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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
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Matthew, Assistant List Master
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rated it 3 stars
Jun 29, 2017 10:08AM
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It was a quick read. I read it the first time about 20 years ago, some of it seemed familiar.
On my review there has been some interesting discussion about racial stereotypes and the language used by Twain to describe them.
I'm 100 pages in - I started and took a break. This is one of my favorite books- I have read it now 3 times. So far - I love the atmosphere of the time spent on the river with Huck & Jim. At times - poetic - at other times realistic -- also the relationship between Huck and Jim is interesting - at one point - Huck thinks it's right to turn Jim but he fights with his conscience that it's not compassionate. As Huck states (to paraphrase) - sometimes it's just about the same effort to do right as to do "wrong" with the same payoff - so he will follow his heart at the moment. Also Twain's satirical points about the "civilization" of the time - I just laughed at the section on the family Huck meets near Cairo and the descriptions of their dead daughters awful ghoulish (a la Edward Gorey) "death" paintings and poetry.
Reading some more - there's some really wonderful descriptions of life on the river. The description of the river town was horrific - harsh and violent - and the tirade against lynching moving - as well as Huck catching Jim crying about missing his family
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Doing a Google search and seeing lots of interesting opinions on this.
that's funny actually - probably making fun of all that Walter Scott-esque stuff - in Tom's ridiculous ideas of elaborate escape
that knights and damsels in distress - escaping from dungeons - chivalry etc
Here's my review (from my profile) - i just finished the book2017: Just reread for a reading group - this is my third time reading. Still great - still holds up. Ernest Hemingway claimed American literature starts with and derives from Huckleberry Finn. It was supposedly first American novel in first person narrative. Tom Sawyer was all fun and games -- Huckleberry Finn has a more sobering agenda. It is a narrative of the past when Twain wrote it - and he took over 10 years to wrote - he came back to it years later before he finished it. The life he describes along the Mississippi no longer existed -- but it was a brutal life -- especially for Jim - the runaway slave in the middle of all the action - a man who has been separated from wife and children heartlessly by the slavery system of the day. Huck's bonding with a black slave in aiding him to freedom - is touching and a maturing experience for Huck. He know it is wrong to help Jim to freedom as technically it was a crime to help a runaway slave - but he decides to lead with his heart and do the "wrong" thing in helping Jim - by following his conscience. Tom Sawyer's character comes off as ignorant entitlement -- he wants to make Jim's escape and "adventure" (i.e., much harder than it need to be) all to entertain himself at Jim's expense. [SPOILER ALERT] When Tom is shot in the leg helping Jim escape - Jim comes out of hiding to help him and gets recaptured. Also it turns out Tom knew that Jim was already set free in Mrs Watson's will -- and so he was playing with a human being's freedom in order to entertain himself - how selfish can you be? Twain skewers most of the gentry of the age in their river towns and "sivilized" lives. Huck decides at the end - that he must run off again to escape being "sivilized" - he's been there before.
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According to the American Civil Liberties Union, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is ranked 14th of the top 100 banned or challenged books in America between 2000 and 2009.It was first banned one year after its publication by Concord Public Library (Concord, Mass.) for being "trash and suitable only for the slums."
It has been challenged on several occasions since its publication, especially for its frequent use of the word "nigger." It was said to be "racially insensitive" and "oppressive," and that it "perpetuates racism."
It was banned by the Brooklyn Public Library in 1905.
Yes I read about that in my edition - and in the introduction- a professor discussed his mixed feelings about teaching the book
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It was first banned o..."
Thanks for adding this info to the thread - it is fascinating to hear the history of banned books. While the reasons for this one, are more obvious than some. It is interesting to hear this was banned that soon after publication.
