The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Complete and Unabridged)

By: Mark Twain

Like its popular predecessor, this critical edition is designed for "teaching the conflicts" surrounding Mark Twain7;s classic novel. It reprints the 1885 text of the first American edition (with a portfolio of illustrations) along with critical essays representing major critical and cultural controversies surrounding the work. The novel and essays are supported by distinctive editorial material 2; including introductions to critical conflict in literary studies, to Twain7;s life and work, and to each critical controversy highlighted in this edition 2; that helps students grapple not only with the novel7;s critical issues but also with cultural debates about literature itself. In addition to several new critical essays, the second edition includes an appendix on how to argue about the novel so that students may more effectively enter the critical conversation about its issues.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583960562
• ISBN13: 9781583960561
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Cherish Classics
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

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 too 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.

Excellent Audio CD of Classic

Finally, a reading of a classic that is worth the money. This story's narration covers a total of 9 Cds, and each disc has about 97 tracks (each track is only about 30 to 45 seconds). The good aspect of this is that it is quite easy to find your spot and, then pick up where you left off, if you happen to stop reading in the middle of a chapter. The negative aspect of short tracks is that it is difficult to skip around to particular chapters without "guessing" where a chapter might end (because there is no insert to tell which chapters are contained in each disc). Overall, Dick Hill does a superb job of reading in this unabridged version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Hill's voice personifies Huck's narrative, and he keeps the Southern flavor of Twain's novel intact. What makes this reading particularly great is that Hill has a great ability to not only take on Huck, but other characters as well. Hill changes his voice for other characters such as Tom Sawyer, Jim, the Duke and the king, Pap and others. For this reason, this CD is a great tool for the reluctant readers in classes, and serves as a great supplement for the study of this novel. I have found that buying audios to classic to be a gamble because you never really know what you are getting, but this is one of the best I've gotten.

The Ultimate Edition of a Great American Novel!

Until something better comes along, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn will be the preferred way to journey with Mark Twain through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. When you get an outstanding illustrated, annotated, and introduced version of an American classic, how could anyone view the result as less than five stars? The book is massive. The introduction alone is almost full-book length. There are over 175 delightful original illustrations, supplemented by dozens of photographs (including the "obscene" one), drawings, cartoons, maps, memorabilia reproductions, and prints. The annotations often overwhelm the text in their extensiveness. I found the introduction to be a joy. Although massive compared to most, the introduction is done in an interesting, illustrated style which added much to my enjoyment of the story by covering a lot of background. The introduction begins with the personal habits of Mark Twain and goes on to provide a mini-biography of him and a history of the book's creation, editing, publication, reviewer and reader reactions, bans on the book, promotion, and subsequent history. In this section, I was pleased to read what prominent African-Americans have had to say about the racist and anti-racist elements that are present here, and how the story affects young African-Americans. Most people will be amused by the attempts by Mrs. Clemens, his editors, and Mark Twain himself to eliminate his tendency to make his stories a little too colorful in their references to religion and use of swearing. These changes are well documented in both the introduction and in the annotations. Those who love to read about the process of writing will find this section to be a joy.For the average reader, the illustrations will be the most valuable addition to their enjoyment of the book. I especially liked seeing how the original Huckleberry Finn illustrations compared to the ones for Tom Sawyer. I liked the Huckleberry Finn ones much more. They have a lightness and originality that add pleasure to the reading.The annotations seemed overdone to me. But annotations should probably better be overdone than underdone. Those who are familiar with the vernacular of the mid-19th century in the United States won't need many of the explanations. Understanding how the prose was cleaned-up so as to not shock as many church-goers of that day is more of sociological interest than of literary importance. I did find several annotations that I enjoyed. I really had no idea what a huckleberry was, and that knowledge adds meaning to the choice of Huck's name. For young people who do not know this version of the vernacular well, I suspect that the annotations can make understanding the story easier in several places. The writing style of the annotations is simple, concrete, and accessible . . . rather than literary and abstract like the annotations of many European novels.For such a simple story, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn often proves to

A book not meant for everyone, but everyone should READ it.

When I first read this book, I was so taken with it, that I read from chapter 18 through the end of the book in one night. I was up until 3:30 in the morning, reading ahead of my 11th grade assignment, and loving every minute along the way. later in college, when I studied the book more, closer, and with a more educated eye (whatever that means) my love for the book increased. Now, as a teacher myself, I look forward to having my students read this book and discussing it in class.But now as for the title of my review:I can't help feeling bad for people who think that this is not a good novel because "we don't talk like that anymore." Are we to abandon books that are no longer contemporary to ourselves? I also take issue with people who claim that this book is a racist tirade based upon the use of the word "nigger," or because the escape route Jim took was down the Mississippi instead of up river. While currently offensive, Mark Twain used the term as a literary fact that most, if not all young boys of the south spoke in such a manner. Once more, Jim explained why he was going South before he headed north. the simple fact is that if you are going to criticize a book, then you should read it. mark Twain said as much in his essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses."From reading a number of the reviews of this book, I have come to the opinion that while many read the book, more than a few are refusing to give Twain credit for subtext and the use of allegory. One reviewer down the line says that the book is racist because Twain makes a young boy to be twice as smart as Jim. Upon closer reading, Twain is showing what Huck feels to be true. Huck only thinks that he is smarter. The reader should pick up on the fact that Twain writes Jim as an intuitive father figure for Huck, one who teaches a true morality as opposed to the morality of the South.Simply put, you get what you put in to the reading of this book. If you think is is going to be a boring read because you "have to" read it for a summer reading list or school assignment, then that's what it will be. If you think it will be a difficult read because you don't want to try and read in dialects other than your own, it will be a hard read. If you are looking to justify the book as racist because of a single word that presentism doesn't excuse, then have at it. This book can be all of those things. However, this book also has the potential to enlighten the reader, give something wonderful to the reader, and teach about the human condition.

A controversial masterpiece

Okay, we all know the plot, so there's no sense in rehashing it; but this book has generated a great deal of heat and very little light lately, it's been banned in some school districts and attacked as racist garbage, so this review will address the question: Is "Huckleberry Finn", in fact, a racist book?The charge of racism stems from the liberal use of the N word in describing Jim. Some black parents and students have charged that the book is humiliating and demeaning to African-Americans and therefore is unfit to be taught in school. If there has been a racist backlash in the classroom, I think it is the fault of the readers rather than the book. "Huckleberry Finn" is set in Missouri in the 1830's and it is true to its time. The narrator is a 13 year old, semi-literate boy who refers to blacks by the N-word because he has never heard them called anything else. He's been brought up to see blacks as slaves, as property, as something less than human. He gets to know Jim on their flight to freedom (Jim escaping slavery and Huck escaping his drunken, abusive father), and is transformed. Huck realizes that Jim is just as human as he is, a loving father who misses his children, a warm, sensitive, generous, compassionate individual. Huck's epiphany arrives when he has to make a decision whether or not to rescue Jim when he is captured and held for return to slavery. In the culture he was born into, stealing a slave is the lowest of crimes and the perpetrator is condemned to eternal damnation. By his decision to risk hell to save Jim, he saves his own soul. Huck has risen above his upbringing to see Jim as a friend, a man, and a fellow human being.Another charge of racism is based on Twain's supposed stereotyping of Jim. As portrayed by Twain, Jim is hardly the ignorant, shuffling Uncle Tom that was so prevalent in "Gone With the Wind" (a book that abundantly deserves the charge of racism). Jim may be uneducated, but he is nobody's fool; and his dignity and nobility in the face of adversity is evident throughout the book.So -- is "Huckleberry Finn" a racist book? No. It's of its time and for its time and ours as well, portraying a black man with sensitivity, dignity, and sympathy. If shallow, ignorant readers see Jim as a caricature and an object of derision, that's their problem. Hopefully they may mature enough in their lifetime to appreciate this book as one of the greatest classics of American literature.And for those who might be wondering -- this reviewer is black.