The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin Popular Classics)
£0.01
Trash in glad rags - I do not understand the status of this novel. Firstly, it s racist, but we know that already. What really gets me is the weird language that one is expected to learn in order to get the story. And lets be honest, it is a story for children with little subtle comment and no depth of character...everyone is Twain ! Do not waste your money....buy a Graham Greene novel instead.
An American classic that must be read by all (and never banned) - If there s any book out there that needs no introduction (or review, to be honest), it s Mark Twain s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Yet here I am reviewing it, anyway. I must admit (not without a fair share of embarrassment) that I just now got around to reading this American classic for the first time. I never had to read it in school, and to some degree I felt pretty familiar with the novel even without having read it - that s just how popular and important Huckleberry Finn is to the social fabric of America. Nowadays, with all the politically correct liberals having escaped their Berkeley zoo and run amuck all over the nation, many of our young people are told not to read this novel. In fact, legions of voices cry out for poor little Huck Finn, that beloved rascal of literature, to be banned from schools and libraries - for the crime of using the n-word, a word commonly used by both blacks and whites up and down the Mississippi during Huck s time (not to mention numerous hip-hop artists of today). Turning a blind eye to the fact that Twain made the slave Jim a noble, human, easy-going fellow with his heart always in the right place (unlike Huck s other companions), the literary fascists contend that this novel is poison to the minds of youngsters. One can only imagine the reaction Mark Twain would have to the hysteria his book incites in liberals today (although he would certainly not be surprised, as he had to fight censorship of this book from the date of its publication). One of the great ironies of the Ban Huck Finn brouhaha is the fact that young people will surely find this novel much more entertaining than the vast majority of other literary classics they are asked to read. This is a very funny book, especially once the duke and the dauphin arrive on the scene and, later, when Tom Sawyer meticulously plans out Jim s rescue from captivity (no thanks to the captors, who didn t even try to make it as difficult as Tom says it should be). Young readers will also relate to and understand this book, a fact which should give rise to spirited discussion of it in class. Don t we want our kids to be excited about books and reading? The more outrageous the hissy fits thrown by liberal critics over the dangers of Huck Finn, the more important it is for everyone, young and old alike, to go out and read Twain s novel. Whenever someone tells you not to read something, it s important that you go out there and read it - and discover whatever it is the book banning loonies don t want you to know. Prove to them that you are intelligent enough to know the difference between the social values of the past and present, fiction and reality, right and wrong, etc. Think for yourself. Read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The classic American text? - Some will argue it is the first and still the best American novel. I don t wish to dwell on this debate, only to review the novel from my personal view.Huckleberry Finn as a character is an immensely human and lovable rogue. He is a far more complex character than Tom Sawyer, and the reader can relate much better to him throughout. His adventures with his black companion Jim are life-changing experiences, and the fact that he goes through them in childhood makes them ever so more poignant.As a novel it is an enjoyable read, and a journey into a rich and varied landscape dotted with very real and unique characters. The plot is far deeper than a glance will tell, and Hucks relationship with his adult role models is just a start for delving deeper into the philosophy of this book.Whichever level you read Huckleberry Finn at, it is enjoyable, funny and heart warming from beginning to end. The richness of the novel will consume even the most unimaginative reader, and if you can set aside the differences in social life of the 1860s, you will find a marvellous read. It should be read by all.
Illustrative of the world - Huckleberry Finn is illustrative of the world, not only in the cosmopolitan characters entering and leaving the story, but also in the way people react to it. One reaction is that it is a racist novel, mentioning the word nigger 121 times. The people who interpret the novel in this way seem only glance at the surface and delve no deeper. They probably do this in all other aspects of their life. The second type of person will look deeper, as though delving into the depths of the Mississippi River setting. They will see past the racism of Huckleberry Finn himself as Huck comments on the definite signs of humanity and equality in Jim. They will see the underlying message, of how he is the product of a terrible system and look into the other messages encountered in the journey of the book. To this type of person no other novel can be so fascinating, yet remain humorous all the while.
A masterpiece of American literature - Mark Twain s Huckleberry Finn is not only Twain s best work, but is considered by some, one of the greatest novels ever written. Episodic in form (as Twain warns, persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot), Huckleberry Finn is clearly, along with Nathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter and Herman Melville s Moby-Dick, one of the three most ambitious and artistically successful novels of America s 19th century.But what is it about Huckleberry Finn that makes it stand out? Most young people reading it will declare that they thought Tom Sawyer was better, and for them, they would be right. It is a difficult novel to teach. The dialect is actually difficult for some inexperienced readers. The satire and ironies are often lost on some readers, and some minorities are offended by what they think is its racist tone. That, however, is an historical irony if ever there was one. Twain s intent was to belittle and make fun of the racist attitudes of most Americans. The very fact that Jim and Huck were able to achieve a fast friendship and to negotiate together the epic journey down the Mississippi with Jim often showing superior wisdom and a right smart common sense did not sit well with some prejudicial mind sets. Today what offends is the language, in particular the use of the n word. But what makes Huckleberry Finn a great novel is first and foremost the indelible character of the often self-effacing Huck Finn himself and his compelling, lyrical, and ever so beautifully observed narrative. There is only one other novel in American literature that can be considered in the same league as far as first person narratives go, and that is Nabokov s Lolita. Strange to say Humbert Humbert and Huck Finn have one thing in common, an uncommon ability to make their differing worlds extraordinarily vivid through painstakingly clever and absolutely authentic voices. Both Twain and Nabokov achieved this rare veracity because of their command of language, their sense of character, and their fine ear for the nuances of speech.Sense of character is also what makes Huckleberry Finn a great novel. The characters are so real they practically jump off the page. Even the minor characters are Shakespearean in their psychological verity. It is not exactly a co-incidence that the Duke of Bilgewater and the King of France, those ornery rascals rescued by Huck and Jim, were experts in ersatz Shakespeare and various dodges. Twain knew people, and he knew them well. Too well, one might say, considering his low opinion of humankind.The effective--even rhapsodic--use of dialect is another thing that makes Huckleberry Finn a great novel. Writing a novel in dialect is a difficult thing to do well. Many have tried it and many have failed. Most writers are well advised to limit their use of dialect to the speech of their characters. But Twain was a master of dialect of many sorts, and was able to have Huck Finn narrate the entire novel in his voice while at the same time employ the various dialects of the other characters. Nabokov--although I don t think he ever acknowledged this--was undoubtedly influenced by Twain s authentic use of dialect, but because his narrator was a transplanted European professor of literature, he had to narrate in standard English, indeed a most eloquent standard English. Yet, one notices that Nabokov through Humbert took some delight in reproducing Lolita s authentic speech, her mid-twentieth century, New England, urban teenaged dialect.Finally, what makes Huckleberry Finn a great novel is its humor. Twain was a master of all sorts of humor. (He was a great public speaker and story teller.) The language of the novel itself is replete with malapropisms, puns, misquotations, understatement, exaggeration, incongruities, illiteracies, and absurd spellings, to quote from Benet s Reader s Encyclopedia of American Literature, p. 259--most done for comedic effect. Additionally, the yarns themselves, the stretchers, as Huck has it, are wondrous funny, and Huck s commonsensical take on life often contrasted humorously with what he actually saw and experienced. Here s one of my favorite passages from the book to illustrate the master s humorous style. The ragged King is about to divulge the secret of his being to the supposed Duke of Bridgewater and to Huck and Jim. He says, doing the Duke one better:Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin!Huck writes, You bet you Jim and me stared, this time. Then the duke says: You are what? Yes, my friend, it is too true--your eyes is lookin at this very moment on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the Sixteen and Marry Antonette. You! At your age? No! You mean you re the late Charlemagne, you must be six or seven hundred years old, at the very least. Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it, trouble has brung these gray hairs and this premature balditude. Yes, gentlemen, you see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin , exiled, trampled-on and sufferin rightful King of France. It is the sheer density of Twain s artistry that most impresses me. I wish I had room to quote the rest of the page as Huck goes on to describe how they majestying him so that it done him heaps of good. There is so much on practically every page. I know of no other writer except Shakespeare who can reveal so much in so few words, and who could use words so creatively.This is a great novel and anyone who cares about American literature has read it or will.