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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: April 30, 2025

Discussion: CLASSICS READS

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CLASSICS READS

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What Members Thought

Sep 16, 2011 Stephen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z-read-in-2011, and-saw-the-movie, literature, historical-fiction, tally-1001-books-list

I've read excerpts before and have seen several screen version but never got around to reading the entire book until now.

I'm afraid that I wasn't as impressed as I would have hoped. I felt that too much emphasis had been placed on being entertaining rather than on being insightful. Yes, there were moments, but I felt that to achieve classic status that there should have been more. To put it in the vernacular of the electronic age this felt too much like a sitcom with a laugh track. I found myse ...more

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Sep 11, 2025 Laurel Bradshaw rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-fiction, classics, kindle, ebooks-owned, color-rating-red, audible-prime-reads-might-disappear

I had never read this before, although I read other books of Mark Twain, several of them more than once. Now with Percival Everett's retelling James I wanted to read this first. While The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is so clearly a children's book about a loveable rascal who gets caught up in things of a very serious nature, nevertheless it all has a happy ending. With Huckleberry Finn, one is not quite sure how to approach this. It starts out as something of a coming of age tale and a serious one I had never read this before, although I read other books of Mark Twain, several of them more than once. Now with Percival Everett's retelling James I wanted to read this first. While The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is so clearly a children's book about a loveable rascal who gets caught up in things of a very serious nature, nevertheless it all has a happy ending. With Huckleberry Finn, one is not quite sure how to approach this. It starts out as something of a coming of age tale and a serious one at that. Then Tom Sawyer enters the picture and we are thrown back into a mixture of childhood escapade and satire. Both Huck and Jim seem willing to play along with Tom's elaborate farce of imprisonment and escape. We get our happy ending, but with the realization that things could have turned out far more disastrously. And what do we make of the fact that Tom knew all along that Jim was now a free man? Twain seems keen to show that Jim is the better person here, sacrificing his freedom in order to rescue the injured Tom. In between, we get the story of two adults (the duke and the dauphin) playacting a role designed entirely for their own benefit and not above abusing and endangering both Huck and Jim. Despite all the playacting by various characters, Twain also manages to give us some very serious commentary on morality, friendship, slavery, and freedom. Finally, I shouldn't have to say it, but the use of the "n" word is perfectly natural for the time and setting of this story. Jim comes across as a hero, and yet given the time period, even Mark Twain ends up short-changing him.

Description: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain that first appeared in 1884. The story is narrated by Huck Finn, a young boy who runs away from home to escape his abusive father. He travels down the Mississippi River on a raft, accompanied by Jim, a runaway slave seeking freedom. As they journey together, they encounter a variety of characters and face numerous challenges, all while grappling with issues of morality, racism, and personal freedom. The book is renowned for its rich depiction of 19th-century American life, its use of regional dialects, and its satirical take on social and political issues. Twain's storytelling and Huck’s rebellious spirit make it a compelling and enduring work in American literature.
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