The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Contents |
by Mark Twain
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Notes
Bibliographic Data
Original Publication Date: December 1884
Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc.
Imprint: Penguin Putnam Inc.
ISBN 9780142437179
Hardcover Price: $
Paperback Price: $4.99
Number of Pages: 451
Best for ages: 12 up
Library of Congress Descriptor: Huck Finn, the son of the town drunk, and Jim, an escaped slave, make a break for freedom down the vast Mississippi River on a raft.
A 19th century boy from a Mississippi River town recounts his adventures as he travels down the river with a runaway slave on a raft, encountering a family involved in a feud, two scoundrels pretending to be royalty, and Tom Sawyer's aunt who mistakes him for Tom.
Categorization
Type of Book: Chapter/Fiction
Topics and Themes: Classic, Humor, Runaways, Slavery, Friendship, 19th Century, Journeys, Dialect, Prejudice, South, Growing up, Road Trips, Old-Young Relationships
Summary
Huck, cruelly abused by his drunken father, joins up with Jim, a runaway slave, and heads down the Mississippi River on a raft. Along the way they encounter a deadly feud, a pair of con-artists, and other characters from the pre-Civil War South, while Huck's conscience and basic decency wrestle with his society-bred ideas about race and slavery, and right and wrong.
Reviews
There's a reason why many consider this to be one of the great, if not the greatest, American novel. It broke many of the literary rules of its time, and thus set the pattern for much of American literature ever since. It is told in first-person dialect by a great-hearted but ignorant bumpkin of a boy who understands far less than the reader, but who knows how to follow his heart over his head; and it deals forthrightly, and scathingly, with racism, the great American problem.
Those who attempt to ban this book (and it is one of the most frequently challenged year after year) can't see the forest for the trees. They see the liberal use of the N-word and assume it is racist, when in fact it is just the opposite -- it's a powerful, and powerfully moving, statement against racism (as well as slavery, war, and a host of other American problems). Despite its flawed final section, when Tom Sawyer reappears and the author reverts to the style of that lighthearted, lightweight book, this remains, 125 years after its publication, a book that every teen should read. -- Matt Berman
Excerpt
You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,' but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly—Tom's Aunt Polly, she is—and Mary, and the Widow Douglas, is all told about in that book -— which is mostly a true book; with some stretchers, as I said before.
Publisher Info and Jacket Copy
Relateds
Other Books by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
The Prince and the Pauper
More Runaways
Steal Away by Jennifer Armstrong
The Goats by Brock Cole
Incident at Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Slake's Limbo by Felice Holman
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The Flight of the Doves by Walter Macken
The Prince of Central Park by Evan H. Rhodes
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
The Maestro by Tim Wynne-Jones
Max the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Maze by Will Hobbs
The Maldonado Miracle by Theodore Taylor
Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos
Other Editions
Concerns
Violence: Huck's father kidnaps him, holds him prisoner, beats him and tries to kill him with a knife. Several people are killed, including two boys, and a man shoots another man in cold blood. Men torment dogs, make them fight, and set them on fire. A father smacks his young daughter and knocks her down. A woman hits dogs with a rolling pin.
Language: As was typical of the time the novel was written and set, he N-word is used frequently and casually. Black men are referred to as "bucks" and women as "wenches."
Drugs: People take snuff and chew tobacco, adults drink and get drunk, sometimes to extremes. Boys are given a bit of whiskey with sugar.
Behavior: While this story is set in a racist society, and there is much vile racist talk (always cleverly done to make the speaker look ignorant and/or to show how that sort of thinking is foolish), this book was revolutionary for its time (and much criticized) because the message is clearly anti-racist and anti-slavery.
