Product Description

Wild child Huck has to get away. His violent drunk of a father is back in town again, raising Cain. He won't rest until he has Huck's money. So the enterprising boy fakes his own death and sets out in search of adventure and freedom. Teaming up with Jim, an escaped slave with a price on his head, the two fugitives go on the run, travelling down the wide Mississippi River. But Huck finds himself wrestling with his conscience. Should he save Jim, or turn his friend over to a terrible fate?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1760 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910). He was born in Missouri, USA. He travelled around America, seeking fame and fortune before returning to become a steam-boat pilot on the Mississippi River, where he had grown up. Later he became a successful journalist and travel writer. In 1876 <I>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer</I>, inspired by his own childhood, was published, followed eight years later by <I>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. </I>

Customer Reviews

Twain at his best!
Back during my school days this was still not a book that was considered to be politically incorrect and so I was supposed to read it. As was far to often the case, I got by on little more than watching the movie version and never bothered to read this masterpiece. A few months ago I picked up a copy to put in my library for my grandson to use when he got old enough to go to school. Unfortunately this has been classified as a children's book and so I had little intention of reading it when I bought it.

After discussing a book about President Grant and Mark Twain with a friend I decided that I should read this book and I soon found out just how much of an adventure I had been missing. Twain's well deserved reputation as a storyteller is on clear display in this book from cover to cover. The reader is drawn into the lives of the characters to the point of being really disturbed when something bad happens to them. Sure, they steal and they lie but you will love them in spite of everything.

The story basically follows the adventures of young Huckleberry Finn and a runaway slave named Jim. Finn is trying to escape has father and the efforts of the townspeople to civilize him while Jim is trying to escape slavery. More to the point, Jim is trying to escape being sold down the river, which was always a worry for slaves in the upper south.

There is a strong moral point to this book as Huck slowly learns to love Jim as a friend and not think of his skin color. Early on Huck is worried about helping a runaway slave and isn't sure what to do. Having been raised in Missouri, Huck has been taught that helping a slave run away is one of the worst sins imaginable and that African-Americans are pretty much worthless except as slaves. It takes a while for the truth to come to Huck but he finds that he is determined to help his friend get his freedom, no matter what. Huck ends up risking his own life to do just that.

This book is a pure joy to read and I suggest you read it without looking for a political agenda. Just let the story flow and enjoy each word. The dialects used may slow you down a bit at first but they add so much to the flow of the book that they are quite indispensable. This is a wonderful story, full of youthful innocence and backwoods charm. Just one little warning though, once you start reading you won't be able to put this book down.

Illustrative of the world
Huckleberry Finn is illustrative of the world, not only in the cosmopolitan characters entering and leaving the story, but also in the way people react to it. One reaction is that it is a racist novel, mentioning the word nigger 121 times. The people who interpret the novel in this way seem only glance at the surface and delve no deeper. They probably do this in all other aspects of their life. The second type of person will look deeper, as though delving into the depths of the Mississippi River setting. They will see past the racism of Huckleberry Finn himself as Huck comments on the definite signs of humanity and equality in Jim. They will see the underlying message, of how he is the product of a terrible system and look into the other messages encountered in the journey of the book. To this type of person no other novel can be so fascinating, yet remain humorous all the while.

"Ain't it just bully?!"
My mum read this to me (aged 8) and my brother (aged 10). We thought it was very funny and all the adventures Huck had were really cool. I liked the part where he said: "Telling the truth is like sitting on a keg of gunpowder and lighting it just to see where you'll go". It made us laugh a lot. We learnt a lot about superstitions, like touching a snakeskin brings bad luck, and a hairy chest makes you rich. But it wasn't funny to find out about how people used to think about slaves.