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Loading... The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (original 1884; edition 2003)by Garrison Keillor (Author), Mark Twain (Author), Garrison Keillor (Narrator)
Work InformationThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)
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Struggled to get to the end ( ) A Coming-of-Age Story for a Nation Picking up from the ending of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), the newly wealthy Huckleberry Finn escapes the chafing rules of civilization imposed by his new adoptive mother, the Widow Douglas, by spending his nights acting out boyish adventures with Tom and their friends. When Huck's abusive, alcoholic Pap kidnaps Huck for his money, Huck fakes his own death and sneaks out on a raft up the Mississippi River, where he encounters Jim, an escaped slave of the Widow's sister, Miss Douglas, and the two have a series of adventures as they try to float up the raft to Illinois and Jim's freedom. Mark Twain constantly juxtaposes the "gentlemanly civilization" of the Antebellum South not only with Huck and Jim's innocent state of nature, but also with Tom's seemingly comparatively harmless romantic fantasies of chivalry and heroism. As witness to the dangers and violence of both fantasies, 13-year-old Huck with his often wistful observations is a stand-in for all of America during the Civil War, making this Great American Novel as much the coming-of-age story of a nation as it is for a boy. In the 21st century, it is appropriate - and important - for school-aged children to read the bowdlerized version (the one with the N-word replaced with the word "slave"), but the original version needs to be available to adults who may - and should - reread it with adult awareness. I'm reckoning there are so many paths here that they could wind you up when 'temptin to pitch this river tale. What I seed ajumpin out of it all is the black and white truth of lies. Dat Huck, he can make what's not there happen by inventin. Dat old Jim he only take to straight talkin. Dat Tom, he sees things that just aint there and gets mazed; but dat river is time.
I've read a number of Twain's other works, but never got around to this one because what I knew of the characters of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn told me they were the obnoxious sort that would rub me the wrong way. Well, this book was chosen for a book club read for February 2024. Time to read it and check it off the list. Twain is excellent at creating voice. The book is powerful in that way--you get a sense of how people talked and acted, in a very immersive form. As I suspected, though, Huck Finn irritated me from the start. He does everything in the most difficult way possible. Situations drag out endlessly because people don't engage in the simplest of discussions. It is exasperating. At the end, Huck loses agency in a major way and Tom Sawyer maneuvers himself to dominate the narrative. On a technical level, my copy was challenging to read, as the library bestowed upon me a late 1960s pocket-sized paperback that seemed to be held together by tenuous glue and prayers. The text was tiny, and that meant that the often-large dialogue paragraphs were hard for me to read. It made it easy to start skimming. Those negatives said, it's a classic for good reasons. There is tremendous power in that this book, published in the 1880s, represents a true friendship between a young white boy and a black man. Huck evolves through the course of the book, too. His love for Jim shows through his actions. There's also power in the language that Twain uses. I'd known for ages about the controversy over the use of the n-word in the book, but I had no idea how often it was used. It's... a lot. That noted, it also felt like Twain was calling upon the lingo of the period. That derogatory word has a unique, dehumanizing meaning. If someone tried to replace it using a word like "Black," (as has been proposed) the replacement wouldn't work. The words don't carry the same function. We should learn from what our ancestors did, and strive to do better. Be kinder. Acknowledge other people as human. Share a raft, like Huck and Jim did, and learn from the experience. That's why a book like this, which I honestly didn't enjoy that much, is still a worthwhile read and should not be banned.
Mark Twain may be called the Edison of our literature. There is no limit to his inventive genius, and the best proof of its range and originality is found in this book, in which the reader's interest is so strongly enlisted in the fortunes of two boys and a runaway negro that he follows their adventures with keen curiosity, although his common sense tells him that the incidents are as absurd and fantastic in many ways as the "Arabian Nights." Belongs to Publisher SeriesLes ales esteses (293) Amstelboeken (182-183) — 65 more Corticelli [Mursia] (43) Dean's Classics (50) detebe-Klassiker (21370) Doubleday Dolphin (C98) El País. Aventuras (19) Gouden Lijsters (200263) Grandes Novelas de Aventuras (XLIX) insel taschenbuch (0126) KOD (13) Letras Universales (267) Penguin Clothbound Classics (2013) Penguin English Library, 2012 series (2012-04) The Pocket Library (PL-42) Prisma Klassieken (45) Puffin Story Books (80) Reader's Enrichment Series (RE 306) Riverside Editions (A15) Zephyr Books (35) Is contained inMississippi Writings: Tom Sawyer / Life on the Mississippi / Huckleberry Finn / Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Complete Text With Introduction, Historical Contexts, Critical Essays (New Riverside Edi by Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn/The Adventures of Tom Sawyer/The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain 90 Masterpieces You Must Read (Vol.1): Novels, Poetry, Plays, Short Stories, Essays, Psychology & Philosophy by Various ESSENTIAL COLLECTION OF CLASSIC BANNED BOOKS: Adam Bede, Fanny Hill, Candide, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Awakening, Sister Carrie, Women In Love, Madame Bovary, And Many More… by John Cleland ContainsIs retold inHas the adaptationThe Graphic Canon, Vol. 2: From "Kubla Khan" to the Bronte Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Russ Kick Is abridged inInspiredFinn by Jon Clinch Has as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideMark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Other Works (Monarch Notes) by Alexander J. Butrym Has as a teacher's guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.4Literature English (North America) American fiction Later 19th Century 1861-1900LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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