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Library of America #5
Mississippi Writings: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Life on the Mississippi / Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Pudd’nhead Wilson
Mark Twain is perhaps the most widely read and enjoyed of all our national writers. This Library of America collection presents his best-known works, together for the first time in one volume.
1126 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1982
75 people are currently reading
792 people want to read
About the author
Mark Twain
8,901 books18.7k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
December 29, 2025
Updated 12/28/25 on Pudd'nhead Wilson only:
A recent comment by a GR friend on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn motivated me to see what I wrote about it. It’s arguably the most read American novel in history, so I just made some comments that struck me at the time. But it also reminded me that I thought Pudd’nhead Wilson, the final selection in this Library of America collection, was my favorite Twain novel. And I’ve read just about all of them, some multiple times. I remembered the basics of the plot but, to be honest, forgot most of the details. So I started reading, and only a pause for sleep interrupted my addiction.
The title character seems to be a minor one except for aphorisms from his “Calendar” that serve as epigrams for every chapter of the short novel. A few that stood out:
The novel largely follows the travails of her son (and master), who does not grow up to be a man of honor in any way. It’s a sordid tale Twain tells with suspense and objectivity. But the master stroke is the final chapter, when we find out why the novel is called Pudd’nhead Wilson, a failed attorney in his first court case after more than two decades after hanging his shingle.
When he lays out the facts that his clients, accused of murdering the most prominent person in town, the uncle and guardian of Roxy’s real son, stayed at the scene of the crime when they could easily have escaped asks the obvious question, followed by the obvious answer:
Although written a century-and-a-half ago, that pretty much sums up the fundamental problem confronting the entire world, especially the United States today. Intelligence has been slandered more in the past decade since the beginning of World War II. I can’t think of a more appropriate book for now. This short novel contains eternal lessons, lessons without answers. And we are farther from them than at any time of our collective lives. I plan to write more about this in the New Year.
Original Review:
Here's an odd thing to think about to pass some time to overcome your COVID-induced cabin fever: If you were to lose your entire personal library in a fire, which book would you choose first to symbolically kick off the creation of your next one? For me it would be this volume (certainly the Library of America would be an important part of the collection's foundation). Not a second thought.
Although these books were written in the 19th century, taken together they continue to say much about what it means to be American and will, I think, continue to do so for centuries to come, whether the nation exists or not. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer provided the dominant template for American storytelling, especially through the first half of the 20th century. Through his descriptive regional dialogue, it underscores the idea that American English and all its forms are accents, not dialects. We can understand each other's language easily regardless of spaces created by distance or time.
At the same time we don't understand each other, as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn make clear. Now it's arguably the worst it's ever been: we make indisputable, verifiable scientific facts relative to tailor political debates around them.
I don't think anyone can dispute Ernest Hemingway's aphorism "that all American literature springs comes from" Huck Finn. I think a reason is that it gives Americans a common starting point to have a common societal vocabulary. Just like the Bible gave some original sin as a rallying point, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn lays bare the American original sin of slavery and race relations.
I found Life on the Mississippi interesting because it was written after Tom Sawyer and before Huck Finn. This is the sage looking back on his early writings, the characters he met, and reassessing them over time. He also adds a little history. It describes a place and time when the "West" was on the other side of the Appalachians and puts it into perspective for later generations to compare.
And delving even further into America's Original Sin, Pudd'nhead Wilson is probably my favorite work of Twain's. Its plot of exchanging free-born and slave babies at birth and seeing what becomes of them. It's as contemporary a satire today as it was then. If I were teaching, I'd use this whenever I could. We're still arguing about it and probably will for quite some time.
My second book would be Jeder stirbt für sich allein . But that might change depending on my mood. The first choice will always be the same.
A recent comment by a GR friend on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn motivated me to see what I wrote about it. It’s arguably the most read American novel in history, so I just made some comments that struck me at the time. But it also reminded me that I thought Pudd’nhead Wilson, the final selection in this Library of America collection, was my favorite Twain novel. And I’ve read just about all of them, some multiple times. I remembered the basics of the plot but, to be honest, forgot most of the details. So I started reading, and only a pause for sleep interrupted my addiction.
The title character seems to be a minor one except for aphorisms from his “Calendar” that serve as epigrams for every chapter of the short novel. A few that stood out:
One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.An enslaved woman, Roxy, living on the Mississippi, about an hour south of St. Louis, gives birth to a son at the same time as her owner’s wife. Both look remarkably alike, but,
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.
To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her with was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a negro. She was a slave, and salable as such. Her child was thirty-parts white, and he too, was a slave, and by a fiction of law and custom a negro.Caring for both children, Roxy decides to switch the babies so that her child does not grow up enslaved. Plus she can watch over him.
The novel largely follows the travails of her son (and master), who does not grow up to be a man of honor in any way. It’s a sordid tale Twain tells with suspense and objectivity. But the master stroke is the final chapter, when we find out why the novel is called Pudd’nhead Wilson, a failed attorney in his first court case after more than two decades after hanging his shingle.
When he lays out the facts that his clients, accused of murdering the most prominent person in town, the uncle and guardian of Roxy’s real son, stayed at the scene of the crime when they could easily have escaped asks the obvious question, followed by the obvious answer:
If they had such a strong instinct toward self-preservation as to move them to kill that unarmed man, what had become if it now, when it should have been more alert than ever? Would any of us have remained there? Let us not slander our intelligence to that degree.Let us not slander our intelligence to that degree.
Although written a century-and-a-half ago, that pretty much sums up the fundamental problem confronting the entire world, especially the United States today. Intelligence has been slandered more in the past decade since the beginning of World War II. I can’t think of a more appropriate book for now. This short novel contains eternal lessons, lessons without answers. And we are farther from them than at any time of our collective lives. I plan to write more about this in the New Year.
Original Review:
Here's an odd thing to think about to pass some time to overcome your COVID-induced cabin fever: If you were to lose your entire personal library in a fire, which book would you choose first to symbolically kick off the creation of your next one? For me it would be this volume (certainly the Library of America would be an important part of the collection's foundation). Not a second thought.
Although these books were written in the 19th century, taken together they continue to say much about what it means to be American and will, I think, continue to do so for centuries to come, whether the nation exists or not. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer provided the dominant template for American storytelling, especially through the first half of the 20th century. Through his descriptive regional dialogue, it underscores the idea that American English and all its forms are accents, not dialects. We can understand each other's language easily regardless of spaces created by distance or time.
At the same time we don't understand each other, as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn make clear. Now it's arguably the worst it's ever been: we make indisputable, verifiable scientific facts relative to tailor political debates around them.
I don't think anyone can dispute Ernest Hemingway's aphorism "that all American literature springs comes from" Huck Finn. I think a reason is that it gives Americans a common starting point to have a common societal vocabulary. Just like the Bible gave some original sin as a rallying point, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn lays bare the American original sin of slavery and race relations.
I found Life on the Mississippi interesting because it was written after Tom Sawyer and before Huck Finn. This is the sage looking back on his early writings, the characters he met, and reassessing them over time. He also adds a little history. It describes a place and time when the "West" was on the other side of the Appalachians and puts it into perspective for later generations to compare.
And delving even further into America's Original Sin, Pudd'nhead Wilson is probably my favorite work of Twain's. Its plot of exchanging free-born and slave babies at birth and seeing what becomes of them. It's as contemporary a satire today as it was then. If I were teaching, I'd use this whenever I could. We're still arguing about it and probably will for quite some time.
My second book would be Jeder stirbt für sich allein . But that might change depending on my mood. The first choice will always be the same.
June 21, 2024
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer:
Not sure the last time I read Tom Sawyer but it was probably high school. I remember feeling I had aged out of it but still found parts of it funny. Reading it now and it’s not not a kid's book, but it’s not quite a full-on novel for adults. You may not care for these labels and you could be right but this all a roundabout way of saying there's a sense of stylistic vertigo throughout this book. It comes down to the strange position of the narrator. It’s clearly from the point-of-view of an adult but slides to a more childish sensibility when the action rises. It could have something to do with this book's sense of time. It’s not so much Mark Twain’s own memory (although the mother of muses probably deserves partial credit for this project) but a travelogue of memory as such. American memory.
Twain was fresh off Innocents Abroad and Roughing it when he wrote Tom Sawyer. Both are travelogues and him the singular narrator traveling through space. Now, the narrator is less corporeal and floats above the narrative as it travels through time. Twin hit on something trying to get to the center of the American spirit with Tom Sawyer: Like the other side of the coin of Fitzgerald’s “There are no second acts in American life”, Americans see themselves as innocent and vital as a young person. America is a nation of good bad kids and Tom Sawyer and his gang are archetypical of this.
Something interesting on this read is the amount of references to death. Death by suicide in particular. Tom and the other kids fantasize about being dead and how sad everyone would be without them. This always works for a laugh, but also some of the most lyrical parts of the book. And it has this sideways relationship with the actual murder they witness that is, technically, the main plot. I haven’t untangled this, and the greater context of Huck Finn essentially equates American Society with spiritual death, but here in this single work, it stands out as an oddity.
The particulars of Tom Sawyer are a joy. The layers of humor, from broad like Tom Sawyer’s pranks, to the minutiae like his brother Sid actually being a fine, normal kid but is constantly being attacked, are just fantastic. It’s actually Insane how much day-to-day kid stuff is still relatable. How they act in school, how they act with each other, the world of make-believe they are always trying to get to. It’s like it could be set in any time and really is the magic of this book. It reaches out across from the 1830s and greets you like an old friend.
We need to bring back the phrase “By-and-By”
Life on the Mississippi:
The apex of Mark Twain’s travel literature. Mark Twain returns to the site of his first career as a riverboat pilot and it unlocks a treasure of memory. And not just his own. Seemingly every other chapter is a platform for another river town citizen to tell their life story. Incredible, vivid portraits of living through the Civil War, towns that have risen and fallen, the city glamour of New Orleans, all connected by the constantly changing Mississippi River.
His chapters where he returns to Hannibal, MO is the strongest section in the book and maybe the single strongest section of writing in this entire collection. It was written before Tom Sawyer and was the turn-key moment for Mark Twain to move away from travel and commentary and strike the mystic chords of memory. The way he climbs Holiday Hill and surveys the land that was the eternal summer of his childhood, of time’s passing and time yet to come, read like an American Ecclesiastes. Amazing to see this moment happen in real time right on the page. It’s worth noting, because Mark Twain noted, that his childhood home was owned by an African American family at the time of his return. Possibly the earliest germ of the idea of fusing his exploration of his own childhood and race relations in America.
Life on the Mississippi is probably the single most enjoyable read in this collection. Although Huck Finn is the greater and deeper artistic work, LOTM is spilling over with life, vigor, and style. It’s a massive panoramic epic that spans thousands of years and miles. This book alone can explain Mark Twain’s legendary status in American Literature.
Adventures of Huckkeberry Finn:
When taken in back to back, The quantum Leap in style between Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn is shocking. Ditching the aloof third-person narrator for the first-person total immersion was Mark Twain cutting the guardian knot. His love of mimicry, of portraying the material reality of the average American as it was, is all let loose here. It does the incredible magic trick of being incredibly precise in its form which in turn allows it to read like universal, eternal literature.
More than any other of Twain’s books, The Mississippi River is front and center. In the way Hofastader said there are no ideologies in America because America is an ideology, The river is the setting and the theme of the book. On land Huck and Jim are to different degrees, subject to a society. Huck’s insight, his growth into adulthood in this book, is that the society on land isn’t just constraining to him personally, it’s evil. It is a poison in his mind that makes him see a comrade like Jim as property. It’s the river that they ride together, it’s the pure sense of freedom, that frees Huck from this mental slavery and redoubles his efforts to free his friend.
Huck and Jim first cross paths on Tom’s childhood kingdom of Jackson Island, an in-between place that’s half freedom half society. It’s worth remembering that Twain chose the nom de guerres of his childhood places. Jackson Island may have been there to invoke the 7th president (a presence in his Life on the Mississippi as well). There are echoes of Ahab’s Hickory harpoon. Here in Melville and Twain, the Westerner and New Englander, we have the two halves of Andrew Jackson. For Huck, the water leads to freedom, for Ahab, to destruction. The twin impulses of Thanatos and Eros in America. Which way was America heading in the 19th century?
An irony I didn't pick up on reading this in my teens and 20s is that Huck and Jim are lighting out for freedom, by heading deeper into the south, deeper in the seat of the slave power. Mark Twain has always had a streak of pessimism in his work. At his peak he was able to harness that pessimism and gave his narratives their driving power. In the later decades pessimism took over his work and weighed down his books like lead. Here there’s a light sense of dread on the horizon, not that our heroes may not get out of their jam, but that the whole thing was impossible from the start. Can they really rage against a sick society successfully? Or, is their pilgrimage of freedom necessarily bound south towards bondage? This question is left unanswered.
I’m sympathetic to Henry Nash Smith’s read on the end of Huck Finn-that there is a jarring sense of unreality that usurps the narrative when Tom Sawyer returns. Up to that point the doom, the inevitability of Huck and Jim’s journey is overwhelming. Huck can feel death in the air as he sets foot on the plantation. That aura lifts as Tom returns and it the narrative becmes a boy's adventure again. And Jim is not only free, he was always free. There’s a world where Mark Twain stuck to this theme and made good on Huck’s threat “All right, then, I'll go to hell” and didn't let them get away with their righteous cause.
I think there’s other reading to the ending. There’s a gut punch nastiness to Jim being saved from a lynching only because he’s someone else property. An accidental courtesy that wouldn’t be granted to black men, women and children after the abolition of slavery. And the twisted sense that Huck went through this incredible emotional journey only to have Tom deliver us the happy ending while remaining completely unconstructed. Tom never once sees Jim as a person or worth being free but as his plaything and a chance to get into some mischief. Huck is uneasy in American society and he realizes it is because of a latent sense of moral decency. Tom turns society on its head as a way of celebrating its norms. Tom loves the world that has been made because he gets to define its borders. Huck is a good bad kid. Tom is just a bad kid. And Twain made that bad kid the hero. In his most beloved work and what many called the beginning of American Literature, Twain leaves us with little more than frayed ends. And that’s worth mulling over.
Pudd'nhead Wilson:
This is the only one I hadn't read before and it certainly was a strange one. Strange again in the Tom Sawyer sense. It’s hard to see where Mark Twain is coming from. In some ways it's a return to to the themes of Huck Finn. Another look at the relationships between white and black people in America. Still set in an era of slavery but drills down to the foolishness of racial prejudice. There’s a broodier tone to this one. No one seems to have any redeemable qualities. Rather they're caught in a net of habit and society and are wriggling without much purpose other than trying to survive.
There are elements of his medieval romances in this one. The switched-at-birth narrative echoes the Prince and Pauper. The European aristocrats coming to Missouri is like a mirror image to a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I’m not sure what to really make of this one. Pudd'nhead Wilson is a threadbare character and more of a commentary on small-town sensibilities. The climax around the thumbprints is telegraphed from the opening pages and the closing courtroom drama is lifeless.
There's a lot to dislike in this final volume. But part of the nastiness can be an asset. The bleak view Twain has of the average person, how their motives are always base and there is seemingly no limit to their selfishness, the idea of America's backward, prejudiced views on race makes sense when you remember, in Mark Twain's telling, it is coming from people that can't seem to do anything right other than please themselves. Truly bleak stuff.
Not sure the last time I read Tom Sawyer but it was probably high school. I remember feeling I had aged out of it but still found parts of it funny. Reading it now and it’s not not a kid's book, but it’s not quite a full-on novel for adults. You may not care for these labels and you could be right but this all a roundabout way of saying there's a sense of stylistic vertigo throughout this book. It comes down to the strange position of the narrator. It’s clearly from the point-of-view of an adult but slides to a more childish sensibility when the action rises. It could have something to do with this book's sense of time. It’s not so much Mark Twain’s own memory (although the mother of muses probably deserves partial credit for this project) but a travelogue of memory as such. American memory.
Twain was fresh off Innocents Abroad and Roughing it when he wrote Tom Sawyer. Both are travelogues and him the singular narrator traveling through space. Now, the narrator is less corporeal and floats above the narrative as it travels through time. Twin hit on something trying to get to the center of the American spirit with Tom Sawyer: Like the other side of the coin of Fitzgerald’s “There are no second acts in American life”, Americans see themselves as innocent and vital as a young person. America is a nation of good bad kids and Tom Sawyer and his gang are archetypical of this.
Something interesting on this read is the amount of references to death. Death by suicide in particular. Tom and the other kids fantasize about being dead and how sad everyone would be without them. This always works for a laugh, but also some of the most lyrical parts of the book. And it has this sideways relationship with the actual murder they witness that is, technically, the main plot. I haven’t untangled this, and the greater context of Huck Finn essentially equates American Society with spiritual death, but here in this single work, it stands out as an oddity.
The particulars of Tom Sawyer are a joy. The layers of humor, from broad like Tom Sawyer’s pranks, to the minutiae like his brother Sid actually being a fine, normal kid but is constantly being attacked, are just fantastic. It’s actually Insane how much day-to-day kid stuff is still relatable. How they act in school, how they act with each other, the world of make-believe they are always trying to get to. It’s like it could be set in any time and really is the magic of this book. It reaches out across from the 1830s and greets you like an old friend.
We need to bring back the phrase “By-and-By”
Life on the Mississippi:
The apex of Mark Twain’s travel literature. Mark Twain returns to the site of his first career as a riverboat pilot and it unlocks a treasure of memory. And not just his own. Seemingly every other chapter is a platform for another river town citizen to tell their life story. Incredible, vivid portraits of living through the Civil War, towns that have risen and fallen, the city glamour of New Orleans, all connected by the constantly changing Mississippi River.
His chapters where he returns to Hannibal, MO is the strongest section in the book and maybe the single strongest section of writing in this entire collection. It was written before Tom Sawyer and was the turn-key moment for Mark Twain to move away from travel and commentary and strike the mystic chords of memory. The way he climbs Holiday Hill and surveys the land that was the eternal summer of his childhood, of time’s passing and time yet to come, read like an American Ecclesiastes. Amazing to see this moment happen in real time right on the page. It’s worth noting, because Mark Twain noted, that his childhood home was owned by an African American family at the time of his return. Possibly the earliest germ of the idea of fusing his exploration of his own childhood and race relations in America.
Life on the Mississippi is probably the single most enjoyable read in this collection. Although Huck Finn is the greater and deeper artistic work, LOTM is spilling over with life, vigor, and style. It’s a massive panoramic epic that spans thousands of years and miles. This book alone can explain Mark Twain’s legendary status in American Literature.
Adventures of Huckkeberry Finn:
When taken in back to back, The quantum Leap in style between Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn is shocking. Ditching the aloof third-person narrator for the first-person total immersion was Mark Twain cutting the guardian knot. His love of mimicry, of portraying the material reality of the average American as it was, is all let loose here. It does the incredible magic trick of being incredibly precise in its form which in turn allows it to read like universal, eternal literature.
More than any other of Twain’s books, The Mississippi River is front and center. In the way Hofastader said there are no ideologies in America because America is an ideology, The river is the setting and the theme of the book. On land Huck and Jim are to different degrees, subject to a society. Huck’s insight, his growth into adulthood in this book, is that the society on land isn’t just constraining to him personally, it’s evil. It is a poison in his mind that makes him see a comrade like Jim as property. It’s the river that they ride together, it’s the pure sense of freedom, that frees Huck from this mental slavery and redoubles his efforts to free his friend.
Huck and Jim first cross paths on Tom’s childhood kingdom of Jackson Island, an in-between place that’s half freedom half society. It’s worth remembering that Twain chose the nom de guerres of his childhood places. Jackson Island may have been there to invoke the 7th president (a presence in his Life on the Mississippi as well). There are echoes of Ahab’s Hickory harpoon. Here in Melville and Twain, the Westerner and New Englander, we have the two halves of Andrew Jackson. For Huck, the water leads to freedom, for Ahab, to destruction. The twin impulses of Thanatos and Eros in America. Which way was America heading in the 19th century?
An irony I didn't pick up on reading this in my teens and 20s is that Huck and Jim are lighting out for freedom, by heading deeper into the south, deeper in the seat of the slave power. Mark Twain has always had a streak of pessimism in his work. At his peak he was able to harness that pessimism and gave his narratives their driving power. In the later decades pessimism took over his work and weighed down his books like lead. Here there’s a light sense of dread on the horizon, not that our heroes may not get out of their jam, but that the whole thing was impossible from the start. Can they really rage against a sick society successfully? Or, is their pilgrimage of freedom necessarily bound south towards bondage? This question is left unanswered.
I’m sympathetic to Henry Nash Smith’s read on the end of Huck Finn-that there is a jarring sense of unreality that usurps the narrative when Tom Sawyer returns. Up to that point the doom, the inevitability of Huck and Jim’s journey is overwhelming. Huck can feel death in the air as he sets foot on the plantation. That aura lifts as Tom returns and it the narrative becmes a boy's adventure again. And Jim is not only free, he was always free. There’s a world where Mark Twain stuck to this theme and made good on Huck’s threat “All right, then, I'll go to hell” and didn't let them get away with their righteous cause.
I think there’s other reading to the ending. There’s a gut punch nastiness to Jim being saved from a lynching only because he’s someone else property. An accidental courtesy that wouldn’t be granted to black men, women and children after the abolition of slavery. And the twisted sense that Huck went through this incredible emotional journey only to have Tom deliver us the happy ending while remaining completely unconstructed. Tom never once sees Jim as a person or worth being free but as his plaything and a chance to get into some mischief. Huck is uneasy in American society and he realizes it is because of a latent sense of moral decency. Tom turns society on its head as a way of celebrating its norms. Tom loves the world that has been made because he gets to define its borders. Huck is a good bad kid. Tom is just a bad kid. And Twain made that bad kid the hero. In his most beloved work and what many called the beginning of American Literature, Twain leaves us with little more than frayed ends. And that’s worth mulling over.
Pudd'nhead Wilson:
This is the only one I hadn't read before and it certainly was a strange one. Strange again in the Tom Sawyer sense. It’s hard to see where Mark Twain is coming from. In some ways it's a return to to the themes of Huck Finn. Another look at the relationships between white and black people in America. Still set in an era of slavery but drills down to the foolishness of racial prejudice. There’s a broodier tone to this one. No one seems to have any redeemable qualities. Rather they're caught in a net of habit and society and are wriggling without much purpose other than trying to survive.
There are elements of his medieval romances in this one. The switched-at-birth narrative echoes the Prince and Pauper. The European aristocrats coming to Missouri is like a mirror image to a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I’m not sure what to really make of this one. Pudd'nhead Wilson is a threadbare character and more of a commentary on small-town sensibilities. The climax around the thumbprints is telegraphed from the opening pages and the closing courtroom drama is lifeless.
There's a lot to dislike in this final volume. But part of the nastiness can be an asset. The bleak view Twain has of the average person, how their motives are always base and there is seemingly no limit to their selfishness, the idea of America's backward, prejudiced views on race makes sense when you remember, in Mark Twain's telling, it is coming from people that can't seem to do anything right other than please themselves. Truly bleak stuff.
April 24, 2017
I've read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I want to get to some of the stories here. A beautifully made book. Acid-free paper, sewn signatures. Lovely.
June 9, 2017
Here are my ratings for the individual books included in this collection:
- Life On The Mississippi: 4 stars. The best part of this collection. Entertaining, informative, and funny, too! Your best reason for picking up this book.
- The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer: 3 stars. It has its moments. Those meddling kids...
- The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: 2 stars. This one was a chore to read. Massa please, no mo'!
- Pudd'nhead Wilson: 3 stars. Funny, insightful, and makes you think. Your second best reason for picking up this book.
So, in spite of Huck Finn and its 2 stars, this book ends up with a rating of 4 stars, on the strength of Life On The Mississippi. Happy reading!
- Life On The Mississippi: 4 stars. The best part of this collection. Entertaining, informative, and funny, too! Your best reason for picking up this book.
- The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer: 3 stars. It has its moments. Those meddling kids...
- The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: 2 stars. This one was a chore to read. Massa please, no mo'!
- Pudd'nhead Wilson: 3 stars. Funny, insightful, and makes you think. Your second best reason for picking up this book.
So, in spite of Huck Finn and its 2 stars, this book ends up with a rating of 4 stars, on the strength of Life On The Mississippi. Happy reading!
October 7, 2014
I had myself called with the four o'clock watch, mornings, for one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi. They are enchanting. First, there is the eloquence of silence; for a deep hush broods everywhere. Next, there is the haunting sense of loneliness, isolation, remoteness from the worry and bustle of the world. The dawn creeps in stealthily; the solid walls of black forest to gray, and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves; the water is glass smooth, gives off spectral little wreaths of white mist, there is not the faintest breath of wind, nor stir of leaf; the tranquility is profound and infinitely satisfying. Then a bird pipes up, another follows, and soon the pipings develop into a jubilant riot of music. You see none of the birds; you simply move through an atmosphere of song which seems to sing itself. When the light becomes a little stronger, you have one of the fairest and softest pictures imaginable. You have the intense green of the massed and crowded foliage near by; you see it paling shade by shade in front of you; upon the next projecting cape, a mile off or more, the tint has lightened to the tender young green of spring; the cape beyond that has almost lost color, and the further one, miles away under the horizon, sleeps upon the water a mere dim vapor, and hardly separable from the sky above it and about it. And all this stretch of river is a mirror, and you have the shadowy reflections of the leafage and the curving shores and the receding capes pictured in it. Well, that is all beautiful; soft and rich and beautiful; and when the sun gets well up, and distributes a pink flush here and a powder of gold yonder and purple haze where it will yield the best effect, you grant that you have seen something worth remembering.
from Life on the Missippi p. 417
March 31, 2011
This review only covers the "Life on the Mississipi" portion of this edition.
A great book of memoirs of Twain's years as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, before levees and dredging and electric lights to guide boat pilots on their frequent voyages up and down the river. After becoming a famous author, Twain returned to the Mississippi (incognito at first) to learn how much things had changed in the 20-odd years he'd spent since his tour of duty on the river. The pilots of his day had to memorize 1,200 miles of twisting, turning, ever-changing river so as never to put their vessel in danger of sinking or running aground, and they had to be able to do so in all weather, at all flood levels, and all times of day or night. Such expertise perished with the proliferation of railroads, having been rendered unnecessary, and so Twain's remembrances are bittersweet as he recounts the most memorable of the many thousands of hours spent behind the ship's wheel mastering the art of piloting. Along with his many stories of life on the river and the outrageous personalities encountered along the way, he recounts his memories of the many river towns and how changes in commerce and even in the riverbed itself influences the communities that were nourished by the steamboat.
An excellent bedtime read that managed to hold my interest throughout--even the appendix of a few Native American myths that he'd overheard among his fellow passengers. If you enjoyed Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea, this one's less polished, but of the same genre and style.
A great book of memoirs of Twain's years as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, before levees and dredging and electric lights to guide boat pilots on their frequent voyages up and down the river. After becoming a famous author, Twain returned to the Mississippi (incognito at first) to learn how much things had changed in the 20-odd years he'd spent since his tour of duty on the river. The pilots of his day had to memorize 1,200 miles of twisting, turning, ever-changing river so as never to put their vessel in danger of sinking or running aground, and they had to be able to do so in all weather, at all flood levels, and all times of day or night. Such expertise perished with the proliferation of railroads, having been rendered unnecessary, and so Twain's remembrances are bittersweet as he recounts the most memorable of the many thousands of hours spent behind the ship's wheel mastering the art of piloting. Along with his many stories of life on the river and the outrageous personalities encountered along the way, he recounts his memories of the many river towns and how changes in commerce and even in the riverbed itself influences the communities that were nourished by the steamboat.
An excellent bedtime read that managed to hold my interest throughout--even the appendix of a few Native American myths that he'd overheard among his fellow passengers. If you enjoyed Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea, this one's less polished, but of the same genre and style.
February 6, 2009
Actually I got all four of these books from Librivox.com as audiobooks. It was the first time I had read Life on the Mississippi and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, the second time I had read Tom Sawyer, and the third time I had read Huckleberry Finn. Now that I have lived on the Mississippi river for 35 years, they all had more meaning. My favorite was Life on the Mississippi. The other three were uncomfortable books written about slave days in Missouri by someone who had witnessed them firsthand. At first I tried to determine how Mark Twain felt about slavery as I read these three books and finally gave up and tried to see the writing as a portrayal of the times. That did not lessen my discomfort, but at least I stopped jerking everytime I heard the word "nigger". All of the books forced me to realize that slavery was not only bad, but it gave an entire race of deserving people a bad "rap". In that respect they were horrifying. On the other hand, they do make you realize how awful those times were for blacks, something us whites frequently fail to realize. It also makes one question just what has changed, if anything. I can only hope that it has for most blacks. Future years under Obama's leadership will hopefully show that this is so.
June 2, 2024
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Finished on 28 May, 2023.
Today is the same day, about an hour later at 8.07 PM
Now it’s 8.27 PM.
I finally read it in full, unabridged and complete. After so many times of the abridged ones - and how important those were to me and still is. It was school text, in class 5, and before that at class 4 or even earlier (although they didn’t teach that at the school, but I of course had read that in full on my own). In class 5, they actually read that in class, but I don’t remember if they finished it, it’s unlikely, but I had of course read it again. And it was a different abridged version than the other one. Both of which had since been very prized possessions, although did not read them again in years in anticipation of the real thing. I also seem to remember, was that in class 4, 2002, in Savar, that I checked out yet another abridged version, with a beautiful cover illustration depicting the whitewashing scene, to read? I think it was. 21 years ago it was then. And it is a treasured memory. Reading it, cuddled in my bed after lunch, which became established as my reading hours for life, but it was one of the first, had to be, that set my passion on fire, and it was exceptionally sweet too, seldom others were as sweet if I am honest (if I am associating that image correctly with the Tom Sawyer). And I seem to remember reading the whitewashing scene, but I may not have finished the book. I was very new to reading in English. But I think I also checked out the Invisible Man, from the same collection of abridged stories as this Tom Sawyer. I may not have read that. I also checked out some other books, and I may have finished Black Beauty but can’t remember. And King Arthur maybe, but also can’t remember if I've finished it.
And this was the authentic text too. And turns out, few books can claim to have as much controversy over its text’s authenticity. Mine is accepted as the most authentic, a product of extremely serious scholarship. This is the Paul Baender edition. Published by the Iowa Center for Textual Studies and the University of California Press. Mine is not the UCal publication, but reprinted by the Library of America. And what a marvel the Library of America books that I had no idea about is! Publishes authoritative volumes of significant American literature, and they are great publications. The paper is too thin, and needs to be handled with care, but I think they are still quite sturdy. And I haven’t encountered any errors whatsoever. And the volumes are handy too.
This volume, part of the entire writings of Mark Twain, is the one entitled Mississippi Writings. Tom Sawyer is the first of the Mississippi writings. Life on the Mississippi comes next. Then Huckleberry Finn. And finally Puddn’head Wilson. I think it's ordered in terms of publication or when Twain actually wrote them (and I learned that he was an erratic writer). I also have Roth's American Trilogy in the Library of America volume now. What great privilege. I should try to appreciate life's gifts more and more.
I hope to read all Mississippi Writings very soon, and hopefully by this summer. But I will read something else from tomorrow before I come back to it, so there’s always a chance of being waylaid. If only I had a much greater pace! But I like my slow pace for the most part too though.
And the authentic text contains the nigger word.
Let’s start here then.
I am back after dinner and a small break before that at 9.33 pm.
Well, let’s bypass the nigger word for now.
And say, emphatically, that I loved the book! It was soo good! Lived up to all it’s special childhood significance, and that is saying something.
And I haven’t read Mark Twain’s authentic writing before this, and it turns out he could write. Boy could he write. The prose is beautiful and flows on (I won't mention Mississippi here because it would be trite here, but couldn't refrain from mentioning it passive aggressively haha). And it’s quite light too. No unnecessary verbosity at all. It’s beautiful and light, and also quite poetic at times, and beautifully so.
The story was great too. The buildup, the various connected (and seeming unconnected, but not really) stories, the climaxes, the characters and characterization was excellent, the characters really stood out and seemed real.
About the story, at times, early on, it could have seemed a bit directionless in very few places, but then it lead on to something significant (for the plot or otherwise), or it turns out it was all buildup still to some satisfying proto-climax.
Aunt Polly's lengthy soliloquy and one more thing like that, if not a soliloquy, but something like that, was just a bit convenient, but it was not a problem to begin with really. And it can even be argued that it could be real. However, the most important thing is, although that soliloquy came so early, it did not show the day, because there was nothing like that in the rest of the book (except for the indefinite thing I mentioned), which was all proper.
I have to mention Sid. Ah, I wish I could write a whole novel about him. He made frequent appearances towards the start at some length, but then got lost almost entirely until the end, and at the end, just a few words depict him, so very well and deeply, but quite negatively. That the few words, and the other instances from the earlier episodes are able to paint him so well is testament to the strength of the writer. The negativity, although it can be legitimately argued seems greater than it could be in (the fictional) reality, as it comes from Tom in an adversarial mood, still has some truth perhaps, even discounting the Tom effect. But, even with that, spare a thought for poor Sid. I spared plenty, plenty of thought for him when I met him and whenever I met him and beyond it too I think. How must he have suffered, being so good, and Tom being so bad and rewarded thus. Although when Tom was presumed to have been dead, it could turn out (after the testimony at the end) it was too much to say, like Sid did that 'if he was good', it may not have been his whole sentiment, and there were indications that he was sad weren’t there? If this is correct, he is wholly pardonable for that. But more than that, I want to pardon him specifically for what he did at the end, the spoiling of the surprise, and others like it he could have done at his age, and beyond it as well. Because it can’t have been easy for him generally. Even if he is worse than Tom. Still. He is still good, or if not, he still needs to be loved, and that would be so important.
About the nigger-word then. I think it’s used 3 times. The first was when Huck says it (that he heard some information from some nigger who heard it from some [white] boy who heard it from some other boy, and then another, and then another perhaps), and then Tom repeats it. Huck was not generalizing their personality traits then but only discriminating racially - and Tom didn’t know who Huck was talking about then and thus said all the others that he knew would lie (the white boys) and he didn’t know any ‘nigger’ who didn’t lie. The second, perhaps, was when Huck was being rather nice about them, although imploring Tom not to say that he needs to be nice to them for food sometimes. There, Twain’s voice certainly spoke through, I think, when Huck was saying he (the man he was talking about) liked him (Huck) because he didn’t act like he was superior. Then there were some implorations and a few prejudicial undertones maybe. From it we can guess at Twain's dispositions perhaps, and they are not wholly in the wrong. The third I can remember is when Injun Joe told his tale of woe concerning the late justice of the peace, who had had him horsewhipped in front of company like a ‘nigger.’ The racial pride -well what can you say about it. But at least it is understandable for that time and place and social-economic-political systems.
I guess the good thing about it is it is an honest portrayal of that time and place. If these weren’t here, in this book, it would not have meant much worse was not there in that time in the american ‘west’ (south) in reality. It is thus great that we actually have one document, very precious, to remember it by and let it cause the emotions that it should cause.
Twain didn’t use the nigger-word in first person from what I recall. Only in conversation, as I described them above, from the characters’ mouths. But he did use the word half-breed, and maybe willfully pejoratively as well, in referring to Injun Joe. Although Injun Joe was made to seem human, first when he told his woe, and second after his death and maybe even in other places but I'm not sure. But that word, I think, accuses Twain.
But what good fortune and high privilege for me that I have been able read it, my first real Twain, and the authentic text of Tom Sawyer, so special to me for its rich, long history in my life, since my much regarded years of childhood, in Missouri. And seen a huge cave system, the Mississippi and the Illinois coast across it (which makes a brief appearance I think, other than that, it is wholly set in Missouri), and St. Louis, which makes two appearances (the boy of style Tom beats toward the beginning turns out to be from here later, and this origin is naturally connected to his high sense of taste) and the detective who also hails from here.
I want to write how living in Missouri has made a difference in appreciating certain parts of the text: the first thing is, experiencing the abundant open spaces and sparsely populated lands (in comparison to ours, extremely so) and that, 200 years earlier. And certain parts of the life of the village, in these landscape (and how beautiful and bountiful they are), seemed to convey a more detailed information about all their lives, in these houses (although 200 years ago) here in these lands, than it would have done otherwise. The Mississippi, I haven’t seen it very broad, but could it be wider in other places? Otherwise, I would need to put it to not experiencing real wide rivers (and I have seen the Mekong which should take care of meaningless pride in ours). But, finally, the caves, if I haven’t been to Meramec caverns I don’t think I would have been able to appreciate all the depths, all the despair, and all the terror, the terrific terror, that could be or should be experiences in a cave system like the McDougal. Man, are these a force of nature to reckon with. Utmost awe and wonder is what's called for. And was it this that turned my focus or divided it to my great benefit, from these recent manmade cities in this country to the prehistoric natural events? It might have predated this, I think it may well have or I am quite sure of it, but it should have helped solidify the resolution in any case. The point is, all the pathos, of how large and scary and awe-inspiring and bonechilling the silence and darkness of these unendingly mammoth cave systems could be really informed the entire part. The descriptions, as with all, are of the succinct (Hemingway-style before Hemingway) type (except for a few musings, but which are also expressed in the succinct style linguistically I would think). The getting lost, and the feelings of being lost afterword. The escape. And the return for the final lap of treasure-hunting. And Injun Joe’s death too. And his secret place too (the Meramec was one of Jesse James’ hideout too).
Signing off here at 11.08 pm. Could return tomorrow. Mostly covered all, I think, even if very hurriedly and blunderously. But can return if that’s the case! It’s late.
I edited the whole thing today, the next day, at the office. Can still come back for more if there is need for it later!
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Finished it yesterday - 31 May, 2024 (I see I finished Tom Sawyer on May 28, 2023 last year - perfect!!). Today is 1 June, 2024.
It was intoxicating, addictive.
The last portion, Tom's romance - was difficult. He was sincere, of course, and would and did welcome real danger - would have perhaps welcomed death. And if so, what of putting Jim in danger - in line with romance? He said if the schedule became dire, he would change plans, and would have responded to exigencies like that in appropraite ways, well sort of, I think.
But it was hard. Almost unbearable. We have lost boys' romance by now. And we know the real dangers, and the costs - and taken together with the cowardice, as well as demands of justice not appreciable by the boy romance, it was hard.
But then, all of it had to have a good ending right? And there was a twist, it didn't come by the arranging of Jim's ESCAPE.
Now, it was a more political book than Tom Sawyer, I think. The principle point was slavery. The minor was religion. And it was a vivid picture of life and times and people in the South - well certain memorable, important, and maybe slightly caricuturish aspects of it.
Mark Twain comes off looking goood on all counts I think.
I don't think they've been able to call a black man a person, once.
Of course, you'd wonder how they ever came to justify all of it. And the only way it makes some sort of sense is if you view black persons, completely, as cattle. Then all of it falls into place..the economic considerations reign supreme. But then, what other cattle talks and wears clothes and prays and are humans in every way? And, they had, well the more moneyed of them, and they are the ones who owned more slaves, had access to the North. Did they make it a point to never visit the northern states, for their family summers or business or just visiting? They would have been familiar with the concept of looking at black people as persons, how did they manage to get around it so completely? Why did the Mrs. free Jim in her will - regretting she had wanted to sell him down south, and others, approaching this subject, if not they considered that there was some good in freedom, in freeing a slave, that there is something bad in being a slave, a slave would appreciate it if was not a slave, and would rather be free. These are concepts they were familiar with. Of course, if Jim hadn't run away or they didn't think it's possible he was lost forever, either because of being sold elsewhere or escaping to north, maybe she would have faced more resistance freeing him, seeing he was worth 800 dollars, and not leaving her to a family member or friend, them being resentful.
And they are all loving family members, to each other, friends, neighbors. That does not mean that they wouldn't lynch one of them if they see one of them committed a crime, wouldn't rail (and maybe lynch) rapscallions and frauds.
This is supremely human, and it is important not to consider them, any of them back in the South as somehow different from - yes, even from me. And that is a work of wisdom, one of the few that have accreted within me over the lifetime so far.
Tom probably would not have helped Huck if that twist wasn't the case for Jim. And that makes sense to Huck. All this - does it sit well with Twain personally, or did he want to paint a picture of them people honest injun? I think there is a case to be made that it is latter. He has written this novel, and it is a big one, against slavery, I think.
One of Twain's kernel of wisdom was said my the colonel on his lecture of manhood - of course, with our vantage point of knowelde of ideas of masculinity - besides these issues, there is a kernel of wisdom applying to humans in general.
Very little redeemable qualities of the King and the Duke- the King especially. And Huck's father perhaps before him - but the former did not deserve what they got - and Huck said human beings can be awful cruel to each other.
Was it convenient that Huck's father's met his fate so early on? Well we didn't know it until the last page - and there is plot-logic there, maybe it was suicide or a night-time-masked-operation-by-the-un-men, according to that colonel.
But it was convenient a few places of course, the biggest being the Huck/Tom and Aunt Sally thing. And there were few others, like how Huck knewed of the clever woman's plans to search Jackson Island that very night. But all these are completely acceptable, for the kind of book it is. And there were plenty of inconveniences as well! How about the King and the Duke also escaping that time and coming aboard the raft again, after they was sure they lost them for good? And the whole of Tom's romance at the end was inconvenient, painful, but leads to a twist.
Are we to understand a freed slave was safe in the South? Somehow, even from the larger context (how the duke and the king, committed, perhaps their biggest crime that we saw, bigger than robbing the orphans, in 'selling out' - ahh these puns are devastating - Jim), in this book itself, it does not seem so. Perhaps, if he is accompanied by white Adults, and not only Tom and Huck, all they way up to the North, or at least in the company of protected spaces of water-vehicles that would take him there, if those existed, he may finally be, SOMEWHAT, safe.
The picture of the South or the life there&then, that Feud was interesting and important in my view, to drive home how identity politics work - how little identification (with your faminly, immediate and cousins on one/your side, and just an exactly same faimly, only not your'n, on the other) is all it takes for killing, absolute killing, and wanting to kill, and kill, every last one. This is one aspect that can be extended to understand black v white, and all others.
The 'working' of the towns (one-horse) and villages, was very interesting and education to see. The threats, of railing and lynching, what they enjoy and not, all of that, was very learning for us.
I remembered, of course, the lying down in the rafts and looking at the stars - more than any other things, and travelling down the river, miles and miles, night after night, I think more than any other thing from the little Punjeree abridgement in Bangla, that I read (I think also read english abridgement for school? Class 5? I am not entirely sure). It would be very interesting to read those again, and see just how they left ALL THAT MUCH, which they must have. And I can look up the Norton critical edidtion that I also own, (and another copy I bought in Malaysia, my first trip abroad), for critical or other commentary, maybe notes..
I had this thought throughout. How geography controls a lot of things, and wondered, was it completely by accident that the slave states were in the South? The mississippi begins way up in the North, and runs to the absolute down, meeting the Ocean in "ORLEANS" ..how many more slaves could have escaped if the free states we
Finished on 28 May, 2023.
Today is the same day, about an hour later at 8.07 PM
Now it’s 8.27 PM.
I finally read it in full, unabridged and complete. After so many times of the abridged ones - and how important those were to me and still is. It was school text, in class 5, and before that at class 4 or even earlier (although they didn’t teach that at the school, but I of course had read that in full on my own). In class 5, they actually read that in class, but I don’t remember if they finished it, it’s unlikely, but I had of course read it again. And it was a different abridged version than the other one. Both of which had since been very prized possessions, although did not read them again in years in anticipation of the real thing. I also seem to remember, was that in class 4, 2002, in Savar, that I checked out yet another abridged version, with a beautiful cover illustration depicting the whitewashing scene, to read? I think it was. 21 years ago it was then. And it is a treasured memory. Reading it, cuddled in my bed after lunch, which became established as my reading hours for life, but it was one of the first, had to be, that set my passion on fire, and it was exceptionally sweet too, seldom others were as sweet if I am honest (if I am associating that image correctly with the Tom Sawyer). And I seem to remember reading the whitewashing scene, but I may not have finished the book. I was very new to reading in English. But I think I also checked out the Invisible Man, from the same collection of abridged stories as this Tom Sawyer. I may not have read that. I also checked out some other books, and I may have finished Black Beauty but can’t remember. And King Arthur maybe, but also can’t remember if I've finished it.
And this was the authentic text too. And turns out, few books can claim to have as much controversy over its text’s authenticity. Mine is accepted as the most authentic, a product of extremely serious scholarship. This is the Paul Baender edition. Published by the Iowa Center for Textual Studies and the University of California Press. Mine is not the UCal publication, but reprinted by the Library of America. And what a marvel the Library of America books that I had no idea about is! Publishes authoritative volumes of significant American literature, and they are great publications. The paper is too thin, and needs to be handled with care, but I think they are still quite sturdy. And I haven’t encountered any errors whatsoever. And the volumes are handy too.
This volume, part of the entire writings of Mark Twain, is the one entitled Mississippi Writings. Tom Sawyer is the first of the Mississippi writings. Life on the Mississippi comes next. Then Huckleberry Finn. And finally Puddn’head Wilson. I think it's ordered in terms of publication or when Twain actually wrote them (and I learned that he was an erratic writer). I also have Roth's American Trilogy in the Library of America volume now. What great privilege. I should try to appreciate life's gifts more and more.
I hope to read all Mississippi Writings very soon, and hopefully by this summer. But I will read something else from tomorrow before I come back to it, so there’s always a chance of being waylaid. If only I had a much greater pace! But I like my slow pace for the most part too though.
And the authentic text contains the nigger word.
Let’s start here then.
I am back after dinner and a small break before that at 9.33 pm.
Well, let’s bypass the nigger word for now.
And say, emphatically, that I loved the book! It was soo good! Lived up to all it’s special childhood significance, and that is saying something.
And I haven’t read Mark Twain’s authentic writing before this, and it turns out he could write. Boy could he write. The prose is beautiful and flows on (I won't mention Mississippi here because it would be trite here, but couldn't refrain from mentioning it passive aggressively haha). And it’s quite light too. No unnecessary verbosity at all. It’s beautiful and light, and also quite poetic at times, and beautifully so.
The story was great too. The buildup, the various connected (and seeming unconnected, but not really) stories, the climaxes, the characters and characterization was excellent, the characters really stood out and seemed real.
About the story, at times, early on, it could have seemed a bit directionless in very few places, but then it lead on to something significant (for the plot or otherwise), or it turns out it was all buildup still to some satisfying proto-climax.
Aunt Polly's lengthy soliloquy and one more thing like that, if not a soliloquy, but something like that, was just a bit convenient, but it was not a problem to begin with really. And it can even be argued that it could be real. However, the most important thing is, although that soliloquy came so early, it did not show the day, because there was nothing like that in the rest of the book (except for the indefinite thing I mentioned), which was all proper.
I have to mention Sid. Ah, I wish I could write a whole novel about him. He made frequent appearances towards the start at some length, but then got lost almost entirely until the end, and at the end, just a few words depict him, so very well and deeply, but quite negatively. That the few words, and the other instances from the earlier episodes are able to paint him so well is testament to the strength of the writer. The negativity, although it can be legitimately argued seems greater than it could be in (the fictional) reality, as it comes from Tom in an adversarial mood, still has some truth perhaps, even discounting the Tom effect. But, even with that, spare a thought for poor Sid. I spared plenty, plenty of thought for him when I met him and whenever I met him and beyond it too I think. How must he have suffered, being so good, and Tom being so bad and rewarded thus. Although when Tom was presumed to have been dead, it could turn out (after the testimony at the end) it was too much to say, like Sid did that 'if he was good', it may not have been his whole sentiment, and there were indications that he was sad weren’t there? If this is correct, he is wholly pardonable for that. But more than that, I want to pardon him specifically for what he did at the end, the spoiling of the surprise, and others like it he could have done at his age, and beyond it as well. Because it can’t have been easy for him generally. Even if he is worse than Tom. Still. He is still good, or if not, he still needs to be loved, and that would be so important.
About the nigger-word then. I think it’s used 3 times. The first was when Huck says it (that he heard some information from some nigger who heard it from some [white] boy who heard it from some other boy, and then another, and then another perhaps), and then Tom repeats it. Huck was not generalizing their personality traits then but only discriminating racially - and Tom didn’t know who Huck was talking about then and thus said all the others that he knew would lie (the white boys) and he didn’t know any ‘nigger’ who didn’t lie. The second, perhaps, was when Huck was being rather nice about them, although imploring Tom not to say that he needs to be nice to them for food sometimes. There, Twain’s voice certainly spoke through, I think, when Huck was saying he (the man he was talking about) liked him (Huck) because he didn’t act like he was superior. Then there were some implorations and a few prejudicial undertones maybe. From it we can guess at Twain's dispositions perhaps, and they are not wholly in the wrong. The third I can remember is when Injun Joe told his tale of woe concerning the late justice of the peace, who had had him horsewhipped in front of company like a ‘nigger.’ The racial pride -well what can you say about it. But at least it is understandable for that time and place and social-economic-political systems.
I guess the good thing about it is it is an honest portrayal of that time and place. If these weren’t here, in this book, it would not have meant much worse was not there in that time in the american ‘west’ (south) in reality. It is thus great that we actually have one document, very precious, to remember it by and let it cause the emotions that it should cause.
Twain didn’t use the nigger-word in first person from what I recall. Only in conversation, as I described them above, from the characters’ mouths. But he did use the word half-breed, and maybe willfully pejoratively as well, in referring to Injun Joe. Although Injun Joe was made to seem human, first when he told his woe, and second after his death and maybe even in other places but I'm not sure. But that word, I think, accuses Twain.
But what good fortune and high privilege for me that I have been able read it, my first real Twain, and the authentic text of Tom Sawyer, so special to me for its rich, long history in my life, since my much regarded years of childhood, in Missouri. And seen a huge cave system, the Mississippi and the Illinois coast across it (which makes a brief appearance I think, other than that, it is wholly set in Missouri), and St. Louis, which makes two appearances (the boy of style Tom beats toward the beginning turns out to be from here later, and this origin is naturally connected to his high sense of taste) and the detective who also hails from here.
I want to write how living in Missouri has made a difference in appreciating certain parts of the text: the first thing is, experiencing the abundant open spaces and sparsely populated lands (in comparison to ours, extremely so) and that, 200 years earlier. And certain parts of the life of the village, in these landscape (and how beautiful and bountiful they are), seemed to convey a more detailed information about all their lives, in these houses (although 200 years ago) here in these lands, than it would have done otherwise. The Mississippi, I haven’t seen it very broad, but could it be wider in other places? Otherwise, I would need to put it to not experiencing real wide rivers (and I have seen the Mekong which should take care of meaningless pride in ours). But, finally, the caves, if I haven’t been to Meramec caverns I don’t think I would have been able to appreciate all the depths, all the despair, and all the terror, the terrific terror, that could be or should be experiences in a cave system like the McDougal. Man, are these a force of nature to reckon with. Utmost awe and wonder is what's called for. And was it this that turned my focus or divided it to my great benefit, from these recent manmade cities in this country to the prehistoric natural events? It might have predated this, I think it may well have or I am quite sure of it, but it should have helped solidify the resolution in any case. The point is, all the pathos, of how large and scary and awe-inspiring and bonechilling the silence and darkness of these unendingly mammoth cave systems could be really informed the entire part. The descriptions, as with all, are of the succinct (Hemingway-style before Hemingway) type (except for a few musings, but which are also expressed in the succinct style linguistically I would think). The getting lost, and the feelings of being lost afterword. The escape. And the return for the final lap of treasure-hunting. And Injun Joe’s death too. And his secret place too (the Meramec was one of Jesse James’ hideout too).
Signing off here at 11.08 pm. Could return tomorrow. Mostly covered all, I think, even if very hurriedly and blunderously. But can return if that’s the case! It’s late.
I edited the whole thing today, the next day, at the office. Can still come back for more if there is need for it later!
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Finished it yesterday - 31 May, 2024 (I see I finished Tom Sawyer on May 28, 2023 last year - perfect!!). Today is 1 June, 2024.
It was intoxicating, addictive.
The last portion, Tom's romance - was difficult. He was sincere, of course, and would and did welcome real danger - would have perhaps welcomed death. And if so, what of putting Jim in danger - in line with romance? He said if the schedule became dire, he would change plans, and would have responded to exigencies like that in appropraite ways, well sort of, I think.
But it was hard. Almost unbearable. We have lost boys' romance by now. And we know the real dangers, and the costs - and taken together with the cowardice, as well as demands of justice not appreciable by the boy romance, it was hard.
But then, all of it had to have a good ending right? And there was a twist, it didn't come by the arranging of Jim's ESCAPE.
Now, it was a more political book than Tom Sawyer, I think. The principle point was slavery. The minor was religion. And it was a vivid picture of life and times and people in the South - well certain memorable, important, and maybe slightly caricuturish aspects of it.
Mark Twain comes off looking goood on all counts I think.
I don't think they've been able to call a black man a person, once.
Of course, you'd wonder how they ever came to justify all of it. And the only way it makes some sort of sense is if you view black persons, completely, as cattle. Then all of it falls into place..the economic considerations reign supreme. But then, what other cattle talks and wears clothes and prays and are humans in every way? And, they had, well the more moneyed of them, and they are the ones who owned more slaves, had access to the North. Did they make it a point to never visit the northern states, for their family summers or business or just visiting? They would have been familiar with the concept of looking at black people as persons, how did they manage to get around it so completely? Why did the Mrs. free Jim in her will - regretting she had wanted to sell him down south, and others, approaching this subject, if not they considered that there was some good in freedom, in freeing a slave, that there is something bad in being a slave, a slave would appreciate it if was not a slave, and would rather be free. These are concepts they were familiar with. Of course, if Jim hadn't run away or they didn't think it's possible he was lost forever, either because of being sold elsewhere or escaping to north, maybe she would have faced more resistance freeing him, seeing he was worth 800 dollars, and not leaving her to a family member or friend, them being resentful.
And they are all loving family members, to each other, friends, neighbors. That does not mean that they wouldn't lynch one of them if they see one of them committed a crime, wouldn't rail (and maybe lynch) rapscallions and frauds.
This is supremely human, and it is important not to consider them, any of them back in the South as somehow different from - yes, even from me. And that is a work of wisdom, one of the few that have accreted within me over the lifetime so far.
Tom probably would not have helped Huck if that twist wasn't the case for Jim. And that makes sense to Huck. All this - does it sit well with Twain personally, or did he want to paint a picture of them people honest injun? I think there is a case to be made that it is latter. He has written this novel, and it is a big one, against slavery, I think.
One of Twain's kernel of wisdom was said my the colonel on his lecture of manhood - of course, with our vantage point of knowelde of ideas of masculinity - besides these issues, there is a kernel of wisdom applying to humans in general.
Very little redeemable qualities of the King and the Duke- the King especially. And Huck's father perhaps before him - but the former did not deserve what they got - and Huck said human beings can be awful cruel to each other.
Was it convenient that Huck's father's met his fate so early on? Well we didn't know it until the last page - and there is plot-logic there, maybe it was suicide or a night-time-masked-operation-by-the-un-men, according to that colonel.
But it was convenient a few places of course, the biggest being the Huck/Tom and Aunt Sally thing. And there were few others, like how Huck knewed of the clever woman's plans to search Jackson Island that very night. But all these are completely acceptable, for the kind of book it is. And there were plenty of inconveniences as well! How about the King and the Duke also escaping that time and coming aboard the raft again, after they was sure they lost them for good? And the whole of Tom's romance at the end was inconvenient, painful, but leads to a twist.
Are we to understand a freed slave was safe in the South? Somehow, even from the larger context (how the duke and the king, committed, perhaps their biggest crime that we saw, bigger than robbing the orphans, in 'selling out' - ahh these puns are devastating - Jim), in this book itself, it does not seem so. Perhaps, if he is accompanied by white Adults, and not only Tom and Huck, all they way up to the North, or at least in the company of protected spaces of water-vehicles that would take him there, if those existed, he may finally be, SOMEWHAT, safe.
The picture of the South or the life there&then, that Feud was interesting and important in my view, to drive home how identity politics work - how little identification (with your faminly, immediate and cousins on one/your side, and just an exactly same faimly, only not your'n, on the other) is all it takes for killing, absolute killing, and wanting to kill, and kill, every last one. This is one aspect that can be extended to understand black v white, and all others.
The 'working' of the towns (one-horse) and villages, was very interesting and education to see. The threats, of railing and lynching, what they enjoy and not, all of that, was very learning for us.
I remembered, of course, the lying down in the rafts and looking at the stars - more than any other things, and travelling down the river, miles and miles, night after night, I think more than any other thing from the little Punjeree abridgement in Bangla, that I read (I think also read english abridgement for school? Class 5? I am not entirely sure). It would be very interesting to read those again, and see just how they left ALL THAT MUCH, which they must have. And I can look up the Norton critical edidtion that I also own, (and another copy I bought in Malaysia, my first trip abroad), for critical or other commentary, maybe notes..
I had this thought throughout. How geography controls a lot of things, and wondered, was it completely by accident that the slave states were in the South? The mississippi begins way up in the North, and runs to the absolute down, meeting the Ocean in "ORLEANS" ..how many more slaves could have escaped if the free states we
July 6, 2016
Extraordinary story-telling and writing. Like any good writer, Mark Twain brings you into the story and environment of his characters. This book was interestingly bound and printed on paper like that of a Bible--the pages were extremely thin and therefore the publishers could fit over 1,100 pages into a relatively slim volume.
Out of the four writings in the book, I'd only read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before in middle school and maybe only just a few chapters into it. Of course, it was hard to read the "N" word so much but I understand that those were the times and it was commonplace and definitely created the placement of the story in time. And he gave more hopeful stories about slaves because he wrote quite a bit about slaves being freed from their masters.
In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, it's fantastic story-telling and gets us right into the adventure with Tom, although we can see how mischievous and extravagant or excessive he is in his fantastical actions, which are influenced by his being a little "emo." I remember feeling the same way that Tom did, though, with the wish to run away in order to avenge your good name after being reprimanded for something unfairly. The hope was to have people miss you so much that they'd feel guilty about reprimanding you and then would see you as a blessing instead of a curse. I did love Tom's spin on the fence whitewashing! Twain depicted the actions and thoughts of young people so accurately--their absorption in a novelty and turning anything into a game, their resourcefulness, their attachment to superstitions from stories told by adults or overheard from adults, their childish romances and ideas of romance.
I thought Pudd'nhead Wilson was a bit choppy and disjointed at points, but I read in the "Note on the Texts" that revising this almost killed him. It introduced so many moral conflicts, though--almost too many for one story. Some of the chapters from Life on the Mississippi were a little tedious, but some of the stories were fantastic. I enjoyed the insight into steamboat piloting and the type of life that could be experienced on the river. His telling about feuds (like the one between the Darnells and Watsons) reminded me of modern day gang warfare, being just as violent and gratuitous. It was also a surprise to learn that "Mark Twain" is a steamboating term and that's where Samuel Langhorne Clemens decided to pull his pen name from.
I enjoyed reading the Chronology about Mark Twain's life and was surprised to find out that he traveled the world quite a bit with his family, even though many of them were in poor health at times, yet they endured weeks-long boat trips and railway trips, domestically and internationally. It seemed that they went to every continent except Antarctica, which is quite an impressive amount of travel without airplanes. Also, the amounts of money mentioned for those times are still large sums in our time--he spent $3,000/month on funding the Paige machine along with whatever other expenses he and his family had, people were writing $200,000 checks for book writing, etc. I also liked reading about his residences in San Francisco and New York City because I've lived in bot those places and am familiar with the locations mentioned.
From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
"The children fastened their eyes upon the bit of candle and watched it melt slowly and pitilessly away; saw the half inch of wick stand alone at last; saw the feeble flame rise and fall, rise and fall, climb the thin column of smoke, linger at its top a moment, and then--the horror of utter darkness reigned!" pg. 192 (I love this description of the candle burning out and the children's accompanying emotions--great illustrative writing)
"Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the widow Douglas's protection, introduced him into society--no, dragged him into it, hurled him into it--and his sufferings were almost more than he could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know for a friend." pg. 211 (I love how close we get to Huck Finn here)
From Life on the Mississippi
"Months afterward the hope within me struggled to a reluctant death, and I found myself without an ambition. But I was ashamed to go home." pg. 257
"Such a memory as that is a great misfortune. To it, all occurrences are of the same size. Its possessor cannot distinguish an interesting circumstance from an uninteresting one. As a talker, he is bound to clog his narrative with tiresome details and make himself an insufferable bore. Moreover, he cannot stick to his subject. He picks up every little grain of memory he discerns in his way, and so is led aside." pg. 308
"It may be that carriage is at the bottom of this thing; and I think it is; for there are plenty of ladies and gentlemen in the provincial cities whose garments are all made by the best tailors and dressmakers of New York; yet this has no perceptible effect upon the grand fact: the educated eye never mistakes those people for New-Yorkers. No, there is a godless grace, and snap, and style about a born and bred New-Yorker which mere clothing cannot effect." pg. 362
"They must have their dogs; can't go without their dogs. Yet the dogs are never willing; they always object; so, one after another in ridiculous procession, they are dragged aboard; all four feet braced and sliding along the stage, head likely to be pulled off, but the tugger marching determinedly forward, bending to his work, with the rope over his shoulder for better purchase. Sometimes a child is forgotten and left on the bank; but never a dog." pg. 414
"I had myself called with the four o'clock watch, mornings, for one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi. They are enchanting. First, there is the eloquence of silence; for a deep hush broods everywhere. Next, there is the haunting sense of loneliness, isolation, remoteness from the worry and bustle of the world. The dawn creeps in stealthily; the solid walls of black forest soften to gray, and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves; the water is glass-smooth, gives off spectral little wreaths of white mist, there is not the faintest breath of wind, nor stir of leaf; the tranquility is profound and infinitely satisfying. Then a bird pipes up, another follows, and soon the pipings develop into a jubilant riot of music. You see none of the birds; you simply move through an atmosphere of song which seems to sing itself. When the light has become a little stronger, you have one of the fairest and softest pictures imaginable. You have the intense green of the massed and crowded foliage near by; you see it paling shade by shade in front of you; upon the next projecting cape, a mile off or more, the tint has lightened to the tender young green of spring; the cape beyond that one has almost lost color, and the furthest one, miles away under the horizon, sleeps upon the water a mere dim vapor, and hardly separable from the sky above it and about it. And all this stretch of river is a mirror, and you have the shadowy reflections of the leafage and the curving shores and the receding capes pictured in it. Well, that is all beautiful; soft and rich and beautiful; and when then sun gets well up, and distributes a pink flush here and a powder of gold yonder and a purple haze where it will yield the best effect, you grant that you have seen something that is worth remembering." pg. 417
"He was a living man, but he did not look it. He was abed, and had his head propped high on pillows; his face was wasted and colorless, his deep-sunken eyes were shut; his hand, lying on his breast, was talon-like, it was so bony and long-fingered. . .The man's eyes opened slowly, and glittered wickedly out from the twilight of their caverns; he frowned a black frown; he lifted his lean hand and waved us peremptorily away. " pg. 421 (I enjoyed the dark story of revenge that unfolds after this)
"The magnolia-trees in the Capitol grounds were lovely and fragrant, with their dense rich foliage and huge snow-ball blossoms. The scent of the flower is very sweet, but you want distance on it, because it is so powerful. They are not good bedroom blossoms--they might suffocate one in his sleep." pg. 468
From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
"I did wish Tom Sawyer was there. I knowed he would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy touches. Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as that." pg. 657
"Mary Jane she set at the head of the table, with Susan along side of her, and said how bad the biscuits was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried chickens was--and all that kind of rot, the way women always do for to force out compliments; and the people all knowed everything was tip-top, and said so--said 'How do you get biscuits to brown so nice?' and 'Where, for the land's sake did you get these amaz'n pickles?' and all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a supper, you know." pg. 792
From Pudd'nhead Wilson
All of his "calendar" sayings were so witty, ironic, and hilarious, and this one caught me off guard the most and I did like it:
"Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent." pg. 922
Book: borrowed from Skyline College library.
Out of the four writings in the book, I'd only read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before in middle school and maybe only just a few chapters into it. Of course, it was hard to read the "N" word so much but I understand that those were the times and it was commonplace and definitely created the placement of the story in time. And he gave more hopeful stories about slaves because he wrote quite a bit about slaves being freed from their masters.
In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, it's fantastic story-telling and gets us right into the adventure with Tom, although we can see how mischievous and extravagant or excessive he is in his fantastical actions, which are influenced by his being a little "emo." I remember feeling the same way that Tom did, though, with the wish to run away in order to avenge your good name after being reprimanded for something unfairly. The hope was to have people miss you so much that they'd feel guilty about reprimanding you and then would see you as a blessing instead of a curse. I did love Tom's spin on the fence whitewashing! Twain depicted the actions and thoughts of young people so accurately--their absorption in a novelty and turning anything into a game, their resourcefulness, their attachment to superstitions from stories told by adults or overheard from adults, their childish romances and ideas of romance.
I thought Pudd'nhead Wilson was a bit choppy and disjointed at points, but I read in the "Note on the Texts" that revising this almost killed him. It introduced so many moral conflicts, though--almost too many for one story. Some of the chapters from Life on the Mississippi were a little tedious, but some of the stories were fantastic. I enjoyed the insight into steamboat piloting and the type of life that could be experienced on the river. His telling about feuds (like the one between the Darnells and Watsons) reminded me of modern day gang warfare, being just as violent and gratuitous. It was also a surprise to learn that "Mark Twain" is a steamboating term and that's where Samuel Langhorne Clemens decided to pull his pen name from.
I enjoyed reading the Chronology about Mark Twain's life and was surprised to find out that he traveled the world quite a bit with his family, even though many of them were in poor health at times, yet they endured weeks-long boat trips and railway trips, domestically and internationally. It seemed that they went to every continent except Antarctica, which is quite an impressive amount of travel without airplanes. Also, the amounts of money mentioned for those times are still large sums in our time--he spent $3,000/month on funding the Paige machine along with whatever other expenses he and his family had, people were writing $200,000 checks for book writing, etc. I also liked reading about his residences in San Francisco and New York City because I've lived in bot those places and am familiar with the locations mentioned.
From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
"The children fastened their eyes upon the bit of candle and watched it melt slowly and pitilessly away; saw the half inch of wick stand alone at last; saw the feeble flame rise and fall, rise and fall, climb the thin column of smoke, linger at its top a moment, and then--the horror of utter darkness reigned!" pg. 192 (I love this description of the candle burning out and the children's accompanying emotions--great illustrative writing)
"Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the widow Douglas's protection, introduced him into society--no, dragged him into it, hurled him into it--and his sufferings were almost more than he could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know for a friend." pg. 211 (I love how close we get to Huck Finn here)
From Life on the Mississippi
"Months afterward the hope within me struggled to a reluctant death, and I found myself without an ambition. But I was ashamed to go home." pg. 257
"Such a memory as that is a great misfortune. To it, all occurrences are of the same size. Its possessor cannot distinguish an interesting circumstance from an uninteresting one. As a talker, he is bound to clog his narrative with tiresome details and make himself an insufferable bore. Moreover, he cannot stick to his subject. He picks up every little grain of memory he discerns in his way, and so is led aside." pg. 308
"It may be that carriage is at the bottom of this thing; and I think it is; for there are plenty of ladies and gentlemen in the provincial cities whose garments are all made by the best tailors and dressmakers of New York; yet this has no perceptible effect upon the grand fact: the educated eye never mistakes those people for New-Yorkers. No, there is a godless grace, and snap, and style about a born and bred New-Yorker which mere clothing cannot effect." pg. 362
"They must have their dogs; can't go without their dogs. Yet the dogs are never willing; they always object; so, one after another in ridiculous procession, they are dragged aboard; all four feet braced and sliding along the stage, head likely to be pulled off, but the tugger marching determinedly forward, bending to his work, with the rope over his shoulder for better purchase. Sometimes a child is forgotten and left on the bank; but never a dog." pg. 414
"I had myself called with the four o'clock watch, mornings, for one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi. They are enchanting. First, there is the eloquence of silence; for a deep hush broods everywhere. Next, there is the haunting sense of loneliness, isolation, remoteness from the worry and bustle of the world. The dawn creeps in stealthily; the solid walls of black forest soften to gray, and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves; the water is glass-smooth, gives off spectral little wreaths of white mist, there is not the faintest breath of wind, nor stir of leaf; the tranquility is profound and infinitely satisfying. Then a bird pipes up, another follows, and soon the pipings develop into a jubilant riot of music. You see none of the birds; you simply move through an atmosphere of song which seems to sing itself. When the light has become a little stronger, you have one of the fairest and softest pictures imaginable. You have the intense green of the massed and crowded foliage near by; you see it paling shade by shade in front of you; upon the next projecting cape, a mile off or more, the tint has lightened to the tender young green of spring; the cape beyond that one has almost lost color, and the furthest one, miles away under the horizon, sleeps upon the water a mere dim vapor, and hardly separable from the sky above it and about it. And all this stretch of river is a mirror, and you have the shadowy reflections of the leafage and the curving shores and the receding capes pictured in it. Well, that is all beautiful; soft and rich and beautiful; and when then sun gets well up, and distributes a pink flush here and a powder of gold yonder and a purple haze where it will yield the best effect, you grant that you have seen something that is worth remembering." pg. 417
"He was a living man, but he did not look it. He was abed, and had his head propped high on pillows; his face was wasted and colorless, his deep-sunken eyes were shut; his hand, lying on his breast, was talon-like, it was so bony and long-fingered. . .The man's eyes opened slowly, and glittered wickedly out from the twilight of their caverns; he frowned a black frown; he lifted his lean hand and waved us peremptorily away. " pg. 421 (I enjoyed the dark story of revenge that unfolds after this)
"The magnolia-trees in the Capitol grounds were lovely and fragrant, with their dense rich foliage and huge snow-ball blossoms. The scent of the flower is very sweet, but you want distance on it, because it is so powerful. They are not good bedroom blossoms--they might suffocate one in his sleep." pg. 468
From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
"I did wish Tom Sawyer was there. I knowed he would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy touches. Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as that." pg. 657
"Mary Jane she set at the head of the table, with Susan along side of her, and said how bad the biscuits was, and how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough the fried chickens was--and all that kind of rot, the way women always do for to force out compliments; and the people all knowed everything was tip-top, and said so--said 'How do you get biscuits to brown so nice?' and 'Where, for the land's sake did you get these amaz'n pickles?' and all that kind of humbug talky-talk, just the way people always does at a supper, you know." pg. 792
From Pudd'nhead Wilson
All of his "calendar" sayings were so witty, ironic, and hilarious, and this one caught me off guard the most and I did like it:
"Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent." pg. 922
Book: borrowed from Skyline College library.
February 2, 2025
This is a review of Pudd'nhead Wilson (I read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn last year, and will probably read "Life on the Mississipi" later this year).
Wow. Maybe I have a soft spot for dark humor. There are flashes of such humor in Huckleberry Finn, but in Pudd'nhead Wilson, Twain gives his contempt for the regime under which he grew up full reign. If Tom Sawyer is something of a fond reminiscence of his childhood in a Missouri river town, and Huckeberry Finn something of a paean to the majesty of the Mississippi River, Pudd'nhead Wilson is a sharp, sardonic, biting satire on the world he grew up in, where white folks held unquestioned power over black folks, and the overwhelming majority of the latter were slaves.
But, of course, the perverse calculus of the racial regime meant that mere complexion was not an entirely reliable determinant of one's status. Roxy, a household slave, has a fair complexion, and, to all appearances, could be "white." And, given the manner in which white men of all classess and supposed character could access black women for their sexual satisfaction, it appears she had a white father, and white grandfathers, and so on, many generations back . . . nevertheless, she was black, and a slave. And her son (also sired by a white man) was undistinguishable from the son of her master (and why not, for they were in fact unacknowledged cousins). And so, to spare her son the burdens of life as a slave, she exchanges the infants' clothing, and no one is the wiser.
This launches us into an implicit mediation about the competing effects of nature and nuture. For Roxy's son, who is pampered and petted because of his presumed status, turns out to be a wastrel, a fool, and a petty villian. The other boy (who is more or less a cipher in the book) is healthy, strong, and kind hearted, in part because he is clothed and fed roughly, and has a harder life.
The scheme eventually unravels, and in a manner that gives credit to the title character, but, in the end, carries deep ironies. One can't help but think about what makes our identity, and the ways in which our circumstances build upon our innate characteristics, to make us who we are.
And along the way, there is much about the human condition to make us laugh, or cry, or both.
Wow. Maybe I have a soft spot for dark humor. There are flashes of such humor in Huckleberry Finn, but in Pudd'nhead Wilson, Twain gives his contempt for the regime under which he grew up full reign. If Tom Sawyer is something of a fond reminiscence of his childhood in a Missouri river town, and Huckeberry Finn something of a paean to the majesty of the Mississippi River, Pudd'nhead Wilson is a sharp, sardonic, biting satire on the world he grew up in, where white folks held unquestioned power over black folks, and the overwhelming majority of the latter were slaves.
But, of course, the perverse calculus of the racial regime meant that mere complexion was not an entirely reliable determinant of one's status. Roxy, a household slave, has a fair complexion, and, to all appearances, could be "white." And, given the manner in which white men of all classess and supposed character could access black women for their sexual satisfaction, it appears she had a white father, and white grandfathers, and so on, many generations back . . . nevertheless, she was black, and a slave. And her son (also sired by a white man) was undistinguishable from the son of her master (and why not, for they were in fact unacknowledged cousins). And so, to spare her son the burdens of life as a slave, she exchanges the infants' clothing, and no one is the wiser.
This launches us into an implicit mediation about the competing effects of nature and nuture. For Roxy's son, who is pampered and petted because of his presumed status, turns out to be a wastrel, a fool, and a petty villian. The other boy (who is more or less a cipher in the book) is healthy, strong, and kind hearted, in part because he is clothed and fed roughly, and has a harder life.
The scheme eventually unravels, and in a manner that gives credit to the title character, but, in the end, carries deep ironies. One can't help but think about what makes our identity, and the ways in which our circumstances build upon our innate characteristics, to make us who we are.
And along the way, there is much about the human condition to make us laugh, or cry, or both.
April 29, 2018
Ernest Hemingway once stated that modern American literature began with Mark Twain. This lofty assessment wasn't based on the content or plots of his novels so much as on the vivid, colloquial nature of Twain's language.
This volume, which contains the extremely familiar Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the somewhat less familiar Life on the Mississippi, and the now mostly unknown Adventures of Pudd'nhead Wilson, confirms this assessment. The plots of these books are sprightly, episodic, and best suited for young adult literature. The language, and especially the dialog, however, is vivid and flows naturally, unlike the somewhat stilted verbiage common with even the best nineteenth century authors.
A comment on Twain's forthright portrayal of racism, including the use of the infamous n-word, also is in order. Despite their merit, Twain's novels frequently have appeared on banned-book lists for running afoul of politically-correct sensibilities. This criticism of Twain completely misses the mark. Twain portrayed racism forthrightly because it was part of the world he wrote about. That does not mean, however, that he approved of this attitude. In fact, he generally treated the racism he saw growing up in a slyly subversive manner, and openly condemned it on occasion. If often is obvious that book banners haven't even read the books they condemn, and nowhere is this more true than in the pc mob's attacks on Twain.
This volume, which contains the extremely familiar Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the somewhat less familiar Life on the Mississippi, and the now mostly unknown Adventures of Pudd'nhead Wilson, confirms this assessment. The plots of these books are sprightly, episodic, and best suited for young adult literature. The language, and especially the dialog, however, is vivid and flows naturally, unlike the somewhat stilted verbiage common with even the best nineteenth century authors.
A comment on Twain's forthright portrayal of racism, including the use of the infamous n-word, also is in order. Despite their merit, Twain's novels frequently have appeared on banned-book lists for running afoul of politically-correct sensibilities. This criticism of Twain completely misses the mark. Twain portrayed racism forthrightly because it was part of the world he wrote about. That does not mean, however, that he approved of this attitude. In fact, he generally treated the racism he saw growing up in a slyly subversive manner, and openly condemned it on occasion. If often is obvious that book banners haven't even read the books they condemn, and nowhere is this more true than in the pc mob's attacks on Twain.
July 28, 2021
I've always wanted to read the four books inside this 1000+ volume and made it one of my summer reading goals - finished it this morning! Tom Sawyer - a boys' book and fun; Life on the Mississippi was dear to my heart having grown up in St. Louis and finally had my life on the great river via Mark; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - has to stay in the library of must-reads for older kids/adults since it is funny, sometimes goes on too long (last 80 pages) but well worth the time in and more important to read now; and Pudd'nhead Wilson - the real deal for seeing class, race, education, justice issues bound together in a great yarn and classic Mark Twain. Can't say strongly enough that when we start shredding libraries for one reason or another, we will be lowering our understanding of who we are as US citizens and why we are where we are - horribly divided in every possible way.
December 1, 2024
I read the wonderfully eclectic collection of tales in “Life on the Mississippi” in a very leisurely fashion, often just a short chapter at the end of my day for months. It’s full of the usual tall tales and mordant stories of America’s odd characters, along with numerous observations about places passed along the way, and of the river itself. By far the best part is that, early on, of how Twain became a riverboat pilot - alternately hilarious and harrowing - as well as the account of the steamboat’s ultimate decline as a means of transit, shipping … and magic. Ultimately uneven, but a worth the read and a fascinating glimpse into an author struggling to understand this great river and it’s place as he attempted to complete his master work, “Huck Finn.”
June 26, 2025
Notes on a reread: A near perfect novel, I think. If it's not "the great American novel," so what? It's genius.
"Huck Finn" inspires a kind of wonder and glee in a reader - it's so good, so funny, so original, moves at such a cracking pace. It's one of those handful of books that is, at once, profound and fun. Twain doesn't need me to verify he's a genius, but he was.
It's terrific right out of the gate. The way Tom Sawyer talks, Jim talks and, above all, the way Huck talks. Consistently funny stuff about superstition and luck, too. The overarching issue of slavery, its evil, inhumane nature, is beautifully portrayed. It comes in layers through Huck's growing recognition because of his love and admiration for Jim. This part of the book is heartbreaking at times and always profound. Both when Huck is thinking of betraying Jim on the river, and then in his final round of wrestling with the issue when they are in Louisiana, it is moving, natural, intelligent the way Huck's mind works. Remarkable. Why people want to ban this book due to the use of the n-word (which is of course exactly how these people would have thought and talked) is beyond me.
I am a bit puzzled by Huck & Jim's efforts to get to Cairo, Illinois, where Jim plans to go on up the Ohio river deeper into the free states. Illinois is the other side of the Mississippi when the book begins, so why don't they just bolt for it then? But that's a quibble, I suppose.
One of the best parts - lots of people are blown away by this, too, Huck would reckon - comes at the beginning of Chapter 9 when Huck and Jim are first together on Jackson Island in the Mississippi River. A thunderstorm arises, and Twain gives one of literature's great passages:
"Pretty soon it darkened up and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds was right about it. Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, too, and I never did see the wind blow so. It was one of those regular summer storms. It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and blackest - fxt! It was as bright as glory and you'd have a little glimpse of the tree-tops a-plunging about, away off yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling down the sky towards the under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs, where it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know."
Who knows how long it took Twain to craft that sentence (run on so that Faulkner must have envied it) but it's perfect, I think. Much of the book is like that - perfect. From the pure poetry of the thunder image; the "glory," "sin," and "under side of the world"; and the joke at the end which ties up Huck's voice.
There's another very funny part that also comes during their Jackson Island sojourn, after Huck has put a dead snake by Jim's bedding in a prank that goes horribly wrong. Jim lectures Huck on how unlucky a snakeskin can be, ranking it among the unluckiest things on earth, and after Jim recovers: "Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time. And he said that handling a snakeskin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't got to the end of it yet. He said he druther see the new moon over his left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snakeskin in his hand. Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot tower and spread himself out so that he was just kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so they say, but I didn't see it. Pap told me. But anyway, it all come of looking at the moon that way, like a fool."
When Huck is with the Grangerford family and its feud, he mentions one of the daughters, Emmeline, who died earlier. She had drawn pictures the family values deeply and that Huck likes, too. But, he says, "they was different than any pictures I saw before - blacker, mostly, than is common." And with that funny art criticism, Huck says the pictures depressed him (he's not aware yet of how death pervades the family because of the feud). "But I reckoned that with her disposition she was having a better time in the graveyard."
And for all the criticism levelled against the novel and Twain for the ending, it's hilarious. There's a line Tom Sawyer speaks to Huck that is as jolting and as accurate as any in the book. Twain does not pull a punch in "Huckleberry Finn" and every one of them lands, right on the chin. Again, it's almost sentence-for-sentence perfect.
Obviously, the relationship between Huck and Jim is at the heart of "Huckleberry Finn" and surely there's no better relationship in literature. Again, the words that spring to mind here are "profound" and "funny." What an extraordinary combination!
"Huckleberry Finn" is a rare achievement that should be read by everyone, repeatedly.
"Huck Finn" inspires a kind of wonder and glee in a reader - it's so good, so funny, so original, moves at such a cracking pace. It's one of those handful of books that is, at once, profound and fun. Twain doesn't need me to verify he's a genius, but he was.
It's terrific right out of the gate. The way Tom Sawyer talks, Jim talks and, above all, the way Huck talks. Consistently funny stuff about superstition and luck, too. The overarching issue of slavery, its evil, inhumane nature, is beautifully portrayed. It comes in layers through Huck's growing recognition because of his love and admiration for Jim. This part of the book is heartbreaking at times and always profound. Both when Huck is thinking of betraying Jim on the river, and then in his final round of wrestling with the issue when they are in Louisiana, it is moving, natural, intelligent the way Huck's mind works. Remarkable. Why people want to ban this book due to the use of the n-word (which is of course exactly how these people would have thought and talked) is beyond me.
I am a bit puzzled by Huck & Jim's efforts to get to Cairo, Illinois, where Jim plans to go on up the Ohio river deeper into the free states. Illinois is the other side of the Mississippi when the book begins, so why don't they just bolt for it then? But that's a quibble, I suppose.
One of the best parts - lots of people are blown away by this, too, Huck would reckon - comes at the beginning of Chapter 9 when Huck and Jim are first together on Jackson Island in the Mississippi River. A thunderstorm arises, and Twain gives one of literature's great passages:
"Pretty soon it darkened up and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds was right about it. Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, too, and I never did see the wind blow so. It was one of those regular summer storms. It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and here would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild; and next, when it was just about the bluest and blackest - fxt! It was as bright as glory and you'd have a little glimpse of the tree-tops a-plunging about, away off yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling down the sky towards the under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs, where it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know."
Who knows how long it took Twain to craft that sentence (run on so that Faulkner must have envied it) but it's perfect, I think. Much of the book is like that - perfect. From the pure poetry of the thunder image; the "glory," "sin," and "under side of the world"; and the joke at the end which ties up Huck's voice.
There's another very funny part that also comes during their Jackson Island sojourn, after Huck has put a dead snake by Jim's bedding in a prank that goes horribly wrong. Jim lectures Huck on how unlucky a snakeskin can be, ranking it among the unluckiest things on earth, and after Jim recovers: "Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time. And he said that handling a snakeskin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't got to the end of it yet. He said he druther see the new moon over his left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snakeskin in his hand. Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot tower and spread himself out so that he was just kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so they say, but I didn't see it. Pap told me. But anyway, it all come of looking at the moon that way, like a fool."
When Huck is with the Grangerford family and its feud, he mentions one of the daughters, Emmeline, who died earlier. She had drawn pictures the family values deeply and that Huck likes, too. But, he says, "they was different than any pictures I saw before - blacker, mostly, than is common." And with that funny art criticism, Huck says the pictures depressed him (he's not aware yet of how death pervades the family because of the feud). "But I reckoned that with her disposition she was having a better time in the graveyard."
And for all the criticism levelled against the novel and Twain for the ending, it's hilarious. There's a line Tom Sawyer speaks to Huck that is as jolting and as accurate as any in the book. Twain does not pull a punch in "Huckleberry Finn" and every one of them lands, right on the chin. Again, it's almost sentence-for-sentence perfect.
Obviously, the relationship between Huck and Jim is at the heart of "Huckleberry Finn" and surely there's no better relationship in literature. Again, the words that spring to mind here are "profound" and "funny." What an extraordinary combination!
"Huckleberry Finn" is a rare achievement that should be read by everyone, repeatedly.
October 23, 2022
Revisiting Mark Twain’s writings at this stage of my adulthood reveals limitations in much of his work that I overlooked as a young adult reader. So much of his work collected here exhibit pacing issues, with Huck Finn perhaps being the strongest in terms of pacing until the final section at the Phelps farm. Life on the Mississippi in particular felt particularly disjointed given that the book itself is compiled out form Twain’s newspaper writing. The quality of this book feels nice, but I far prefer its contents in separate volumes rather than reading them straight through cover-to-cover.
November 28, 2018
Not a big fan of the ubiquitous Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, but was really taken by Life on the Mississippi; highly recommended for that book alone. I must confess that I've also been a fan of Pudd'nhead Wilson for a long time-- hard to get through that one without a few spit-takes-- the sense of humor at work is first rate.
July 10, 2022
The three novels are all classic Twain and, while not as engaging as I would have hoped from their lofty reputations, they are all funny with great prose and good commentary on the era. I thouroughly enjoyed Twain's reminiscences in Life on the Mississippi, which was much more what I was hoping for in the novels.
June 19, 2024
This is the third time that I read this book, and I did so because I just finished Percival Everett's James and wanted to see where the stories intersected. It was worth it for that and demonstrates how creative Everett was in writing the story from Jim's perspective. But, the constant schemes and lies and N word get extremely tedious by the end of Huckleberry Finn.
March 2, 2022
Mark Twain is a wonderful writer and all of these are classics. I found a beautiful hard cover version while thrifting and I was honestly so overjoyed 😊. I definitely recommend if you're into old stories that are written in a way to keep you engaged!
January 13, 2019
These four novels are classic Twain, celebrating and glorifying an American lifestyle that no longer exists.
April 14, 2019
"Huckleberry Finn" is the co-American novel with "The Great Gatsby." Gatsby explains our misplaced obsession with wealth and glory. Huck deeply reveals our sins of slavery and racism.
June 15, 2019
Please see my reviews of the four individual works contained in this volume.
Read
October 13, 2019Probably his best work.
October 26, 2023
Only read the first part.Adventures of Tom Sawyer.I think it is a great first Mark Twain read.Great story!!
November 25, 2015
This volume, clearly, deserves at least four stars for the presence of Huckleberry Finn. So far, though, I've only (re)read Life on the Mississippi.
Life on the Mississippi (08/13)
** This book is legion. There are so many vignettes and tales and stories, it’s hard to make anything of it. It occurred to me that I have never read a travelogue, so maybe this is normal. I found it tiring.
The first part of the book is the best – Twain’s recollections of being a cub pilot and his experiences on the river. I laughed out loud at parts of this (much to the bemusement of my fellow train passengers).
But that is a small part of the book. The rest is about Twain’s return to the river 20 years later. Here, the book becomes a collection of stories ranging from one paragraph to one chapter. Nothing is too odd, too melodramatic or too unrelated to be included. As long as it happened on, about, or near the river, Twain includes it. Some are interesting, others not.
This is supposed to be a whimsical look at life on the river, but racism and anti-Semitism so suffuse the stories (particularly in the middle of the book) that it was hard to find much whimsical or amusing. Not that I think Twain was a racist or anti-Semitic (though the latter is debatable), but in accurately portraying that time and place, he accurately captures a world brimming with hatred, stupidity and closed-mindedness. Life on the Mississippi in the mid-1800s was disturbing.
Overall, it’s not a book I would recommend unless you are a hardcore Twain reader.
Life on the Mississippi (08/13)
** This book is legion. There are so many vignettes and tales and stories, it’s hard to make anything of it. It occurred to me that I have never read a travelogue, so maybe this is normal. I found it tiring.
The first part of the book is the best – Twain’s recollections of being a cub pilot and his experiences on the river. I laughed out loud at parts of this (much to the bemusement of my fellow train passengers).
But that is a small part of the book. The rest is about Twain’s return to the river 20 years later. Here, the book becomes a collection of stories ranging from one paragraph to one chapter. Nothing is too odd, too melodramatic or too unrelated to be included. As long as it happened on, about, or near the river, Twain includes it. Some are interesting, others not.
This is supposed to be a whimsical look at life on the river, but racism and anti-Semitism so suffuse the stories (particularly in the middle of the book) that it was hard to find much whimsical or amusing. Not that I think Twain was a racist or anti-Semitic (though the latter is debatable), but in accurately portraying that time and place, he accurately captures a world brimming with hatred, stupidity and closed-mindedness. Life on the Mississippi in the mid-1800s was disturbing.
Overall, it’s not a book I would recommend unless you are a hardcore Twain reader.
March 13, 2010
It would be absurd to "review" these classics. I suppose that I read at least some of them in childhood, but if so they have dimmed to oblivion through the years; consequently they are well worth a revisit many decades later. Sure the racism of Twain's era is contained therein, but if you can get past the "N-word", there are actually many moments of social enlightenment to be found in these texts. Social commentary aside, Twain's story-telling powers are unrivaled, and the sense of adventure retains its force even in the Internet era (if Tom and Huck were on Facebook, you can be sure that some major Cyberpranks would be in the offing). And if Eliot Spitzer hadn't self-destructed, he might have turned out to be a contemporary Pudd'nhead Wilson (well, perhaps the "Pudd'nhead" appellation is still appropriate for Mr. Spitzer).
October 10, 2024
Warms my heart and makes me laugh. Thanks to Library of America and editor Guy Cardwell and to everyone who made this possible.
October 23, 2010
Hadn't read this one (Tom Sawyer) since childhood, and it is a whole different experience reading it as an adult. The plot is a little clumsy at times, but the writing is a hoot from start to finish. I look forward to re-reading the other books in this volume.
June 16, 2008
To try new things and enjoy life.
Currently reading
October 12, 2008Finished Tom Sawyer folks. Delightful little yarn. I'll tackle Huckleberry after the spooky reading season.
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