Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2024)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) aka Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass
Huck Finn And Tom Sawyer #3
9h 23m read by Tom Parker, 231 pages

Genre: Children's Fiction, Adventure, Historical Fiction, Classic Literature

Featuring: Missouri, Obsolete and Out-Dated Vocabulary, Imaginative Play, Boys, Alcoholism, Racism, the 1830s or 1840s, Runaway Trope, Illinois, Swindlers

Rating as a movie: PG-13

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ 🚣‍♂️

My thoughts: 📱37% 3:26:10 Chapter 18 - I guess I needed audio in high school, this story is a lot better without having to decipher all of those dialects.

I seriously don't believe the print version of this book is 231 pages unless a very small font was used. It was okay. Still not my cup of tea. It was a lot of rigmarole, everyone was irritating especially Tom.

Recommend to others: Unlikely but it's not going to matter either way, it's a classic.

Huck Finn And Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
Tom Sawyer (1881)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Tom Sawyer Abroad, By Huck Finn (1894)
Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896)
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians (1989)

I should have kept my memory of reading this ages ago. I can't get past the grammar and the language, even if it was a period piece. Switching to the audio it became so much worse. I know I read this in grade school, and now I'm concerned as to why it was ever allowed.

I love Twain. I thought the book got sloppy when Tom Sawyer entered the story. I cried when Jim discovered his child was deaf, and I laughed aloud at all the antics of the aunts.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the first person narrative of Huck Finn, a thirteen year old boy, on his South-bound, coming-of-age journey through rural America, aboard a raft on the Mississippi River, accompanied by his friend Jim, a runaway slave. The journey begins as Huck feigns his own death to escape his drunk father, which coincides with slave Jim learning that he is going to be sold to another slave master and decides to run away. Both escapees join forces and encounter murderous thieves, feuding families, gullible Christians, incensed mobs, and two conmen who eventually get their comeuppance, not before they sell Jim into slavery again.

Written entirely in vernacular English, the first American novel to be written so, The Adventures… is a very readable page-turner once one gets the hang of the pronunciation-based writing. As with every book that depicts a journey, there are lulls and highlights in the action. Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Jim are very endearing characters, so it’s easy to root for their happy ending.

Mark Twain seems interested in telling an adventure story, with the incidental social commentary on slavery viewed through the eyes of a child—a clever device to avoid making a direct indictment of the institution, no doubt, though he falls rather short. He seems interested in teaching his audience (as if they were children) about the humanity behind a slave and the inherent injustice of slavery, which, despite being groundbreaking in its time, comes a whole twenty years after the Civil War. It’s hard to think that despite a war having been fought on the grounds of slavery, not much has changed in the intervening years.

Overall, I enjoyed a re-read of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn viewed through my adult eyes. The social commentary probably went through my head when I read it in my early years. I highly recommend it!

Self read summer 2024 in prep for reading James for book group. James is story of Huck Finn through the eyes of the black slave Jim. I found Huck Finn a very sad tale of slavery and human ownership post Civil War. Eye opening sad, I don’t understand why it became an American classic for children. Beautifully presented, written, in dialect, and pervasive use of the now absolutely forbidden n word, makes it hard to place within the American canon. If to be used in our schools at all, I can see it on the shelves for the sake of history. Should never be banned, as a window on the times. But to be read critically in context. Huck is an adventurous boy, struggling with a cruel alcoholic father, a runaway struggling with the morality of right and wrong, before coming of age in the full sense. It’s the story of a boy reasoning through his world. But the back story, or equally powerful narrative is the concept and treatment of the kind responsible slave Jim, who protects Huck, is the good adult, but subservient to the boy while longing to be free. The characters are so accepting of the heartbreaking norm of selling black human beings to each other, and tearing apart families in the process. History. The stories must be told or their messages lost.

I decided to read this book again 55+ years after I read it the first time to give me some context in preparation for reading the recently published book 'James'. I still remember my English teacher explaining the use of the language in the book and the use of the N-word repeatedly throughout the book. Back then, her explanation seemed to make sense to a teenager. In today's world, I don't think this book would be as widely accepted. The use of the N-word is bad enough, but the description, treatment, and perception of the Black people as Twain presented it in this book would not be acceptable in a book written today. The story itself is still interesting and entertaining, but culturally it is just not acceptable today.

I'm pretty sure I read this during my freshman year in college but I don't remember the details. So, since I was going to read James by Percival Everett, I decided to listen to that book and read Huck Finn simultaneously. What a trip that was!

Huck Finn is filled with adventures, some loopy and fun, others serious and dangerous. Through it all, he remains steadfastly loyal to slave Jim Turner and it's their friendship that takes front and center of Twain's novel.

I liked re-reading it but I was running out of patience and the vernacular did not make it an easy read (and, yes, some of the word choices made me cringe). But, it's an adventure all right, and you do enjoy seeing how Huck gets into and out of his variety of predicaments.

Read this in preparation for reading James for Book Club.
The episodic structure, the writing in dialects, the suspense and action....all wonderful.
I'm impressed with Twain and now I cannot wait to read some of these stories from Jim's point of view and how Everett portrays. Although, I'm impressed with how carefully Twain manages to give Jim a brain and a heart in the subtle ways that may have been required in order to still sell his book in those times.

I had understood Twain to be progressive for his time, and I assumed the language would just be offensively of that time as well. But I could not get through all the casual racism.

I was read Huck Finn as a kid, and I realise now how much my dad editted it for us, because he was against racism as well.

I recently read _James_, and wanted a comparison. I would recommend James's version of events, but not Huck's. Not any longer. Sorry, Twain.

Re-read 40 years later. Definitely a much harder read than i remember, for a variety of reasons. I appreciate the historical significance, the adventures, and how this was considered progressive for its time, but for me in 2024, it was hard to focus on the story when I was distracted by the words.

I am reading THE ADVENTURES IF HUCK FINN as a prequel to reading JAMES by Percival Everett which is told in the voice of Jim.
TAHF is a rip roaring tale told from the voice of Huck Finn. The first 2/3 of the book were fun and interesting as Huck and Jim adventure down the Mississippi on the raft and encounter troubles, adventures, and nefarious characters. The last 1/3 of the book was tedious as Tom Sawyer (who enters into the adventure) devises these co*ckamamie notions about how to rescue Jim. These ideas come from Tom’s education and reading of knights which he decides needs to be applied to Jim’s rescue. Yet the end is very satisfying. Now…on to JAMES by Percival Everett.

Reread this adventure story in preparation for Percival Everett's new novel, James. It was terrific to read Huckleberry Finn with such authentic language.

Enjoyed it much more than I remembered. Disturbing on many levels but really well done. Looking forward to tackling “James” now.

I hadn't read this since I was a kid, but seemed appropriate to read alongside James. I enjoyed the story and remembered lots of it, but a little sad at how gullible Huck can be when it comes to Tom.

Læst som dreng og nu igen som optakt til "James" af Percival Everett. Det er en fortælling for store børn, der vil på eventyr, og det univers trives jeg fint i.