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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Mark Twain


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Synopsis:

From Amazon.com:

Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Together the two strike a bond of friendship that takes them through harrowing events and thrilling adventures.

 

Overall I found this book to be mediocre - I was really liking it up until the end, but it all starting going downhill rather quickly. The character of Tom Sawyer just really annoyed me, and things started getting extremely boring once he arrived on the scene. The big escape that he planned for Jim, which I assumed was intended to be humerous and display both Tom and Huck's naiiveity (as well as display the complete dominance the whites had over the blacks), did nothing but aggravate me and bore me nearly half to death - I found myself skipping pages during this part, a sure sign that I wasn't being entertained at all. It really was a shame that this part had to ruin it for me - up until then I was completely entertained and couldn't put it down.

 

Although the fact that the book was written in the dialect of the time is part of the reason for it being toted as "The Great American Novel", I found it to be irritating - Jim's dialect was extremely hard to understand at times and I found that it really slowed down the reading of what was otherwise an enjoyable novel (up until the end, anyways).

 

So overall I'd give The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a 3/5 and even venture the opinion of mine that Huck Finn is highly overrated. Ground-breaking and enertaining at times, sure, but I wouldn't go so far as to name it "The Great American Novel".

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I've never been a fan of Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer either - I read them years ago & although I liked them well enough, they didn't really stand out for me a great reads.

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  • 2 months later...

I think the earlier Adventures of Tom Sawyer is better - more to the point and less wandering. I know what you mean about the end of Huck Finn - it was almost as if Twain became obsessed with the idea of Finn wanting to escape with style and this episode dragged on far too long.

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  • 4 years later...

An American publisher has revised this to remove all traces of the word nigger, to replace it with slave. Injun will also be replaced.

 

I thought I'd posted here already but it appears not. I read this in 2007 for A level English. I wasn't mad about it, I have to say, and I thought the ending was dreadful! I know it's a hugely popular book though.

 

I haven't read anything else by him. There is a non-fiction Twain on my Amazon wishlist that I might try to find this year.

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An American publisher has revised this to remove all traces of the word nigger, to replace it with slave. Injun will also be replaced.

 

I thought I'd posted here already but it appears not. I read this in 2007 for A level English. I wasn't mad about it, I have to say, and I thought the ending was dreadful! I know it's a hugely popular book though.

 

I haven't read anything else by him. There is a non-fiction Twain on my Amazon wishlist that I might try to find this year.

 

I very much disapprove of changing words like these in novels. I think it's important to leave them there because it shows the thinking of that time period. I can't imagine that anyone reading it today would think that because these words were used way back then that it would be OK to use them today. rolleyes.gif

 

Is the non-fiction book you're talking about volume one of Mark Twain's autobiography? I'm interested in reading this myself.

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Is the non-fiction book you're talking about volume one of Mark Twain's autobiography? I'm interested in reading this myself.

It's not an autobiography but a collection of short humorous pieces called Cannibalism in the Cars: And Other Humorous Sketches - it sounds a little like it might be in a similar style to George Orwell's essays. :)

 

That site looks interesting, BigWords. :)

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  • 1 month later...

I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a child - and loved it. I loved his mischief, his imagination, the adventures.

 

I read Huckleberry Finn a couple of years ago - and it clearly takes off from where Tom Sawyer ends.

While it wasn't as entertaining as Tom Sawyer, it was an interesting read.

 

 

While it is pitched as a children's book - it deals with a two very serious realities- of slavery and child abuse

 

Apart from the physical journey down the river- the book I thought also showed Huck's journey towards accepting Jim as a human, and an equal - and as someone who deserved his freedom as much as him.

He goes as far as to lie to the officials to help shield Jim.

 

For a child/teenager reading it I also thought it throws interesting propositions :

It is sometimes okay to lie to grown-ups, especially when your conscience tells you they are wrong.

And maybe the system isn't always right

 

If there was one thing I didn't like it was the ending - the sudden introduction of Tom Sawyer in the plot.

- as much as I like Tom, his flippancy was suddenly jarring,almost immature, and didn't fit in with the more sober tone of Huck Finn.

But then it was meant to a children's book, and I guess Twain wanted to make a definite statement about it being a sequel to Tom Sawyer, so I can over look it.

 

 

I think it is an important book for a child to read as he/she grows.

Edited by bree
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