| Title | : | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0142437174 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780142437179 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 327 |
| Publication | : | First published February 18, 1884 |
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Reviews
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After reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I realized that I had absolutely nothing to say about it. And yet here, as you see, I have elected to say it anyway, and at great length.
Reading this novel now, at the age of mumble-mumble, is a bit like arriving at the circus after the tents have been packed, the bearded lady has been depilated, and the funnel cake trailers have been hitched to pick-up trucks and captained, like a formidable vending armada, toward the auburn sunset. All the fun has already been used up, and I’m left behind circumnavigating the islands of elephant dung and getting drunk on Robitussin®. Same story, different day.
How exactly did I make it through eight total years of high school and undergraduate studies in English without having read any Mark Twain but a brief (and forgotten) excerpt from Life on the Mississippi? Isn’t this illegal by now? I mean, isn’t there a clause in the Patriot Act... an eleventh commandment... a dictate from Xenu? Isn’t Huckleberry Finn, like Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird, now an unavoidable teenage road bump between rainbow parties and huffing spray paint? Isn’t it the role of tedious classic literature to add color and texture to the pettiness of an adolescence circumscribed by status updates, muff shaving, and shooting each other? Or am I old-fashioned?
Let’s face it. In the greater social consciousness, there are two stars of this book: (1) the word 'nigger' and (2) the Sherwood Schwartz-style ending in which Tom Sawyer reappears and makes even the most casual reader wonder whether he might not be retarded.
Huckleberry Finn, for all his white trash pedigree, is actually a pretty smart kid -- the kind of dirty-faced boy you see, in his younger years, in a shopping cart at Wal-Mart, being barked at by a monstrously obese mother in wedgied sweatpants and a stalagmite of a father who sweats tobacco juice and thinks the word 'coloreds' is too P.C. Orbiting the cart, filled with generic cigarette cartons, tabloids, and canned meats, are a half-dozen kids, glazed with spittle and howling like Helen Keller over the water pump, but your eyes return to the small, sad boy sitting in the cart. His gaze, imploring, suggestive of a caged intellect, breaks your heart, so you turn and comparison-shop for chewing gum or breath mints. He is condemned to a very dim horizon, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it, so you might as well buy some Altoids and forget about it...
That boy is the spiritual descendant of Huckleberry Finn.
The 'nigger' controversy -- is there still one? -- is terribly inconsequential. It almost seems too obvious to point out that this is (a) firstly a 'period novel,' meaning it that occurs at a very specific historical moment at a specific location and (b) secondly a first-person narrative, which is therefore saddled with the language, perspective, and nascent ideologies of its narrator. Should we expect a mostly uneducated, abused adolescent son of a racist alcoholic who is living in the South before the Civil War to have a respectful, intellectually-enlightened perspective toward black people? Should the character of Huck Finn, in other words, be ahistorical, anachronistic? Certainly not, if we expect any semblance of honesty from our national literature.
Far more troubling to many critics is the ending of Huckleberry Finn, when -- by a freakishly literary coincidence -- Huck Finn is mistaken for Tom Sawyer by Tom’s relatives, who happen to be holding Jim (the slave on the run) in hopes of collecting a reward from his owners. There are all sorts of contrivances in this scenario -- the likes of which haven’t been seen since the golden age of Three’s Company -- which ends with Tom arriving and devising a ridiculously elaborate scheme for rescuing Jim.
All in all, the ending didn’t bother me as much as it bothered some essayists I’ve read. That is, it didn’t strike me as especially conspicuous in a novel which relies a great deal on narrative implausibility and coincidence. Sure, Tom Sawyer is something of an idiot, as we discover, but in a novel that includes faked deaths and absurd con jobs, his idiocy seems well-placed.
In the end, I suppose the greatest thing I can say about this novel is that it left me wondering what happened to Huck Finn. Would his intellect and compassion escape from his circumstances or would he become yet another bigoted, abusive father squiring another brood of dirty, doomed children around a fluorescently-lit Wal-Mart? -
This is a rant. I found Huckleberry Finn on my bookshelf had been changed to Huckleberry Finn Robotic Edition. Some very pc "authors" and "editors" took it upon themselves to change the N word to 'robot'. They then rewrote the book to take away any mention of humans and to 'roboticise' words such as 'eye' which becomes something like 'optical device'. The illustrations have also been changed. I have no problem with this, but I do have two major issues with this edition.
The first problem is with the librarians who think think this is close enough to the original that it should be combined and therefore share the ratings of Mark Twain's original book. There was a long discussion in the librarian thread where some librarians thought it was essentially the same book, perhaps most. So it was combined and the edition of the book I read was changed to that one. I DID NOT read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Robotic Edition.
This robot edition was a Kindle book. Think about it and the danger of these 'authors'. If this is acceptable and it is to a lot of the librarians, why not politically correct Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Agatha Christie (oh she's been done already. It was 10 Little N words, then 10 Little Indians, now it's Then there were 10, lol). Sooner or later print books will be in used bookshops, research libraries and old people's houses. They will become not books to be read but collector's items. For reading it will be the ebook where changes can be easily and instantaneously made.
And if politically-correcting everything becomes Amazon policy then the whole publishing world will follow and your children will never know the original story that Mark Twain wrote. They will never understand how N word people were treated and that is my second issue with this pc book.
They will never know that Jim, a grown man would not normally be expected to hang out with 13 year old boys, kowtowed to Tom and Huckleberry not just because they all liked each other, but because he was not free, he was a slave, property, and was subject to the usual treatment of property. He could be ordered to do anything no matter how stupid or harmful, he could be sold or mistreated not even for punishment but just because he had no human rights whatsoever.
Changing N people to robots negates all this. Yes it is more politically acceptable to Whites but how would a Black person feel having their history taken away from them? This is not pc as much as sanitising history and is wrong on every level. And it was done by the authors to make it easier for White teachers to teach this important book (is it important if it is about robots though?) without engendering awkward discussions about race, slavery, why some people have rights and others are property which has also meant the book is on many 'banned' school lists.
Do you find this acceptable? A lot of GR librarians don't see a damn thing wrong with it. But I do.
See
Fahrenheit 451
edited 27 Jan 2018 -
Hemingway said American fiction begins and ends with Huck Finn, and he's right. Twain's most famous novel is a tour de force. He delves into issues such as racism, friendship, war, religion, and freedom with an uncanny combination of lightheartedness and gravitas. There are several moments in the book that are hilarious, but when I finished the book, I knew I had read something profound. This is a book that everyone should read.
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(Book 825 from 1001 books) - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn = Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Adventures of Tom and Huck #2), Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885.
It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, the narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective) and a friend of Tom Sawyer.
It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «هکلبری فین»؛ «برده فراری ماجراهای هاکلبری فین»؛ «ماجراهای هاکلبری فین»؛ «سرگذشت هکلبری فین»؛ «هاکلبری فین»؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ انتشاراتیها (آگاه، روزن، علمی فرهنکی، امیرکبیر، نشر کلاغ، فرانکلین، زرین، ارسطو، مهتاب، دادجو، خوارزمی، ارغوان، گوتنبرگ، ناژ، عصر اندیشه، نهال نویدان، قدیانی) تاریخ نخستین خوانش ماه اکتبر سال 1994میلادی
عنوان: هکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: ابراهیم گلستان؛ چاپ نخست 1328؛ چاپ دوم تهران، آگاه، 1349؛ چاپ سوم تهران، روزن، 1348؛ در308ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، بازتاب نگار، 1387، در 383ص؛ شابک 9789648223408؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، نشر کلاغ، 1393، در368ص؛ شابک9786009418879؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 19م
عنوان: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ فروست ادبیات نوجوانان؛ مترجم: هوشنگ پیرنظر؛ تهران، سازمان کتابهای جیبی فرانکلین، 1345؛ در312ص؛ چاپ ششم تهران، علمی فرهنگی، 1377، در 416ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، امیرکبیر، 1389، در 443ص؛ شابک 9789640013182؛
عنوان: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: شهرام پورانفر؛ تهران، زرین، 1362؛ در 394ص؛ چاپ دیگر؛ مشهد، ارسطو، 1370؛ در394ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، مهتاب، 1370؛ در 394ص؛
عنوان: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: سودابه زرکف؛ تهران، دادجو، 1364؛ در 255ص؛
عنوان: سرگذشت هکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: نجف دریابندری؛ تهران، خوارزمی، 1366؛ در 380ص؛
عنوان: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: رویا گیلانی؛ تهران، ارغوان، 1372؛ در 136ص؛ چاپ دوم 1390؛
عنوان: برده فراری ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: جواد محیی؛ تهران، گوتنبرگ، 1379؛ در 228ص؛ چاپ دیگر مشهد، جاودان خرد، 1375، در 228ص؛ چاپ دوم 1385؛
عنوان: هکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: کیومرث پارسای؛ تهران، ناژ، 1390، در 397ص، شابک 9786009109746؛ عنوان روی جلد ماجراهای هکلبری فین؛
عنوان: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: محمد همت خواه؛ تهران، عصر اندیشه، 1391؛ در 59ص؛ شابک 9786005550078؛
عنوان: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: شکوفه اخوان؛ تهران، نهال نویدان، 1392؛ در 175ص؛شابک 9789645680440؛
عنوان: ماجراهای هاکلبری فین؛ اثر: مارک تواین؛ مترجم: سحرالسادات رخصت پناه؛ تهران، قدیانی، 1394؛ در 336ص؛ شابک9786002517029؛
جناب آقای «مجید آقاخانی» نیز داستان خلاصه شده را ترجمه کرده اند در 177ص؛
داستان نوجوانی با پدری الکلی است، «هکلبری» در پی نزاع با پدرش، از خانه فرار میکند؛ در راه با برده ی سیاهپوستی به نام «جیم» آشنا میشود؛ آنها کلکی میسازند، و سوار بر امواج رودخانه ی «می.سی.سی.پی» را میپیمایند؛ این کتاب به رویدادهایی که بر این دو رخ میدهند و میگذرند، میپردازد
جناب آقای «ابراهیم گلستان» در جایی از مقدمه ی کتاب نوشته اند: (آنچه مهم است این است که درس خشن زندگی، «هک (هکلبری فین)» را خبیث نمیکند؛ فطرت او خلاف زندگی نمیرود؛ دلش شک برمیدارد اما به قساوت آلوده نمیشود، بی اعتنا نمیشود؛ آنها که به او نارو زده اند اگر گرفتار شوند نه به توطئه اوست بلکه خلاف میل اوست و او از گرفتاریهایشان غمگین میشود و دریغ میخورد که چرا آدمها یکدیگر را میآزارند؛ «هک» همدم است با هر آنچه درست و پاک و زیباست، بی آنکه خود بداند، میفهمد اگر دنیا زشتیها دارد، چرکیها دارد، شادیها و گرمیها نیز دارد.)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ 08/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 21/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی -
Mark Twain tells us the story of Huckleberry Finn and Jim, who attempts to free themselves from society's restraints in this book. The racism aspect of this novel is one of the most discussed and debated topics.
The readers will have to encounter the N-word multiple times, which can be difficult for many people. The beauty of this book is that it can be viewed from various angles. The theme of how black and white people work together for their quest for freedom has inspired many people. There are many more layers to this book, including the empathy facet, which is not discussed in depth compared to the racism aspect. It is sad to see some people just considering it as a young adult book discussing racism which just high school children should read. This is unequivocally a true classic that all should read due to the author's exceptional writing skills and multiple embedded themes in it.“Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.”
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HUCK IL SELVAGGIO
Il film più recente è del 1993 diretto da Stephen “La Mummia” Sommers. Huck è un giovanissimo Elijah Wood, otto anni prima della Trilogia dell’Anello, e suo padre nella foto è Ron Perlman.
Romanzo d’avventure, romanzo di formazione, Huckleberry Finn è forse il Grande Romanzo Americano, come e più di Moby Dick.
È così almeno per Hemingway che del libro di Twain scrisse:
Tutta la letteratura moderna americana deriva da un libro di Mark Twain intitolato Huckleberry Finn. La scrittura americana arriva da lì. Non c’era mai stato niente del genere prima. E non c’è più stato più niente del genere dopo.
Viene infatti da dire che è così almeno nella lingua: ben più ‘sporca’, ben più quotidiana, ‘moderna’ e impregnata della terra di quella di Melville.
Huck e lo schiavo in fuga Jim.
L’avventura c’è eccome, la formazione non saprei, forse no: perché Huck fugge per essere libero, per vivere come vuole, e alla fine è costretto a tornare indietro e rientrare in quella civiltà che rifiuta, dalla quale voleva allontanarsi e separarsi. Alla fine è sconfitto, ma non domo.
Me ne stavo all’aria tutto il giorno, felice e contento, fumavo e pescavo e non studiavo mai. Così sono passati un paio di mesi e i miei vestiti sono tornati gli stracci sozzi di sempre, e io non riuscivo più a capire come mai m’era piaciuto dalla vedova, dove bisognava lavarsi, mangiare nel piatto, pettinarsi, andare a letto e alzarsi regolare e starsene sempre con un libro in mano con Miss Watson che rompeva tutto il tempo. Non volevo più tornarci. Avevo smesso di dire parolacce perché alla vedova non gli piaceva, ma adesso avevo ricominciato perché papà non aveva niente in contrario. Lassù nei boschi, tutto sommato, me la spassavo proprio.
La versione di Michael “Casablanca” Curtiz del 1960. Sulla zattera insiem a Huck e Jim il Duca e il Re.
Nella sua fuga il ragazzino naviga per il grande fiume Mississippi ed è istintivo pensare al fiume Congo, a Conrad e il suo Marlow, a quel cuore di tenebra che sembra riverberare in questo lungo e maestoso fiume americano dove anche Huck incontra gente ben selvaggia, più selvaggia di lui stesso.
Fa poca differenza se il viaggio di uno è a risalire il corso d’acqua verso la sorgente e il suo cuore nero, quello dell’altro è invece a scendere verso la foce.
E quando sull’isola deserta del fiume incontra lo schiavo nero Jim, che è fuggito alle catene, e lo porta con sé sulla zattera, come non pensare a Robinson Crusoe e Venerdì?
In un mondo di adulti da evitare, sorta di feccia umana, violenti truffaldini lestofanti oppure bigotti e oppressivi, l’unico adulto che si salva è proprio lo schiavo nero Jim.
Nella violenza del padre ubriacone che tiene chiuso e sequestrato il figlio come non ritrovare le figure di padri e tutori e maschi adulti che mettevano i brividi nei romanzi di Dickens?
Nel film di Michael Curtiz del 1960 Buster Keaton nella parte di Lion Tamer.
Romanzo d’avventura e (forse) di formazione, dicevo: ma anche romanzo picaresco per ragazzi e per adulti, pagine che parlano a grandi e piccini. Romanzo sulla fuga. Sulla libertà.
Tom Sawyer, l’amico di sempre e delle altre avventure negli altri romanzi, uno prima e uno dopo questo, è un monello che alla fine accetta la civiltà e impara le regole: non così Huck, che rimane selvaggio – il suo viaggio nella civiltà è in realtà un viaggio attraverso la moderna inciviltà.
Nell’edizione originale del 1884 ecco l’incontro tra Huck e Jim.
Ci sono ovviamente altri livelli di lettura, meno diretti ai ragazzi e più agli adulti, come si addice a un grande romanzo: Huck mette in scena la sua morte, rinuncia alla sua identità per essere libero, dalla morte nasce la sua vita. E quindi una partenza ben nera.
Come nero è Jim, nero il fiume percorso soprattutto di notte sotto le stelle, nero il mondo degli adulti (bianchi), nera la civiltà da cui è meglio tenersi alla larga, fuggire, nera la modernità, a cominciare proprio dagli Stati Uniti. Nera è la morale e nere sono le regole di questi adulti, del loro mondo ‘civile’ e ‘moderno’…
Huckleberry Finn in un disegno di E.W. Kemble dell'edizione originale 1884 del libro.
È bello vivere su una zattera. Il cielo, lassù, era tutto tempestato di stelle, e noi ci sdraiavamo sulla schiena a guardarle e discutevamo se le aveva fatte qualcuno o se erano capitate lì per caso: Jim pensava che le aveva fatte qualcuno, io invece che erano capitate lì per caso – ci voleva troppo tempo per fare tutte quelle stelle. Jim ha detto che forse le aveva covate la luna, e a me mi sembrava sensato, così non ho detto niente anche perché avevo visto una rana covare altrettanti ranocchi e perciò era possibile. Guardavamo anche le stelle cadenti e le scie che si lasciavano dietro. Jim diceva che erano guaste e così le buttavano fuori dal nido.
Huck e Jim sulla zattera, illustrazione dell'edizione del 1884. -
"I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart wasn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to [Jim's:] owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie--and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie -- I found that out...
...It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: 'All right, then, I'll go to Hell'--and tore it up." -
كله يدلع نفسه..بالعقل و بالاصول اوعى تدلعها زيادة
دايما بتفكرني هذه الأغنية ب هاكلبيري فين ذلك الصبي الأشقر المطالب للابد بحق الانسان في ان يكون ملكا لنفسه مهما كلفه ذلك من مشاق و صراعات
صبي افاق شريد.. يكره العمل المنتظم و الذهاب للمدرسة او الكنيسة !! لا يبغى سوى : حرية منفلتة بلا حساب او عقاب..فيه لمحات من بيتر بان الصبي الابدي
نصيبه من العلم محدود..و من التربية معدوم♨
..ترق له ارملة و تتبناه ..و لكنه يتبطر على حياة الدعة و الشبع المصحوب بالادب و النظام بالطبع..و يهرب مع عبد اسمر هارب. .ليلعبا لعبة الحياة الكبرى ..الصراع لنيل حريتك
و عبر رحلتهما في الميسيسيبي⛵
..يسخر توين بقلم لاذع لا يضاهى من تقاليد المجتمع الأمريكي بطبقاته. من الكذب و الخرافات ..الجهل و التعليم..الثار و العبودية
قيمة الرواية تأتي من انها تفرق بين المبادىء الانسانية الصحيحة و القيم الزائفة التي تستمد بقاءها من تقاليد بالية تتسلط على الجموع و العقول و تصبح لها قوة قاهرة لأي تفكير فردي حر
يحتفي الأمريكيون بهذه الرواية بشكل لايصدق⭐
. . فهي الرواية الوحيدة التي تصلح ليقرأها المرء في العاشرة..ثم يقرأها سنويا و تمنحه شيئا جديدا -
"Yes; en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns mysef, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars. I wish I had de money, I wouldn't want no mo'."
Though this book is might have the appearance of the second book to the Adventure's of Tom Sawyer, it is not at all similar. Tom Sawyer was a simple, fun-filled story covering a brief series of events where as this is a much heavier work in almost every aspect. Aside from having certain shared characters, reader will find no find other similarity.
However, what you will find, is the long, hard and adventurous journey of Huck and Jim, highlighting many aspects of a slavery and the social aspects at the time. If you start reading this, expecting a continuation to Tom Sawyer, you'd be pleasantly surprised instead of disappointed, giving you a very different kind of entertainment. -
I first read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I was in high school. I don't remember if it was the full book or an abridged version in a textbook.
I only remembered three things about the book.
1. The Explanatory statement at the beginning of the book where Twain talks about dialects and such.
2. Huckleberry and Jim floating down the Mississippi River on a raft. (I definitely didn't remember how their adventure started or ended.)
3. I also remembered that Huck and others frequently used the N-word. (I didn't remember that they used the N-word 219 times!)
I reread Huck Finn by listening to the first thirty-two chapters of an audio book narrated by Elijah Wood. Then I read chapters thirty-three through forty-three using a text-based digital copy of the book I obtained from my local library. I started with an audio book because I wanted to get a feel for the various dialects.
I almost quit the book early on because I found the use of the N-word so offensive. I decided to continue reading the book after I read the PEN America essay titled Here’s Why Banning ‘Huck Finn’ Over The N-Word Sends The Wrong Message.
Huck Finn deals with serious topics such as slavery, child abuse, the flim-flamery we now call "white" crime, and the importance of personal loyalty and integrity. The book starts and ends like a humorous YA adventure but like a four star restaurant there's some serious meat and potatoes between the appetizer and dessert.
I do have to admit I found the comedic shtick between Tom Sawyer, Huck, and Jim to be tedious. I found myself skipping paragraphs, then pages, and finally chapters. Tom Sawyer seems to represent America's long standing bias against "intellectural" people. Tom reminded me of all the clever know-it-alls who do their own research during a pandemic. Tom and Huck express America's bias against deductive reasoning and its favorable view of "common sense". -
We catched fish, and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed, only a kind of low chuckle. We had mighty good weather, as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all, that night, nor the next, nor the next.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ~~ Mark Twain
Selected by Kenny McCool for August 2021 Big Book Read (In August I am reading the entire Tom & Huck Series as well as Life on the Mississippi & Huck Out West)
Buddy Read with Aesaan
Random thought: The more I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the more I believe this is my very favorite book. I grow to love it more with each repeated reading.
Update 2022: I just completed my annual reading. I love the character of Huck so much.
In 1876, Mark Twain began writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the sequel to his widely popular novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. After eight years of reworking ~~ and sometimes destroying ~~ the manuscript, the novel was published. Fans of its predecessor were surprised to find that Huck Finn was not the romantic depiction of southern boyhood that Tom Sawyer was. Instead, the novel was a realistic look at the hypocrisy and senselessness of southern society. Huck Finn tells the story of a young boy searching for freedom and identity in this backwards society.
It’s hard for many Americans to accept a simple truth ~~ American history is not always pretty. There are atrocities we don’t like to be reminded of. For over 135 years, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has held up that mirror and challenged us to examine our souls. When Huck Finn was first introduced in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, he was Tom’s untamed friend, the one who was always ready to play hooky and look for pirate treasure; the friend Tom could always trust to follow him without question. In his own story, Huck takes over as narrator with his distinctive voice, sharing with the reader not only his escapades since fleeing his abusive father, but also his growing philosophy about slavery and the changing country around him.
In many ways Huckleberry Finn is the story of Jim, the runaway slave who accompanies Huck on his adventures, as much as it is Huck’s story. A complicated character, Jim goes from silly to tragic, sometimes even within the same paragraph. He dreams of freedom, not just for himself but for his wife and children, sharing with Huck his desire to purchase each of them back ~~ and if he can’t buy them back, he’ll steal them. To help emphasize the heartbreak of Jim’s plight, Huck witnesses a family split up by a slave auction. Those around Huck are upset by it too, and their inaction speaks volumes.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been one of the most banned books in America. From complaints about its use of foul language and stereotypes, to being a bad influence on children, this book has never escaped controversy. While re-reading it again this go around, I wondered who exactly did Twain picture as his audience. Sometimes it feels like a young boy’s adventure, others it reads as a dour tale for adults. Yes, Huck dresses up like a girl and gets in comic misadventures, but this is more a novel about slavery, beatings, child abuse, alcoholism and murder. Huck’s America, much like 45’s America, is not a friendly one.
Viewing the novel as merely a contemporary tale of Twain’s time, it is masterful how he handles Jim for that reader. Twain begins by hitting all of the stereotypes Americans of that period would have expected, then he builds on the character until he emerges as a hero, sacrificing his freedom to carry an injured white boy to safety. It is a subtle and brilliant statement against racism and for equality.
Lastly, Huckleberry Finn is a book about transitions. These transitions can be seen in the intermediate setting between transitions in which the novel takes place, Huck’s disenchantment with society over the course of the novel, and Huck’s moral maturation.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is filled with all sorts of transitions for Huck. Throughout the entire novel, Huck is in a state of Limbo. He’s fourteen years old, an awkward stage after childhood and before adulthood ~~ in the throes of puberty, while he’s floating down the Mississippi River, the boundary between individual freedom and an immature civilization. Huck transitions from a boy being civilized in St. Petersburg, Missouri, to a young man completely disenchanted with society. Finally, he transitions from being indoctrinated by southern morality to accepting his own individual morals and heading off to free Jim. Huck is constantly changing over the course of the novel. He starts out as the immature Missouri boy playing jokes on slaves, but by the end he is an enlightened young man ready to head west to a better tomorrow. Huckleberry Finn is the future of America.
-
"That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it."
What makes a classic? A question I have had to ask myself repeatedly over the last few days, after students in Grade 8 received the task to come to the library and "check out a classic to read". There was a list with the usual suggestions, but students ventured out and started to explore shelves, and then came to me with a wide range of books, repeating the question:
"Is this a classic?"
Why did I turn down the diary of a wimpy kid, they wanted to know, and accept Huckleberry Finn, even though it was so much harder to understand, and also, they had heard it was racist?
All good questions, and I was careful not to give a too categorical answer. The last thing I wanted was for them to make the connotation that a classic is a boring must, while a "good book" is what the teachers and librarians would refuse.
Difficult.
I found myself talking about the Count of Monte Cristo and Voldemort, about Tom Sawyer and Oliver Twist in comparison to Harry Potter, and I made a case for trying to get through parts of Huckleberry Finn even though the language is challenging, mainly because it contains exactly the message that people become unfair "when they don't know nothing about it".
I found myself talking about discovering other times, other societies, other ideas of justice and hierarchy, and I talked about living in the mind of someone other than oneself. Imagine Huckleberry on that raft on the Mississippi, I said. Imagine him being in a conflict between the values he was taught and the humanity he discovered together with his fellow human, who happened to be a black man in distress. Which concept of life would be stronger?
Imagine a situation in which you would have to make a choice between what you are taught and what you perceive?
"That's interesting", a student said.
Another one replied:
"Yeah, but it really is racist too!"
And I thought:
"That makes a classic. A book that can still inspire discussions in a school library some 135 years after its initial publication."
So, dear Harry, I hope that in the year 2133, some librarian will tell students that you are a classic hero, still worthy of their attention, even though your worldview may seem a bit dated and out of touch with their perception of reality! And just imagine all the Voldemorts we will have had to fight to make sure there are still school libraries and reading kids by then!
To Huck and Harry! -
NOTICE
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn opens in the aftermath of
PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR
...
Jim said that bees won't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me.
...
Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and for a time, it has the same joyous feel as the boys continue their antics of rebellious 12-year-olds. But the return of Huck Finn’s drunk of a father, Pap, hints at the darker, more serious themes of this novel. After being kidnapped and beaten, Huck escapes his father by faking his own death and then going on the run. He soon crosses paths with a runaway slave, Jim, and together they raft their way down the Mississippi.
Like its predecessor, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is largely a series of vignettes with a very loose overarching plot. Huck and Jim travel from Missouri through Kentucky and Arkansas and into the antebellum South, getting into scrapes and making escapes along the way. There’s some great humor in their conversations on the raft; their argument about the wisdom of King Solomon is priceless. And there’s classic Twain satire and exposing of hypocrisy here, from the feuding Grangerford and Shepardson families to the con men known as the Duke and the King.
So why was I reading this classic novel during Banned Books Week? For that, we have to talk about race and racism. The characters here (and the author, for that matter) are products of their 19th century time. The n-word is used relentlessly in this book, even by the slaves themselves, and it is jarring. Huck says casually racist things here that are heartbreakingly awful; on one occasion, for example, he compliments Jim by thinking “I knowed he was white inside.” And some critics fairly read this book as irredeemably problematic, reinforcing racist stereotypes and repeatedly deriving humor from a variation of a minstrel show.
But I come down on the side of those who read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as transcending and challenging the racist stereotypes of the time. Huck has been taught by society all his life to view blacks as slaves, as less than. And at a pivotal moment, he writes a letter to report where Jim can be found by his master, and at first he thinks the letter is the right thing to do:I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn’t do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I’d see him standing my watch on top of his’n, ‘stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper.
Huck says the wrong thing, and uses racist language, again and again throughout this book. But he ultimately recognizes and acts on his and Jim’s shared humanity and equality. That might be the best we can realistically expect from a book published in the 1880s. And some days, it’s obvious that our society has not come nearly as far on this score as we’d like to think we have.
It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:
“All right, then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up.
Is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the Great American Novel? It’s written by an immortal, epically talented writer. It was one of the first books to truly capture the course, plain spoken language of its time. And by focusing on racism and slavery, it speaks to America’s original sin. So yeah, it just might be, even though I prefer
To Kill a Mockingbird. Highly recommended. -
"وأيقنت ألا جدوى من إضاعة الوقت هباء, فأنت لا تستطيع أن تعلم زنجياً كيف يجادل. وعندئذ كففت عن الحديث" هاكلبري فين, بعد أن رفض الزنجي أن الاختلاف بين الأمريكي والفرنسي مثل الاختلاف بين القطة والبقرة
إذا لم تستطع هذه الرواية أن توصل لك قيمة العلم والمنطق, وخطر العلم الزائف فما الذي سيفعل؟
إذا لم تشعرك الرواية بكمية الخطر والخداع الذي يتحتم عليك أن تحتمي منه في هذا العالم المحيط بك, فما الذي تبقى لنشلك من سذاجة الطفولة؟
فكما يقول "بريان ديوننج":"قد يكون مارك توين أكثر النقاد فاعلية عند نقده لجهل البشر وخدعهم حتى الآن, بالرغم من مظهرها فهي تبدو وكأنها قصص مغامرات, فهي بالحقيقة مجموعة من إفشاءات صادمة للضعف البشري, والتي تقودها الخرافات, العنصرية, الجشع, والجهل"
في
ريفيو الجزء الأول: توم سوير تحدثت عن روعته الرواية كقصة مغامرات مسلية, ولكن في الجزء الثاني منها, والذي يُحكى لنا على لسان صديق توم سوير "هاكلبري فين", نشهد تحولا كبيراً واضحاً في موضوع المغامرات منذ الصفحات الأولى من الرواية:
- فدية؟ وما هي الفدية؟
- لست أدري! ولكن هذا ما يفعله المغامرون دائماً! ولقد قرأت عن الفدية في الكتب. ومن ثم فهذا هو ما يجب ��لينا أن نفعله!!
- ولكن كيف يمكننا أن نفعل ذلك ونحن لا نعرفه؟
- مهما يكن من أمر, فإنه يجب علينا أن "نفعل" ذلك! ألم أقل لك إنه مذكور في الكتب؟ هل تريد أن تأتي عملاً يخالف ما ورد في الكتب؟ وأن تفسد كل مغامرتنا بذلك؟
...
- ولماذا لا يلتقط الإنسان هراوة و "يفتديهم" بمجرد مجيئهم إلى هنا؟!!
- لأن ذلك ليس مذكوراً في الكتب!..هذا هو السبب يا "بن روجرز".. هل تريد أن تعالج الأمور حسب النظام المتبع أم بطريقة مخالفة؟ -هذه هي المسألة ..ألا تظن أن أولئك الذين وضعوا الكتب يعرفون الإجراءات الصحيحة التي ينبغي اتخاذها؟ هل تظن "أنك" تستطيع أن تعلمهم شيئاً؟ كلا يا سيدي! سوف "نفتدي" هؤلاء الأشخاص بالطريقة المتبعة
- .. وهل نفتدي النساء أيضا؟
- لا, فان أحداً لم يقرأ عن مثل هذا في الكتب!
======================
الرواية هي إحدى الكلاسيكيات الخالدة, وعندما نقول أنها كلاسيكية ليس فقط معناها أنها قديمة, بل لأنها أيضاً أصيلة في أفكارها التي يتداولها اللاحقون تحت غطاء مسميات أخرى, فمثلا عندما تقرأ هذا المشهد:
- إن ما يجعلني أشعر بالحزن هذه المرة , هو أنني سمعت صوت باب يغلق بعنف منذ قليل , فذكرني ذلك بالمعاملة السيئة التي عاملت بها ابنتي اليزابيث الصغيرة في أحد الأيام ! لم تكن حينذاك قد بلغت الرابعة من عمرها , وأصيبت بالحمى القرمزية , وكانت إصابتها شديدة الوطأة ولكنها شفيت . واتفق ذات يوم أن كانت تقف أمام المنزل فقلت لها :
- أغلقي الباب.
ولكنها لم تفعل , وابتسمت لي فجن جنوني , فقلت لها مرة أخرى بصوت مرتفع:
- ألا تسمعيني ؟ أغلقي الباب .
فوقفت جامدة في مكانها , والابتسامة على شفتيها , فازددت سخطاً وغيظاً وصحت :
- سأجعلك تطيعين ما أقوله لك .
وهويت بيدي فوق رأسها , فسقطت على الأرض . ثم تركتها ودخلت المنزل وقضيت هناك عشر دقائق .. وعندما خرجت , كان الباب لا يزال مفتوحا والطفلة واقفة وقد خفضت رأسها والدموع تنهمر من عينيها .. وقد زادني ذلك جنونا ؛ وهممت بالانقضاض عليها , لولا أن الريح هبت في تلك اللحظة فأغلقت الباب خلف الطفلة .. ولمنها لم تتحرك من مكانها . فأحسست بأن قلبي يكاد يفلت من بين ضلوعي , وتقدمت نحو الباب وفتحته بلطف وهدوء وأبرزت رأسي من خلفه , فإذا بالطفلة لا تزال واقفة في مكانها ؛ وعندئذ صحت فيها صيحة مدوية مفاجئة , ولكنها لم تتحرك .. أواه يا هاك .. لقد انفجرت باكيا , وحملت الطفلة بين ذراعي وقلت لها : أيتها الطفلة المسكينة , فليغفر الله العظيم لجيم المسكين ما أتاه من أثر عظيم , لأن جيم لن يغتفر لنفسه هذا الإثم طالما بقي على قيد الحياة" .. يا الهي يا "هاك" ..
لقد كانت الطفلة التعسة بكماء صماء .. ومع ذلك عاملتها لك خشونة.!
تذكرت مشهد مشابه سرده ستيفن كوفي في كتاب العادات السبع الأكثر فعالية, رغم أنه سرده كمشهد حقيقي.
====وقالت لي الآنسة واطسون انه ينبغي علي أن أصلي كل يوم حتى أستطيع على كل ما أطلبه في صلاتي! ولقد جربت ذلك, ولكن الصلاة لم تحقق لي أي مطلب! ... لقد كنت أحدث قائلاً: "إذا كان الناس يستطيعون الحصول على ما يريدون بالصلاة فلماذا لا يستعيد "ويكون وين" النقود التي فقدها في تربية الخنازير؟ ولماذا لا تستطيع الأرملة دوجلاس أن تسترد علية "السعوط" الفضية التي سرقت منها؟ ولماذا لا تستطيع الآنسة واطسون أن تزيد من وزنها" وعندئذ أيقنت أنه ليس في الإمكان أن يحقق الإنسان أمنيته بالصلاة! وذهبت إلى الأرملة وقلت لها رأيي, فقالت أن الشيء الذي يستطيع الإنسان الحصول عليه من الصلاة هو "الهبات الروحية" لا الهبات المادية!!
====
في الغالب ستخرج من هذه التجربة متشكك يعمل عقله في كل الاحتمالات, فطوبى للمتشككين."فأجبت : أكبر الظن أن هؤلاء الجن أغبياء لأنهم لا يحتفظون بالقصر لأنفسهم بدلاً من أن يشيدوه لغيرهم ! فلو أنني كنت واحداً منهم , لما لبيت نداء أي شخص يحك مصباحاً قديماً من الصفيح !! بل لو أنني كنت واحداً من هؤلاء الجن, لتخليت عن عملي !"
-
Why have I never read Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn before? Was it Twain’s copious use of the N word? (I vaguely recall a primary school teacher abruptly halting a class read-aloud session, perhaps because of that.) Was it the air of earnest solemnity that surrounds so-called classics? Sheer laziness?
No matter. I’ve read it now, and I’ll never be the same again. Hemingway was right when he said (and I’m paraphrasing) all American literature comes from Huck Finn. While it’d be entertaining to read as a kid, it’s even more rewarding to approach as an adult.
Savour that wonderful opening paragraph (and tell me you can't hear Holden Caulfield in the cadences):You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly – Tom’s Aunt Polly, she is – and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.
Everything to come is in those opening lines, penned in that distinct, nearly illiterate yet crudely poetic voice. You get a sense of Huck’s humility (compared to Tom Sawyer’s braggadocio); his intelligence; a cute postmodern nod to the author; the idea that storytelling contains “stretchers” but can also tell “the truth”; and the fact that everyone lies, including Huck. Especially Huck. He gets into so many tight spots that part of the joy is wondering how he’ll get out of them.
The outlines of the plot should be familiar: Huck, a scrappy, barely literate boy, flees his abusive, alcoholic father by faking his death and travelling the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers with Jim, an escaped slave, on a raft.
Huck's gradual awakening to Jim's plight is subtle and touching, never sentimental. In a sense the book chronicles his growing conscience. And the colourful characters he and Jim meet and the adventures they have add up to a fascinating, at times disturbing look at a conflicted, pre-Civil War nation.
We meet a Hatfields vs. McCoys type situation; a group of rapscallions who put on a vaudeville-style act and try to fleece rubes; a scene of desperation and danger on a collapsed boat. We witness greed, anger and most of the other deadly sins – all from a little raft on the Mississipi. And before the midway point, we see the toll that a cruel joke can have on someone’s feelings.
To a contemporary reader, some of the humour can feel a little forced, and the gags do get repetitive, particularly when Huck’s savvier, better-read friend Tom enters the scene.
And then comes a passage like this:
When I got there it was all still and Sunday-like, and hot and sun-shiny; the hands was gone to the fields; and there was them kind of faint dronings of bugs and flies in the air that makes it seem so lonesome and like everybody's dead and gone; and if a breeze fans along and quivers the leaves it makes you feel mournful, because you feel like it's spirits whispering – spirits that's been dead ever so many years – and you always think they're talking about YOU.
Wow. You can see, hear and feel what he's describing. Hard to believe this was written more than 150 years ago.
In the book's closing pages, Huck tells us this:
If I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it, and ain’t a-going to no more.
Well, gosh, Huck, it war worth all yer trouble. We’re darn glad you dunnit. Yessir. -
I had to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in middle school, and I fervently wish that they had made us read Huck Finn instead. I mean, I understand why they didn't (giving middle schoolers an excuse to throw around racial slurs in a classroom setting is just asking for a lawsuit from somebody's parents), but Huck Finn is better. It's smarter, it's funnier, and Huck's adventures stay with you a lot longer than Tom's, because Huck's experiences were richer and more interesting, whereas The Adventures of Tom Sawyer could easily have been titled The Adventures of an Entitled Little Asshole.
If Tom had to go through half of what happens to Huck in this story, he'd be balled up in the corner crying after five minutes. The action of Huck Finn is set in motion when Huck's father shows up and decides that he's going to be responsible for his son now (the story picks up right where Tom Sawyer left off, with Huck and Tom becoming rich, hence Finn Sr.'s sudden involvement in his kid's life). Huck's father essentially kidnaps him, taking him to a cabin in the middle of nowhere and getting drunk and beating his son. Huck escapes by faking his own death (and it's awesome) and begins traveling up the Mississippi river. He runs into Jim, a slave who belonged to the Widow Douglas's sister. Jim overheard his owner talking about selling him, so he decided to run away and try to go north. Huck, after some hesitation, goes with him. From this point, the structure of the book closely mirrors Don Quixote: a mismatched pair of companions travels the country, having unrelated adventures and comic intervals. On their travels, Huck and Jim encounter con men, criminals, slave traders, and (in the best mini-story in the book) a family involved in a Hatfields-and-McCoys-like feud with a neighboring clan. The story comes full circle when Tom Sawyer shows up and joins Jim and Huck for the last of their adventures, and the best part of this is that Tom Sawyer's overall ridiculousness becomes obvious once we see him through Huck's eyes.
Huck is a great narrator, and I think one of the reasons I liked this book more than its counterpart was because it's narrated in first person, and so Huck's voice is able to come through clearly in every word. In addition to the great stories, there are also some really beautiful descriptions of the Mississippi river, as seen in this passage about the sun rising on the river:
"The first thing to see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line - that was the woods on t'other side - you couldn't make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more paleness, spreading around; then the river softened up, away off, and warn't black any more, but grey; you could see little dark spots drifting along, ever so far away - trading scows, and such things; and long black streaks - rafts; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking, or jumbled up voices; it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by and by you could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the streak that there's a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it and makes that streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off of the water, and the east reddens up, and the river, and you make out a log cabin on the edge of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side of the river, being a wood-yard, likely, and pulled by them cheats so you can throw a dog through it anywheres; then the nice breeze springs up, and comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh, and sweet to smell, on account of the woods and the flowers; but sometimes not that way, because they've left dead fish laying around, gars and such, and they do get pretty rank; and next you've got the full day, and everything smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going it!"
(also that was one single sentence. Damn, Mark Twain.)
A fun, deceptively light series of stories that's funny and sad when you least expect it. Well done, The List - you picked a good one, for once.
...why are you still here? The review's over.
Oh, I get it. You want me to talk about the racism, right? You want me to discuss how Huck views Jim as stolen property instead of a person and criticize the frequent use of the N-Word and say "problematic" a lot, right?
Well, tough titties. I'm not getting involved in that, because it's stupid and pointless, and I'm just going to let Mark Twain's introduction to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn speak for itself, and the work as a whole: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." -
كله يدلع نفسه..بالعقل و بالاصول اوعى تدلعها زيادة
دايما بتفكرني هذه الأغنية ب هاكلبيري فين ذلك الصبي الأشقر المطالب للابد بحق الانسان في ان يكون ملكا لنفسه مهما كلفه ذلك من مشاق و صراعات
صبي افاق شريد.. يكره العمل المنتظم و الذهاب للمدرسة او الكنيسة !! لا يبغى سوى : حرية منفلتة بلا حساب او عقاب..فيه لمحات من بيتر بان الصبي الابدي
نصيبه من العلم محدود..و من التربية معدوم♨
..ترق له ارملة و تتبناه ..و لكنه يتبطر على حياة الدعة و الشبع المصحوب بالادب و النظام بالطبع..و يهرب مع عبد اسمر هارب. .ليلعبا لعبة الحياة الكبرى ..الصراع لنيل حريتك
و عبر رحلتهما في الميسيسيبي⛵
..يسخر توين بقلم لاذع لا يضاهى من تقاليد المجتمع الأمريكي بطبقاته.. من الكذب و الخرافات ..الجهل و التعليم..الثار و العبودية
قيمة الرواية تأتي من انها تفرق بين المبادىء الانسانية الصحيحة و القيم الزائفة التي تستمد بقاءها من تقاليد بالية تتسلط على الجموع و العقول و تصبح لها قوة قاهرة لأي تفكير فردي حر
يحتفي الأمريكيون بهذه الرواية بشكل لايصدق⭐
. . فهي الرواية الوحيدة التي تصلح ليقرأها المرء في العاشرة ..ثم يقرأها سنويا و تمنحه شيئا جديدا -
THE Greatest American Novel?
Well...
No wonder the Spanish think themselves intellectually/culturally superior with their Quixote, undoubtedly a blueprint for this mischievous Every Boy! Huck Finn is the full embodiment of THE American Fantasy: mainly that dire misconception that the protagonist of the world is you and that everything gravitates around that essential nucleus. Everyone in town thinks Huck dead, and what does he do but follow the tradition of a plot folding unto itself (as Don Q finds his story become medieval pop culture in Part II of that superior novel) as he disguises himself as a little girl and tries to squeeze information out of some lady about his myth-in-the-making trek. It seems everyone cares for this vagrant, a perpetual Sancho P to Tom Sawyer's Quixote, whose redeemable features include (a pre-transcendental) openmindedness and an inclination to live only in the NOW. But the narrator, a very unreliable one at that, surrounds himself with bad bad men, playing the role of accomplice often, always safe and sound under the dragon's wing. Very American in his lemming mentality & in his misconceptions (though about his hometown and wilderness he knows much indeed).
So: disguise used as an integral plot device several times throughout; brawny men taking a boy hostage; nakedness by the riverbed; costume changes, improvised Shakespearean shows, men almost always described as "beautiful" (and women solely as "lovely")....
***GAY!!***
Yeah, it really is hard to discern the allegory behind all of this hype. The humor is obvious, but I have to admit that this picaresque novel about a boy who avoids "sivilization" at all costs is beaten mercilessly by a more modern, therefore more RELEVANT tale of the South, "Confederacy of Dunces." Although it must be admitted that "Huck Finn" does manage to surpass other often-praised classics, like the droll "Wuthering Heights." -
-احدى امتع القصص التي قرأتها ابدا. تصلح لكل الأعمار، فكلما نضج القارئ نضجت الرواية معه واستقى معان جديدة منها.
- القصة على لسان صبي مراهق؛ تنطلق ببطئ في الفصول الأولى لكن سحرها يبدأ في الكوخ المنعزل مع الفكرة المجنونة للفتى، وتنطلق الرحلة الساحرة.
-الشخصيات كانت ممتازة، ف "هاكلبري" مغامر ذكي وفطن وطيب، "جيم" العبد وقصة تلاقيهما والصفات المعطاة له من "توين" كانت مذهلة، "الدوق"و "الملك" من افضل الشخصيات التي وجدتها في ر��اية يوماً لما يمتلكاه من اساليب شيطانية.
- لم يطل توين الأحداث، لكنه جعلها متواترة بطريقة لا تشعرك بالملل وتجعلك تعيش في القصة منتظراً ما الذي سيحصل تالياً، والتنويع الحاصل بين اصناف المغامرات ومواقعها (غابة، نهر، قرية، سيرك، مزرعة...) اتى ليعزز التشويق في هذه الرواية.
-الأسلوب سلس على عادة "مارك توين"، ساخر ومبطن في العديد من الأماكن ومن هنا فمهما كان عمر القارئ سيستقي معنى جديد مبطن بين سطور الرواية.
- "هاكلبري" ليس بطلاً امريكيا كما اعتادت هوليوود تصويره، فهو ليس مع اعطاء الحرية للعبيد، لكنه طيب القلب وكان جميلاً ان نرى وجهة النظر هذه من دون المزايدات المتعارف عليها!!
- "توين" يقوم بالسخرية من "سوير"في نهاية الرواية، ويصوره ككائن جليدي لا يهتم سوى بأفكاره دون اخذ ادنى اعتبار لمشاعر الآخرين.
- الترجمة ممتازة وسلسة، واللغة المستعملة بسيطة.
- أنصح الجميع بقرأتها لأنها ستضحككم من الصميم في العديد من الأماكن (خصوصا مع "الملك"و"الدوق")، وستقرأون فيها العديد من اللمسات الإنسانية، العاطفية وبعض الحبكات المشوقة جداً. -
One of my absolute favourite books, which I have read multiple times. A major classic. If at all possible, get an edition with the original illustrations.
___________________________________
(Expanded review based on conversation with
JORDAN)
Here in Switzerland, l'affaire du mot N hasn't quite had the high profile it's received on its home territory. In fact, I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't even heard of it until Jordan gave me a few pointers earlier today. So, no doubt all this has been said before, but I still can't resist the temptation to add my two centimes worth.
In case you're as ignorant as I was about hot topics in the literary world, the furore concerns an edition of Huckleberry Finn in which the word 'nigger' has been systematically replaced with 'slave'. My initial response was plain surprise. One of the aspects of the book I enjoy most is Twain's appallingly exact ear for dialogue. He's reproducing the language actually used in the American South of the 1840s, and this, above all, is what gives the novel its force; so why on earth would anyone want to change it? For example, here's Huck's Paw in full flow:"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free nigger there from Ohio -- a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane -- the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could vote when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me -- I'll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of that nigger -- why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold? -- that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now -- that's a specimen. They call that a govment that can't sell a free nigger till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger.
I'm sorry, but I'm honestly unable to see how anyone could think the above passage was racist or might be improved by substituting 'slave' for 'nigger'. It's incidents like this which create the popular European myth that Americans don't understand the concept of irony.
If you're curious to know more about the tradition of improving great works of literature by removing dubious words, you might want to take a quick look at
the Wikipedia article on Thomas Bowdler which Jordan and I were giggling over. Bowdler, it turns out, had acted from the best of motives. When he was young, his father had entertained him by reading aloud from Shakespeare; butLater, Bowdler realised his father had been extemporaneously omitting or altering passages he felt unsuitable for the ears of his wife and children. Bowdler felt it would be worthwhile to present an edition which might be used in a family whose father was not a sufficiently "circumspect and judicious reader" to accomplish this expurgation himself.
He undertook to create a suitably amended version. Or, to be exact, he got his sister to do it and then gave out the books under his own name. Again, his reasons were unimpeachable: it would have reflected badly on her to admit that she had understood the naughtier passages.
I won't criticise Dr Bowdler or his equally well-meaning modern followers. I just think it's a shame Mark Twain never had the opportunity to write a story about them.
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tom sawyer was a vexation on my spirit and I’m so glad I finished this so I never have to hear from him again
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Pretty good, kinda silly - but I think that is what Twain was going for - 3.5 stars.
Twain is the king of the Yarn. Huckleberry Finn is a collection of outlandish tales all with lies and trickery at their heart. At the time of its release I am sure it became a bible for scoundrels and mischevious teens.
This book is controversial, and even frequently banned, because of its portrayal of black slaves and the use of the N-word. I venture into shaky ground here by offering my opinion as I am white, but I don't think I will cause too much trouble. I can accept that at the time of writing the words and language were fairly normal so as a time period piece it is true. However, I can't say I have read a book that takes place in that time period that so flippantly tosses the n-word around. Regarding banning of this book - I can definitely tell why some parents might be concerned about their kids reading this book. I think a lot of it depends on how it is being taught - I would hope the teacher would put an emphasis on explaining the language being used.
Summary:
- A good book
- Kind of silly
- A handbook for deception
- An understandably controversial reflection of the prejudices at the time it was written
- Some may need guidance regarding the the way racial differences are portrayed in this book. -
With this, completing 6 of 339 from The Rory Gilmore Reading List.
4.5/5 stars
Although, it might look as if this The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, it is not the same. Apart from the names, there is no other similarity between the two.
I was baffled by the style of writing. It was different. The tone was different too. I enjoyed reading about Huckleberry Finn more than Tom Sawyer.
If you happen to be one who's always in the hunt of character development while picking a book. Sadly, this one might not be the one for you. I for one couldn't find any difference in Huckleberry Finn from start to end, as far as character is concerned. He remains the same throughout the story.
This book has racism, misogyny and bad parenting behaviour. So look out for those while you decide to read it.
Review Posted: 21 May 2022.
Visit
My Blog to read this and all my other reviews. -
I'm awfully afraid about reviewing this here book. The pooooolice might be coming up here to give me my what-fors because I done be talking about plot and meaning like as such the author promised me there be none.
Woooooo-weeeee
I ain't never had the authorities after me and don't feel like startin none now.
So, apoligeezies, fair folk, and ooooh! Lookie there! It's a naked man running! Did you ever see such a thing!?
*scrambles out the back side of this review, never to be seen again* -
I have re-read Huckleberry Finn after more than 30 years and I must say that I did not remember it at all like that. Another of those books that are read by children believing that they are children's books and that then when they re-read as adults they have unexpected feelings. There are all the emotions of the great American novels of the past, that is, the discovery, the journey, going beyond both geographical and psychological borders, the vastness of America, freedom, everything. If you read it as a boy you like it; if you read it as an adult, you like it even more. It is a book on nonconformism, on the choice (possible but not obvious) to go against the current, not to do what others would like us to do. In some Twain biographies it is said that to write Huckleberry Finn he was inspired by his childhood friend, a boy who lived in a shack on the banks of the Mississippi. A boy out of limits, who did not go to school, did not work and spent his time fishing or hunting in the woods, refractory to all the rules to which all the others had to comply. In the book, Huckleberry Finn is a motherless boy with an abusive and alcoholic father. Huckleberry smokes, says bad words, does only what he likes and is not afraid of anything or anyone. When he and Tom Sawyer (the one from Twain's other book, of which this is the continuation) share the bandits' treasure, they become rich, which is why Huckleberry, abandoned by his alcoholic father, is adopted by Mrs. Douglas, a bigoted widow. After a while, Huck decides to escape from the widow's house, who had set herself the goal of civilizing Huck, teaching him education, reading the Bible and sending him to school. To escape, he uses a raft found on the Mississippi embankment and begins his journey with Jim, a black slave, who has fled his mistress who wanted to sell it. The Mississippi is described very well with its storms, its mists, its silences, its beauty, but the journey of the two is also full of pitfalls, such as when, for example, they meet a couple of scammers, who with various expedients manage to sell Jim to Tom's aunt's sister. The story then continues with Huckleberry and Tom trying to free Jim, while in the meantime Huckleberry and Jim are wanted by the police who want to recapture the black fugitive. After many attempts the two companions finally manage to free Jim. At the end of this trip Huckleberry is informed of the death of his father and plans to leave with his companions for a thousand other adventures, starting with the Indian Territories.
The book is very pleasantly read and, despite being a classic, it is still very current, proving, if needed, that Twain was a Great. In his journey, Huckleberry will learn to distinguish good from evil and will understand, among great difficulties, values such as solidarity and equality between men. A very readable, fun, but also profound book: during their escape Huck and Jim live the greatest and most beautiful adventures they can imagine, under the banner of the American dream of freedom. Huck and Jim embody this dream, while all the other protagonists of the book represent the "pigeonholed" or the negative, that is, the bigots, the greedy, the boring, the hateful. If the little reader recognizes the protagonist of the book in Huck, the adult reader will find that the most important figure is Jim, the black, the slave, the human refusal, or better, what society does not even consider a human being. Instead he is the only real man in the novel. The rebellious boy and the escaping slave: two to whom nobody would give two cents. Yet these two, in the nights spent on the river looking at the stars, ask themselves the same questions that the great philosophers ask themselves: they wonder (and ask us) about freedom, about the stars of heaven, about the existence of God. Does it seem little to you? -
I knows I's gywne teh like tis book
A delightfully funny and nostalgic piece of writing. This is my first Mark Twain and it will most certainly not be my last.
Secondhand Nostalgia
Although my grandfather grew up in the 1940s and not 1840s, there is an undeniable similarity in their childhoods. Both by grandfather and Huck are masterful storytellers who convey a tenable sense of freedom - stories that elicit nostalgia in me although I have not experienced them myself. Both convey a time that was simpler, and yet in many ways infinitely more complex than our own.
Mark's a funny guy
I believe that the relationship between Huck and Jim is very well executed. It is not simple. A major theme of the novel is that Huck's religious and societal beliefs (going to hell for helping an escaped slave) and his moral beliefs (that helping a slave is the right thing to do) clash. The way in which Twain portrays this clash is not only masterful, but shrouded in humour as Twain is wont to do. What I adore about Twain's humour is that it is still relevant and funny more than 100 years later.
Old kids on the Block
I also feel that Twain writes children very well. I could immediately relate to Huck's out-of-the-box thinking and Tom's outrageous answers to solving problems. Twain reminds us that although Huck is faced with immense challenges that question his moral fibre and very place in society, he is just a kid. Mark has a penchant for writing child characters as well as Stephen King.
Hobbit's got a voice
The conversations between Jim and Huck had me crying with laughter. This was enhanced by Elijah Woods' narration of the audio book. His intonation, emphasis and accents were all well-timed and well-executed. This hobbit did good.
Racism and Huck Finn
What I find interesting about this book is that it was initially banned for being too liberal and pro-black. Several decades later, it is considered racist and slandering. I will not comment on this - only that it reveals a lot about how a society develops. Always take a classic with a grain of salt. Misogyny and racism are an inevitability in many classics and should be taken as a period piece and not a criticism for social justice. Jim's also the result of the times - he may seem a caricature, but I feel that we won't do Jim justice if we don't look at his situation as well as his deep meanderings on life that are often masked as humour and satire.
The only reason I did not give Huck Finn 5 stars is that the book degraded in quality by the last quarter. I felt that it was being drawn out and forced by then.
All round, Huck Finn is a solid classic and I'll be happy to return to Huck's world when I read Tom Sawyer.
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I really quite enjoyed this well-written satire of slavery-era America. I reads a lot like a Dickens novel, very episodic and with a youthful protagonist. I'll put aside the fact that Huck Finn may be the most annoying character in all of literature and say that this is a great American classic for a reason. It's captivating, it's funny, and it's never boring. While it may not have aged very well, it's still an important text that covers a time when America was in its adolescent stage.
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Un canto a la amistad, a la vida y a la libertad, así es como yo definiría Las aventuras de Huckleberry Finn, una de las mejores historias que he leído en mi vida.
En esta novela, narrada en primera persona por nuestro protagonista Huck Finn, seguiremos su historia a lo largo de un sinfín de aventuras que vivirá junto a un gran número de personajes que se encontrará en el camino.
Huck, cansado de que lo intenten civilizar, y de tener que soportar a su alcohólico padre —sin duda, uno de los peores padres que han existido en toda la literatura—, decide embarcarse a la aventura, yendo en una balsa por el río Mississippi. La cuestión es que no lo hará solo, sino que le acompañará Jim, un esclavo que ha decido fugarse para ir en busca de la libertad.
Honestamente, no puedo definir con palabras lo mucho que amé y disfruté esta novela, va más allá del hecho de que la narrativa es brillante y la historia un tanto más. Es quizá un caso particular en el que sé que se quedará conmigo para siempre, sin embargo, no sabría explicar los motivos. Quizá a más de uno le habrá pasado con alguna obra en particular y sabrá comprenderme.
Si bien hay algo que no me terminó de convencer del todo, un nuevo personaje que aparece casi al final del libro que hizo que la historia pasara de ser reflexiva y poética, a sentirse como si estuvieras leyendo un chiste, no demerita el hecho de que para mí esta sea una completa obra de arte. Le perdono este error a Mark Twain, quizá se vio obligado a introducir a dicho personaje o no sé; para fortuna de todos, el final es una completa joya y remonta como mínimo los peldaños que había perdido la historia.
Si tuviera que decir qué fue lo que más disfruté de la novela serían dos cosas: la primera, las sublimes reflexiones e importantes cuestionamientos que se hace Huck Finn a sí mismo, especialmente cuando tiene que actuar en contra de los principios que le han sido inculcados por la sociedad, y decide ir en contra de ello para hacer algo mejor, aquello que le dicta la conciencia, y por qué no decirlo, el corazón… bueno, si les digo que se me hacía un nudo en la garganta, es poco.
La segunda tiene nombre, y se trata de mi personaje favorito, y uno de los mejores personajes que me he encontrado en una novela: nuestro querido Jim. Pienso que es imposible no querer a Jim, especialmente por su personalidad y sus acciones, así como el hecho de contar con un amigo como él, sin duda cualquiera se habría sacado la lotería. Además, el que exista más humanidad en él que en muchos otros personajes, en un tiempo donde no era respetado como ser humano, es donde se nota (así como en muchos aspectos más) el poderoso mensaje que planea dar Mark Twain con esta obra. Simplemente maravilloso.
En conclusión, hay que leer Las aventuras de Huckleberry Finn al menos una vez en la vida, y tener en cuenta que además de ser una lectura ágil, es una lectura con una profundidad y un sentido muy bien definidos.
“¡Vete a liberarlo! No puede seguir siendo esclavo. ¡Tiene que ser libre como cualquier criatura que ande sobre la faz de la tierra!”
P.S. No está de más recomendar esta edición que leí de la editorial Sexto Piso; no solo me pareció una buena traducción, sino que además las ilustraciones de Pablo Auladell hacen un increíble juego con la historia y le dan el toque final.
Que por cierto, Guille, si alguna vez lees esto, muchas gracias por convencerme de que este ilustrador hacía un estupendo trabajo, ha valido completamente la pena. -
"All right, then, I'll GO to hell" --
This is Huck's decision, rather than turn in his friend, Jim. They had been through many things together.
Here's the story....
Huck faked his death and ran away from his drunken father. On Jackson’s Island, in the middle of the Mississippi River, Huck encounters Jim, a runaway slave and his friend. Jim fled because he overheard his owner, Miss Watson, planning to sell him to a plantation. Huck and Jim ultimately must escape the island because their campfire is spotted. Later in their adventures Huck reports...
I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote:
‘Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send.’
I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking -- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell.
And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind.
I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the ONLY one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper.
It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:
"All right, then, I'll GO to hell" -- and tore it up.’
Huck's epiphany is that Jim is a human being, no matter what people call him or how they treat him, and Huck is willing to risk his soul to help him.
===========
I don't listen to many audiobooks, but if you like them may I suggest the brilliantly narrated version by Elijah Wood. He captures the colloquial speech brilliantly in a way I never got from the written page.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook...
