The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By: Mark Twain

Plot:

Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy’s adventures in the Mississippi Valley – a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – the book grew and matured under Twain’s hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck’s and Jim’s voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.

Review:

This is the first book in my list of Classics I Should Read, as well as the oldest books on my to read pile. This year I’ve been trying to read more classics, non-fiction, and whittle down my to read pile. It’s taken a while but I’m finally getting there. There are just so many books!

The next time I hear someone say kids today are violent I’m going to point them in the direction of Huckleberry Finn. The very beginning of the book is Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn along with several other boys deciding they were going to be bandits and kill and steal from people. And if anyone was a rat their whole family would be killed.

The language was great, though at time hard to keep up with. It added another stop on my time travel vacation (the vacation I’ll take when I gain access to a time machine), I would love to hear Mark Twain read one of his stories. I bet it’s amazing.

I loved the first third or so, when it was just Huck and Jim. They got into scrapes and Huck had an interesting point of view on things. When the duke and the king joined them I didn’t find it as fun. They were conmen, to an extent so was Huck, but they were greedy. I was glad when he was finally free of them but what they did to Jim sucked. Then Tom Sawyer had to show up and cock things up again.

Everything was tied up by the end, which I always enjoy, but ultimately I only really liked reading the first third of the book. That’s not fair, I did laugh a couple times at the end with Tom Sawyer and his hijacks.

3.5/5

Side note: Symbolism is lost on me so I’m sure I missed some stuff.