This was a wonderful experience, re-reading Huck's adventures after many years away from the book. On this second reading, so much spoke to me: the poetry in the descriptions of the time on the river, Twain's obvious love of his young character Huck Finn, the wonderful characters of all stripes and the picture of the time (with Twain's twist of course). Huck's struggles with what he perceives as right and wrong are so wonderfully written and, of course, so satirical for the reader, as he deals with the mores of his time.

A section on Huck and Jim's travel on the river struck me with it's poetry.


"Two or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might
say they swum by, they slid along so quiet and smooth and
lovely....It was a monstrous big river down there....we run
nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as night was most
gone we stopped navigating....Next we slid into the river
and had a swim...then we set down on the sandy bottom...and
watched the daylight come. Not a sound anywheres---perfectly
still---just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes
the bullfrogs a-cluttering, maybe. The first thing to see,
looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line---that
was the woods on t'other side...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 gray....
(ch 19, loc 1623)


The description of dawn on the river goes on, and is lovely. I can imagine the times Twain must have watched the river and the wildlife, capturing all the details.

Amazingly enough, this description feels right for Huck too, for he is an observer of all kinds of life. He's had to be due to his difficult upbringing.

Further along, adventures of all sorts begin, ones that he and Jim are less than willing participants at times. But I'm not going to spoil any fun here. If you want to read about the outrageous con men of the time, the famous King and Duke, then you will have to read the book.

Huck's growth during his journey with Jim is seen in his choices,along the way, especially his choices regarding Jim, and his perceptive views of the adults around him and their actions.He may believe he will ultimately be condemned for his thoughts and actions, but we and Twain believe otherwise in the major irony of the book.

Highly recommended to all and I must say I enjoyed this far more on reading this as an adult. Thanks to On the Southern Literary Trail for having this as a June read.

أحب سخرية مارك توين، لذا وددت أن أقرأ أشهر رواياته "مغامرات هكلبري فِن"
ليست مرتبطة بجزأها الأول مغامرات توم سوير
وهو ما شجعني على البدأ فيها بدلأ من أن أنتظر شراء "مغامرات توم سوير
أعجبني ثلثي الرواية الأولين مغامرات النصابين الملك والدوق
لكن الثلث الأخير كان أصغر من سني كثيرا ربما إنبهرت به وأنا عندي 12 سنة مثلا

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 Me 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.



In 1876,  Mark Twain began writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the sequel to his widely popular novel n   The Adventures of Tom Sawyern. 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 n   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnn has held up that mirror and challenged us to examine our souls. When Huck Finn was first introduced in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 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.



n   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnn 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.

n   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnn 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.



n  Update 2022: I just completed my annual reading. I love the character of Huck so much.n  
n  
n  Update 2023: It's amazing all the little things I picked up with this read. Twain is so good.n

I didn’t expect to love this story so much! Like every American high school student I was assigned this, and like everyone else I did not willfully engage with/read it/take it seriously. That was a terrible mistake because this is one of the greatest novels I’ve read.

This is an American picaresque novel. The picaresque genre is generally about a male protagonist who goes on a series of episodic adventures. This is my favorite genre, Candide being another of my favorites. It is described in French as a “roman fleuve” which means the novel as a river, or river novel (on account of the story kind of meandering). It’s a good description of this story in particular because so much of it takes place on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. What makes this type of novel so compelling to me is it’s ability to explore a wide variety of cultures and sub cultures, ideologies/religions, characters and caricatures. You get a great survey of the diversity of a society, the many types of people that inhabit the world, you see the real human dimension. And by creating caricatures of the relevant ideologies/religions/cultures the author can set up a series of epic manichaean dramas that unfold in a few chapters each as the protagonist goes along on their journey. By setting up a series of dialectical struggles the author encourages the reader to critically examine the costs and benefits of various systems. The conclusions the author tries to lead their audience too are generally stupid and Mark Twain is no exception, though that can be excused.

I generally hate reading books and read as a form of self-harm/punishment. Because of the huge amount of useless garbage available this isn’t difficult. However, reading this type of book isn't so bad. It is the literary equivalent of short form content. It satisfies my desire for novelty, keeps me engaged, and because there is a compelling young male character I can self insert and become invested in their outcome.

The culture described in the book is still alive. Its not the same, but by no means a memory. Particularly the way people talk. I grew up surrounded by folks that talked like that. All of them were lower-class, what you would call rednecks. Because that vernacular is associated with being lower-class and stupid, most people teach their kids to speak mid-atlantic English now. It’s refreshing and humanizing to read it, and see it used as a literary language. While reading I was reminded of my travels in the South because of the cultural continuity. They are/were friendly, hospitable, open and warm. There isn’t terrible social anxiety. People are generally happier and smile more. They do not fear, and actually welcome, strangers. They are relaxed and leave their possessions and trash all over the place, and don’t get in a hurry over much. They aren’t very neurotic, and when they do get in a fuss it’s over sin or going to hell or religion or gossip. In other words they participate in social/community neurosis which binds people together, rather than a personal obsessive neurosis which is generally alienating and destructive.

I wont write extensively about the con-men or the blood feud or religious revivals, but will say that they are all great parts of the story that fill out the society and make it feel alive and real. The story is a library of archaic sub-cultures that no longer exist in the US. It is hard to believe that the story takes place in this country and not some ancient wild land.

The story gives you a personal understanding of American slavery, and I would imagine slavery in general. You might wonder why many people didn’t simply run away from their owners. Most were living on farms and plantations and outnumbered their owners considerably, and the country was sparsely populated so if you stayed out of sight you could get away if you were careful enough. So why didn’t they run? You come to understand why it was so hard to escape because of the considerable trouble it causes Jim’s conscious throughout the book. His escape from slavery was a selfish act. If he ever hoped to become free he had to abandon his wife and child, who he will likely never see again and will be punished for his escape. He endangers his only friend Hucks life, who could probably manage just fine without all the trouble he causes the both of them. His escape causes a stir in the area that could get someone killed, his own family or another slave. On top of all of this his owner is an old woman that relies on his help to get by. From Jim’s perspective she hasn’t done him any wrong and is quite generous.

It’s easy to imagine yourself running away, until you read about the reality and day to day life of being a slave. If you had relationships and responsibilities to the people around you running away would seem foolish. That might be why Jim doesn’t seem so smart, it would take someone who isn’t to bright to get that idea. A lot of people imagine slavery was a master beating their slaves all day with a whip. This is a pornographic fantasy. The reality was less physically brutal but much more pernicious because it was integrated into the cultural landscape. The whole story Huck feels bad for helping Jim, and even lowers his opinion of others when they help him on his journey to free Jim. In other words he is deeply conflicted about helping Jim and seems to only do it because Jim is a traveling companion and friend, and knows his secret. A couple of times he considers turning him in.

As I read I had the honest realization with myself that I would live and die as a slave if I was born under the same circumstances. I wouldn’t leave my family, friends, and responsibilities for a slim chance at freedom and risk hurting people. I think that makes me more or less equivalent to a slave, or at least I have the same psychology as one. And I think most people if they are honest with themselves are the same way, if they have a conscious.

I can also see myself owning slaves. If little old ladies could own multiple slaves without risking their life surely it didn’t require constant brutality from the owner. If it did it probably wouldn’t have been worth the trouble. From the owners perspective it is quite benevolent. What are these people going to do otherwise, if you don’t take care of them? The owners offer shelter, food, clothing, a job, a family, friends, connections, community, a sense of belonging, meaning. This is more than can be said for an employer. Any normal person would get Stockholm syndrome and probably be thankful for such an arrangement, especially if that’s all you know about and the only thing that’s available to you. Because the day to day life of owning slaves wasn’t so violent or brutal most people were probably okay with it. Historically the most fervent opposition to slavery in America did not come from slaveholders or even former slaves(people who had first hand experience with it), but rather from people who had no experience with it and opposed a mythologized version of it.

I wrote a paper a while ago about the memoirs of union soldiers and they all said when slaves were freed they wondered what they were going to do with themselves. Most basically went back to their previous lives and when asked why they didn’t want more from life they didn’t understand the question. It’s just to say that their lot in life isn’t so alien from how most folks live today. You aren’t allowed to travel too far away from your home just like a slave because you probably have a job and your boss will get angry at you and fire you and then you won’t have money to pay for food and shelter. So being a slave and being a wage worker isn’t so dissimilar. You are probably only technically free.

My edition of the novel came with an afterward essay written by Alfred Kazin. It was phenomenal, really well written and worth reading. I would highly recommend spending extra time after finishing the story to complete that as well. The story was great, the prose was great, the ideas were great. But my favorite part of the book was the familiarity I felt while reading, like a part of this world still exists and is alive today, that I can still step into and experience this otherwise lost world, which makes it very magical.

"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."

And that's the start of our introduction to one of life's most charming main characters, Huck Finn. Huck fakes his own death to escape his abusive dad, and goes through a series of wonderful adventures, meeting oodles of scary characters along the way.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed the Tom Sawyer book. I think because Tom was surrounded by his friends and the adventures were him and Huckleberry, this book is totally different, it's just Huckleberry and it just didn't flow as well for me. Or perhaps Toms adventures were so good that Huckleberry didn't live up to the challenge. Whatever the reason, it just didn't absorb me in quite the same way.

I'm so glad to be done with this book, it was a slog to finish. I did not care for the storyline that much. I enjoyed reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when I was younger but this book wasn't for me. Now onto James!!!

Goodreads may indicate this was only my second reading of Huckleberry Finn, but what does Goodreads know? Umpteen is more like it.

And the more I reread it, the more I like it. Especially now. Better than reading to match the times (dystopian) or to pretend the times don't exist (escapist), this was like meeting an old friend.

Man. I look at Twain's vast lifetime writings and wonder why he didn't do more like this one. I especially loved the descriptions of nature. Spot on. Here are four excerpts of his poetic prose featuring Huck describing nature, if you're inclined to revisit them.

Hemingway, who loved this book, had it right, however. The wheels came off when Tom Sawyer reappeared for the last 80 pages or so, pretending he was the expert on Romanticism or detective fiction. Taking every simple thing and making it complex because that's the way the books do it (as if he were some Don Quixote or something, when he most assuredly isn't). The book lapses into almost 90% dialogue entirely, sagging badly.

But really. After the wonderful work he did until that point (nothing short of "The Great American Novel"), there's not much to complain about.

Perfect pandemic reread (and those are words I never thought I'd type).

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".

Huck Finn is kidnapped by his daddy, but he escapes. During his escape he meets Jim, the slave of his foster mother, who has run away. The two stay together and travel on. On their journey they meet a "duke" and a "king". But due to an incident, Jim is arrested and Huck tries to free him together with Tom Sawyer. The story is exciting and funny, especially the narrative style is very amusing.

Kako učiniti opet TO sa istim likovima, ne opeTOvati a biti bolji? Kuda nastaviti putešestvije onda kada su se Pustolovine - bekstvo od kuće na poludivlju adu, svedočenje ubistvu, krimi-sudska drama, lov na blago, prva ljubav i izbavljenje iz pećinskog lavirinta - već poklopile? Šta nakon "Doživljaja Toma Sojera", i s njim i bez njega, to je u najkraćem problemska nepoznata Marka Tvena.

A vektor prvoosumnjičenog književnog mangupa vidno je drugačiji u odnosu na vektor Haklberija Fina. Prvoga kao tip socijalno prilagodljivog vetropira put ipak navodi ka socijalizaciji, otud je i prihvatljivije štivo za domaću lektiru. Kolokvijalno, prozezajmo se, ali tako da posle možemo da se iskuliramo [i uložimo novce u banku]. Drugi je zanavek marginalan, štrkljast, pundrav uprkos svemu, šaume glavnicom skitalački-slobodarske (recimo: odelo mi suviše lepo da bi bilo udobno), s traumatizirajućim porodičnim okoljem (otac-lupež-alkoholičar koji vas bije zato što idete u školu!), u žigošućem miljeu (rođen sam u zadnjem vagonu na pruzi..., drugo je to ali pogađa žicu). HF je ime kojem se olako ne otvaraju nijedna vrata, znamo to još onomad kada će zalupati pozno u "DTS"-u! Na prvi i potonji pogled, neodoljivi oskar za sporednu ulogu.

Stoga je odviše primamljivo ne dozvoliti mu da ne postane prva violina, da progovori i proluta, samostalno. Da ostavi iza leđa siguran prihod i udoban život - društvene cipele su ono što žulja, aha, pankerski No fun! - i Toma Sojera u fabularnom priobalju - aha, ovde je ionako donkihotovski odlepio! Fin je arhebitnik, duša lutalaštva, pa zato pri naivno ponovnom prisajedinjenju odjapadljivom Tomu Sojeru i može da prilepi, s rečima znakovito-intuitivnijim nego se u prvi mah čini: "Ja se ne vraćam - nisam ni 'otišao'." Vala zato ga se i upucalo u nogu, a ne samo zbog zakrečavanja jednog raspleta!
- Hej! Pssst! Koga? - Ma samo ti-ću...

Porinuti Haklberija u rečnu pikaresku niz američku žilu kucavicu, splavariti kroz mladinsko-južnjačku varijantu "Srca tame", čekati i gledati šta će da se zbude i na kakve će se sve živopisne dangube, probisvete i potčoveke ka središtu Juga nabasati. U ovom pomalo robinzonovskom "how convenient realizmu" - a nije baš da "Avanture" nisu posve ni bezgrešne, ali o tome nekom drugom prilikom, znatno docnije, u nekom drugom životu - iznosiće Haklberi Fin stavove ponekad i sa pankoidnom britkošću, ponekad i sa naivnom jasnoćom - eto da "Ljudi mogu da budu strašno svirepi jedni prema drugima." - da bi mu opet sa detinjom neiskvarenošću ostajalo srce obuhvatno kô Misisipi. Za sve one Južnjake koji su ga negde niz reku zagubili.

Ne propovedati u proširenju opsega satire, ne posipati katranom i perjem, a biti bolji!

Huck Finn is miles weightier than Tom Sawyer, and it's almost the Great American Novel it's called. Tom Sawyer was all fun and games - Don Quixote, as he points out himself, "all adventures and more adventures." Huck Finn's a different person; he's concerned with doing the right thing. He spends most of the novel helping a runaway slave escape, and he brilliantly represents a person judging the morals of society against the morals he's come up with himself, and ending up in the right place. That's why Huck Finn isn't a racist novel: Twain means to show us how a person who approaches life honestly will come out against racism. He's not subtle about it.

And Twain pulls off this wonderful reversal near the end of the book: Sawyer suddenly reappears on the scene, pulling the same hijinks he always has, but now we see it through Huck's and Jim's eyes, and it's maddening. Huck wants to find the most direct solution to the problem of freeing Jim, who's been recaptured. Tom wants to complicate things, as he always does; rather than just pulling a loose board out and making off, Tom insists on digging under the wall, and loosing bugs into Jim's prison so he can be properly prisonerish, and finally warning the family about the impending escape to make the whole thing more dangerous.

While Sawyer did horrible things in his own book - most notably faking his own death so his Aunt Polly could about die of sadness - we forgave him then because the book was a lark, told through his eyes, and we understood that it was all about fun. Twain takes a leap in Huck Finn, showing us an adult world and then showing us what real stakes look like when Tom Sawyer gets a hold of them, and it's devastating to watch Tom toy with Jim's life this way. This radical flip is one of Twain's best moves, and it elevates Huck Finn considerably.

But Jim, for all his humanity, is still problematic. He never drives anything forward himself, and his passivity makes me uncomfortable. He's certainly shown to be kind, and we're allowed to see him weeping for his separated wife and children, and we get to see his heavily allegorical refusal to allow Tom to throw rattlesnakes into his prison to make it more realistic. We're allowed into Jim's humanity, yeah, but he never gets to drive the plot. At the end, when he realizes that he'd been a free man all along, and Huck didn't know it but Tom did and Tom was just playing...I wanted a moment of anger from him. Didn't he deserve it? Shouldn't Jim have had a moment when he said, "What about my wife and children?"

Toni Morrison says that "the brilliance of Huckleberry Finn is that it is the argument it raises." As great as this book is, I'm uncomfortable in parts. In making Jim the co-lead but giving him no action, Twain failed Jim; so while this is an anti-racism book, it's not totally an enlightened one.