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I was very pleased. It was a brand new book for the price of 1$ plus shipping and handling.
Younger readers should start with Tom Sawyer, another excellent adventure story, and read Huck Finn later (Huckleberry Finn is the sequel to Tom Sawyer). High school and up should read it. I read this book once in the 8th grade and recently as a sophomore in high school and this book has earned a place in my heart. As an 8th grader, Jim's dialect was difficult to comprehend and I didn't fully pick up on the historical satire, but it's a great adventure story that teaches a lesson.
The opening pages are still in the realm of children's literature, while the final section reads as a tiresome parody with far too much serendipity to be believable. Or perhaps the praise of America is subtle, as it is a portrait of a land free of aristocracy (the characters who call themselves the "king" and "duke" are scoundrels), and the novel is written in the honest vernacular of country people.The novel cannot in any way be considered a perfect work of literature when it is an arc that soars towards quality only in the middle. For all of Twain's love of the land--indeed, the Mississippi River is itself a character--he was clearly a cosmopolitan figure by this point.
No one likes obligatory reading, and it was like water off a duck's back. But even much of the novel's humour is intended for older readers, requiring some knowledge of European history and of Shakespeare.The book's status as one of the Great American Novels is curious when it paints so bleak a picture of America. Like many people growing up in the US, I read THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN as an obligatory assignment at school.
Any signs of refined culture among these inhabitants of the Mississippi comes not even for the East Coast but from Europe. For that reason I've rated it four stars. Regretting that I remembered nothing of the novel, I recently re-read it, and I found it entertaining reading, and also much more for a grown-up audience than I expected.
Of course the book was only started as a sequel to Twain's novel for boys THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER before being turned towards much more serious themes, such as child abuse and the conflicts in antebellum southern society.
For the young, this is a rollicking adventure story of an ornery youth and his escaped slave friend. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book that I remembered fondly from my childhood that actually holds up to another reading as an adult. For the adult, There are the deeper layers of Huck's constant struggle with his own inner morality versus the popular opinion of what is considered to be right in the eyes of whites in the pre-civil war Mississippi River area.For a great escape and a look into the culture of the central United States just prior to the Civil War, I highly recommend Huckleberry Finn for all audiences. It's the classic buddy tale infused with humor and narrow escapes. Twain's wit and humor still carry the story for me as when I was a child, however, this time around, I was better able to appreciate the social and political commentary infused throughout the story. That's the magic of Twain's masterpiece: it's attraction to both young and old for both the same and different facets.
A grand adventure, with some great observations of society -- and people in general. A set text in Yr 11 English, this book has become a favourite of mine.
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