The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
1884
277 pp.
First line: "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."
I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I don't know if I had read this book before. I know it wasn't assigned in school, but I thought I had read it. Parts of it seemed familiar, but doesn't everyone know the general storyline?
Plot synopsis: To escape from his abusive drunken lout of a father, Huck fakes his own murder and rafts down the river, stopping on a small island just down river from town, where he runs into Jim, an escaped slave. The two form an unlikely partnership and when Huck gets wind of people coming for Jim, the two slip off down the river.
This book took me longer than I expected to read. It is written in Huck's voice, and Twain does a great job maintaining the voice throughout the novel. It makes the novel read slower.
I'm really not sure what to say about this book that hasn't been written. What really stood out for me is the character of Huck as wrestles with social customs and morals and his desire to emulate his friend and also become his own person and his attempt to reconcile his friendship with Jim with his sense of rightness. Huck is a great character. Throughout the novel he attributes his "bad" behavior--helping a slave escape-- to his questionable upbringing. He tries to feel bad about what he has done and is doing, but can't seem to muster it:
Mark Twain
1884
277 pp.
First line: "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."
I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I don't know if I had read this book before. I know it wasn't assigned in school, but I thought I had read it. Parts of it seemed familiar, but doesn't everyone know the general storyline?
Plot synopsis: To escape from his abusive drunken lout of a father, Huck fakes his own murder and rafts down the river, stopping on a small island just down river from town, where he runs into Jim, an escaped slave. The two form an unlikely partnership and when Huck gets wind of people coming for Jim, the two slip off down the river.
This book took me longer than I expected to read. It is written in Huck's voice, and Twain does a great job maintaining the voice throughout the novel. It makes the novel read slower.
I'm really not sure what to say about this book that hasn't been written. What really stood out for me is the character of Huck as wrestles with social customs and morals and his desire to emulate his friend and also become his own person and his attempt to reconcile his friendship with Jim with his sense of rightness. Huck is a great character. Throughout the novel he attributes his "bad" behavior--helping a slave escape-- to his questionable upbringing. He tries to feel bad about what he has done and is doing, but can't seem to muster it:
"They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me to try to learn to do right; a body that don't get started right when he's little ain't got no show--when the pinch comes there ain't nothing to back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat. Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd 'a' done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now. Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck." (p.95)I give it 4.5 stars. Now I don't have to renounce my English degree. I've read Twain.
1 comments:
It feels good to reclaim your degree, doesn't it?
I actually haven't read this one either, but I think I saw a movie... does that count?
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