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Summary: An Enjoyable and Educational Read Despite Controversy
Review: Despite the fact that The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn has been the subject of conflict and controversy since its publication over a century ago, it has remained a favorite for a wide range of audiences. Between the rollicking humor and a series of outrageously unexpected adventures, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn could be categorized as a Dennis the Menace style epic. Mark Twain uses local dialects and detailed descriptions to recreate each of Huck's extraordinary experiences. However, beneath the quaint language and good humor that characterize small town life in antebellum Mississippi, Mark Twain reveals the horrors of the slave trade. The book has been banned in a number of schools and libraries on account of Twain's straightforward treatment of such a delicate topic. Huck's growth and development throughout the novel lead him to reject the culturally predominant attitude toward slaves and he eventually embraces Jim not only as person but also as a friend. Though the words Twain uses to refer to slaves are offensive, his portrayal of the deepening relationship between Huck and Jim is a harsh critique of the attitudes and practices of the slaveholding class. Whether it is read as a purely entertaining tale of juvenile mischief or a biting criticism of slavery, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will continue to excite and inspire audiences for decades to come.
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Summary: Up and Down the Mississippi
Review: Huckleberry Finn, a boy in the Deep South, is living with the Widow Douglas and is finally becoming civilized, when all of the sudden, Huck's father comes back to town. He decides to take Huck back into the wilderness to live with him. He keeps Huck under lock and key, so Huck decides to escape. Huck plans his own "murder" and takes a raft down to Jackson's Island, where he meets Jim, Miss Watson's slave who ran away. Jim and Huck head up north, where they will both be free. Once there, they begin to get homesick and head back down south. On the way down, they meet two bums who think of themselves as a duke and as a king. The foursome continue down while the bums trick all the towns along the way out of their money. Eventually, being broke, the bums sold Jim without Huck's knowledge. Huck finds out, and goes to find Jim at the Phelps' farm. Sally Phelps mistakes Huck to be her nephew, Tom Sawyer. Tom later arrives and Huck convinces him to help him steal Jim back and to play the part of Sid. The two of them work out a plan to get Jim out and cause one very large headache for Aunt Sally. In the middle of freeing Jim, Aunt Polly comes and Tom gets shot in the leg. At the end, Jim is set free under the orders of his owner in her will, Tom recovers and Aunt Sally threatens to take in Huck and civilize him.
I thought this book was very funny, though a little hard to get into during the first 49 pages, and some parts must be read aloud in order to understand the dialect. I recommend that this be read by everyone ages ten and up.
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Summary: Huck Finn is the greatest
Review: As I read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I was in love with Mark Twain once again, because this is such a literary wonder. The protagonist, Huck, has to face many issues in his life. He has many adventures and many moral problems to face. He has to go through "Rights of passages" throughout this story, which give children great morals to follow. He is a great role model in my opinion (but not his shenanigans...). Find out about Jim, the black slave, who is caught between the social choice of Huck or Huck's individual decision on setting him free or turning him in. You just have to read this book. Many others have. Will you?
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Summary: Something to Keep in Mind
Review: With this novel Mark Twain confidently changed the way Americans read as well as viewed literature. Through the careful construction of the two main characters Huck and Jim, Twain explores the questionable moral values and hypocrisy of society. Against all odds Huck and Jim form an honest relationship that rises above race, slavery, and southern society. Twain's story is told through the voice of boy who has not yet been "sivilized" by society, and is still able to live outside of convention. This novel combines the strong language that Twain has been remembered for, and a message that is as relevant today as it was in the early nineteen hundreds. As a college student who has read this book in middle scool, high school, and college, I can say that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written for all ages and is an important and necessary educational tool.
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Summary: A joy to read and cornerstone of American literature and art
Review: Mark Twain is rightly regarded as an icon of American literature. Of his works, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are the most famous, and of the two Huckleberry Finn is generally held to be the finer. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book as part of my introduction to American literature. Mark Twain had a sharp wit and his stories are rich with character, personalities, language, irreverant humor and situations. The historical aspect of the story is also interesting and important. The story gives a human-level view of Mississippi towards the end of slavery. The N-word is in common usage, but in an everyday context not as a derogatory term. The story shows some interesting and perhaps unexpected relationships and allegences. The wisdom and ignorance of the two main protagonists is a constant source of joy and humor. Highly recommended for adults and teenagers alike.
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Summary: It's Mark Twain Say No More!
Review: This timeless classic by Mark Twain should be a must read for everyone. I am so happy to know that most schools you have to read this for at least one class before you graduate high school...This should be a bedtime story for younger ages above the age of 8 and a book that all adults and children should read over and over again!As always Mark Twain writes in pen how the people talk and gives you such a mental picture of their surroundings and as you read you can actually feel their emotions in your head,heart,stomach, and soul! I won't however tell you any of the plot, it is far too interesting and you have to read (see) it for yourself!
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Summary: Amazing Edition of a Classic Work
Review: Mark Twain's 1885 novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," has had a long history, during which it has been and still is both reviled and celebrated. Essentially the story of the picaresque travels and adventures of a young Missouri boy and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, in 1840's America. Taking cues from books like "Don Quixote" and Jonathan Swift's works, and a fraught relationship to Sir Walter Scott's historical romances and those of his protege, James Fenimore Cooper, Twain constructs a masterful first person narrative, through the eyes of 14 year old Huckleberry and a profound and hilarious satire on American culture. "Huckleberry Finn" begins in tension - Huckleberry's fortune and wardship with the well-meaning widow Douglas has him in a bind. The widow wants to 'sivilize' him, taking him out of the happy go lucky, easy going lifestyle he loves, while his fortune of six thousand dollars has him living in perpetual anxiety of his father, a violent drunkard whose absence only makes Huck more anxious about his return. When Huck's pap does return, sure enough, Huck is remanded, more or less, to Pap's custody, and kept prisoner in a secluded cabin. Though he is no longer being 'sivilized,' his time with Pap becomes more and more tense and lonely, driving Huck to stage his own death and run away from Pap and from civilization. Early in his escape, on a small island in the Mississippi River, he meets Jim, a slave from his town of St. Petersburg, who has run away, planning to raise money in the north to buy his family out of slavery. Together, Jim and Huck form a friendship that will take them up and down and all around the Mississippi River. "Huckleberry Finn" deals with a great many social issues, and none more interestingly than with conventional morality. With Huck, he effectively creates an outside position from which to view American culture as he sees it, with all of its pretentions and faults. Huck doesn't put much stock in widow Douglass' or Miss Watson's strictly defined notions of religion or morality - throughout the novel, we see him in constant conflict with himself over the fine line between what is considered right and wrong, and what is accepted as such. Huck's inner negotiations with prayer and morality, good and evil, are at the heart of the novel. His post-Emersonian, proto-Nietzschean manner of dealing with himself and his relationship to society is fascinating and compelling. His relationship with the runaway slave Jim, of course, is also a focal point of the novel - the ways in which Jim and Huck depend on and care for each other is both moving and of course, socially and politically suggestive and significant, especially in the historical context of the novel, both the setting, prior to the Civil War, and its published era, at the tail end of Reconstruction. Those who would be offended by racial epithets in common parlance during this time period would be advised to take historical context into account before railing against the novel's racial politics - if one gets unduly caught up in nitpicking such things, one falls into the trap of the satire, become a target in the process. As satire or black comedy, "Huckleberry Finn" has at every moment the ability to make us laugh out loud at ourselves and at the situations in the novel - from the fraudulent actions of the King and the Duke, to Tom Sawyer's needlessly elaborate scheme to free Jim from slavery, to well-born cultured families feuding, to all the cross-dressing that goes on in the novel (and there is a lot of it!). Again, though, as black comedy, we may often catch ourselves laughing, then wondering, hey, that isn't very funny - this is the brilliance of Twain's artistic achievement; to make us laugh while looking critically at ourselves. A book that is uniquely American, Twain's humour, wit, and style contribute to give us a look at both Antebellum and post-Reconstruction America through the eyes of innocence and experience, to see how far the nation had come since the days of Washington, and how far it still had (and has) to go. This 1998 Norton Critical Third edition of "Huckleberry Finn" is truly amazing. It restores the entire text from the manuscript, including among other things, the "Raftsman's episode" and all of the original illustrations. The supplementary materials in this edition are top-shelf also, with excerpts covering the controversy surrounding the novel, from its publication to the present. The critical selections are excellent as well, especially the incisive and yet startlingly personal essays by T.S. Eliot and Toni Morrison. This is probably the best current edition out there of this tremendous, and tremendously complicated American classic.
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Summary: Disappointing
Review: I must say, I read Huckleberry Finn the first time when I was too young. However, this summer, it was on my summer reading list, so I started it once again. For the first half, I enjoyed it immensely- it was exciting, well written and interesting. However, this book seems like it goes on forever- and it stays the same, for me, after I'd read the first half, the second half was very similar- and by the end, I was very ready for the book to be finished.
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Summary: Classically good
Review: Most classics--though not all--are classics for a good reason. This book is hysterically funny, has an action-packed plot, and--most importantly--teaches about intolerance. Read it.
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Summary: Summer Reading Triumph
Review: This is one of the required books at my school for Summer Reading to gain entry into the 11-3 english class. I was hesitant at selecting this book to read first, but I did and I loved it!! This book was thrilling. I have never read a book quite like it. I couldn't put it down! Mark Twain was brilliant. If you are reluctant at buying this book, don't be, it's wonderfully delightful.
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