous novel, is an absolute masterpiece. First published 1884, the story details the exciting adventures of Huck Finn, a boy who refuses to succumb to apathy. Along the way, he encounters Jim, a runaway slave, and their explorations shake the very foundation of their shared existence. Twain explores a multitude of pivotal matters, such as bigotry, racism, brotherhood, war, religion, and freedom. While Twain's mantra has the ability to inspire lighthearted hilarity, it is the commentary on this central issues that drives the narrative forward. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a heavy-hearted work of staggering genius that absolutely everyone ought to read.
Sam T reviewed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It was great until Tom Sawyer showed up
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
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.
Bridgman reviewed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Review of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
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.
Subjects
- American Literature
- Fiction