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; but

Later, 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.

"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 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."

I really liked parts of this book -- Huck's escape from his father, the floating house, the Grangerford-Shepherdson feud, the Royal Nonesuch, and meeting Colonel Sherburn. However, a Reason.com deconstruction better explains how I felt about the end than I could:

So what's the problem? Only this: Twain's acknowledged masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, inspires almost universal ambivalence among its biggest fans. "It's the best book we've had," pronounced Ernest Hemingway in 1932. "All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." Oh, but one more thing, counseled Papa: "If you must read it you must stop where...Jim is stolen from the boys [and imprisoned by a slave catcher]. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating."

As [Ron] Powers puts it, "Huckleberry Finn endures as a consensus masterpiece despite these final chapters" in which Tom Sawyer leads Huck through elaborate, ineffectual, and grotesque machinations to rescue the runaway slave from Tom's Uncle Silas (even worse, we eventually learn that Jim has in fact been free the whole time). Most critics feel that once Tom Sawyer shows up, Huckleberry Finn devolves into little more than minstrel-show satire and broad comedy that cheapens the deep, transgressive bond that has evolved between Huck and Jim.

All in all, I preferred The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which was shorter, lighter in tone, and written in the third-person -- Twain's first-person account of Huck Finn is often so verbose and meandering, an English teacher friend of mine refers to it as a "Twain wreck."

n  n    Reviewn  n
4 out of 5 stars to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the "Great American Novels" by Mark Twain published in 1884. I've actually read this book twice: once as a 14-year-old and again in college as part of my many American English courses. My interpretations have expanded with the second read, but it's still at the core, a very profound book worth reading at least once in a lifetime.

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer appear in a few of Twain's novels, but it is in this one where Huck truly becomes a character, especially through his relationship with Jim. It's the type of book to openly challenge the norms and ideals of the mid-19th century, relationships between various races, treatment towards fellow humankind. Over 135 years later, this book is still pertinent to society today. So much needs to evolve and change, and perhaps with literature, it will move a little more each day -- at least as one of the necessary driving forces.

At times, I tried to forget that the book was calling out differences between treatment of ethnicity and race in America at the time. I wanted to think about it also from the perspective of two human beings who needed each other for survival, growth, life experience and comfort. Being color-blind and able to connect with someone, even if you don't see them or no much about them, is an important lesson in life. And one so few of us have an opportunity to experience.

One book can't change it. One book can't truly explain it. But knowing what was happening 135 years ago versus what is happening now is important. As is what people thought back then... not just what they did. If you haven't read this, as an American, it's your responsibility. Understand the past and history. Know what it was like. Read it from 135-year-old words. And decide what you can do to keep things moving forward at a quicker pace... to help us all figure out how to ditch the differences and embrace the fact that we're all humans who need the same things to survive.

n  n    About Men  n
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.

[polldaddy poll=9729544]t

[polldaddy poll=9719251]

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

n  كل من يحاولون البحث عن دافع في هذه الرواية ستتم مقاضاتهم، وكل من يحاولون البحث عن عظة أخلاقية سيتم نفيهم، وكل من يحاولون البحث عن حبكة سيقتلون رميا بالرصاص.
بأمر من المؤلف n

لم أقرأ أظرف من هذه المقدمة قبلا، ولا أعنف :)

هذا ما يسمى كتابا صيفيا. مرح وتسلية تتلائم وروح أماسي الصيف الهادئة.

هذه واحدة من أعظم ما كتب في الأدب الأمريكي بالغ الثراء. وأصبحت أتوقع أن الكتب العظمى هي تنويعات على أم الروايات دون كيخوتي. إنها هذه الرحلة، الهروب ، الخروج، السعي وراء المغامرة أو الحرية، هي السر.
رحلة هكلبري فن عبر نهر المسسيبي غير محددة الهدف، ما قصد منها إلا الهرب من حياة التحضر والعنف الأسري لاحقا. لكن وحدة عبثية كهذه غير محببة، فسرعان ما يضاف للرحلة هدف بظهور جيم الرجل الأسود، الهارب من حياة الرق. فيضاف للرواية بعد آخر يزيدها ثراء على ثراء. وتصبح بذلك وثيقة أدبية لزمنها.

هكلبري فن فتى متشرد، حياته راحة وكسل وبساطة. لا أنسى مشهده في البرميل تاركا حياة الثراء في مغامرات توم سوير. يخوض معارك مع ضميره، وهو بارع في الثرثرة والأكاذيب للنجاة. حياته كلها مهزلة. روحه وثابة وخام.

n  ثم حكت لي عن النار، فقلت أنني أتمنى أن أكون هناك، فغضبت، لكنني لم أقصد شيئا سيئا، كل ما أردته هو تغيير، أن أذهب إلى مكان ما، لم أكن محددا؛ أخبرتني أنه كان أمرا سيئا أن أقول ما قلت
ثم بدأت وأخذت تحكي لي كل شيء عن الجنة، وقالت إن كل ما على المرء فعله هناك هو التجول طوال اليوم بقيثارة والغناء، إلى أبد الآبدين، وعليه لم أهتم كثيرا بالأمر، لكنني لم أقل ذلك أبدا، وسألتها إن كانت تعتقد أن توم سوير سيدخل الجنة، وأخبرتني أن ذلك بعيد المنال، وقد كنت مسرورا لذلك، لأنني أردت أن نكون معا.n

وكما حوارات سانشو والدون هي أجمل ما في قصتهما، كذلك حوارات جيم وهكلبري. يعتقد هاك أن جيم "رجل أبيض من الداخل" ذلك لأنه ذكي وطيب، وهي صفات الرجل الأبيض طبعا. يتحدثان عن الملوك والسحر وبشائر الحظ. وإذا أخذت بالاعتبار زمن الرواية الذي لم يكن المجتمع الأمريكي تحرر فيه من العبودية ثقافيا، تعتبر الرواية مناهضة للعنصرية بقوة، لكن كذلك بأسلوب أخف ما يكون.

ثم يصادف المسافران رفيقين عجيبين، يظهر أن أحدهما دوق انجليزي، والآخر ملك فرنسا ^^ يقحمانهما في خضم مغامرات في النصب والاحتيال ما أنزل الله بها من سلطان.

n  ألا تدهشك الطريقة التي يتصرف بها الملوك يا هاك؟
- لا، لا تدهشني
- لماذا لا تدهشك يا هاك؟
- حسنا، إنها لا تدهشني، لأنها في دمهم. أعتقد أن جميعهم كذلك.
- لكن يا هاك، هؤلاء الملوك الذين معنا حقا أوغاد، هذا ما هم عليه،إنهم أوغاد حقيقيون.
- حسنا، هذا ما أقوله، كل الملوك غالبا أوغاد، حسب فهمي.
- هل هذا صحيح؟
- اقرأ عنهم وستعرف. انظر إلى هنري الثامن، إن الملك الموجود هنا هو ناظر مدرسة دينية مقارنة به. وانظر إلى تشارلز الثاني، ولويس الرابع عشر...n

مارك توين كاتب عظيم، ذو حس فكاهي من الدرجة الأولى. حلى الرواية بشيء من الجنون هنا وهناك، كاندفاع الناس لنبش القبر مع مائة جاروف وبدون مصباح واحد، أو موافقتهم حضور المسرحية الخدعة لثلاثة أيام لئلا يفتضحوا في البلدة. وإصرار توم سوير على أن يزرع جيم وردة في سجنه ويسقيها بدموعه.
الترجمة ممتازة، وأمينة.

مشهد هكلبري وهو يقرر الوشاية بجن لمالكته من عدمها ،من أفضل المشاهد في الرواية :

It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray, and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a 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 warn'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 that nigger'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.

So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter--and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I felt as light as a feather right straight off, and my troubles all gone. So 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.

HUCK FINN.

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.”

من أمتع الكتب على الإطلاق.

I re-read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn after reading a review copy of James by Percival Everett. You know, this book shouldn’t be taught in high schools. The infantilization of Jim is the problem, the terrible problem with this book, more than the “n” word argument everyone gets hung up on. No Black student should be forced to read this novel in high school for an exam at the end of the quarter. Ok I can imagine a high school exists somewhere with a teacher that has all the time in the world to discuss the subtextual and overt diminishment of the agency of Jim, and to shed a light on how US history, as taught in schools for generations, has continuously treated people of color as side characters, just as they are treated here. But the fact is we’re living in an era where this discussion would get a teacher fired in any number of states.

Finally, I have read something substantial by Mark Twain. It has taken a very long time—Mr. Twain’s works have never been assigned reading for me in any high school or university courses that I have taken. Here in Canada, we are much more likely to be assigned the classic of Stephen Leacock’s, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (I may have read that, although it does not stand out in my memory).

I borrowed a 1918 printing of Huck Finn from our university library, so I got a politically incorrect edition, complete with copious use of the N word. It is jarring to the modern reader, but it provides a look back into the heads of people in the past that is intriguing. Scholars will probably continue to debate whether the work is a critique of racism or not, but to my way of thinking, Twain humanized those who were considered to be “other.”

Common wisdom would have it that a writer should avoid using dialect, but Twain does this masterfully in Huckleberry Finn. The book is very readable and comprehensible, especially considering that it was the dialect of the 1880’s southern states and I am a Canadian reading it in the 21st century. I’ve certainly encountered science fiction books with more difficult language (the slang in Clockwork Orange for example, or pretty much all of Riddley Walker).

What struck me hardest, I think, was the persistence of social problems—Huck’s drunken & abusive father, the judgments of society on poor people, and the difficulty of making a living when you are on the fringes of society. In some ways, Huck was lucky because he could hunt and fish to provide for himself—many of our modern folk living on the edge are in cities and don’t have those avenues available to them.

As many have pointed out, few people would criticize Huck for escaping from his abusive father, so his flight would likely be considered legal, despite his status as a minor. Jim is doing exactly the same thing, but his skin colour makes his escape illegal. The reader must wrestle with this dichotomy and make their own determination of the rightness or wrongness of the situation. This may be the crux of why people object to the book—Twain doesn’t get preachy on the subject. He doesn’t come right out and tell us what to think. The story is what it is, and he considers his readers intelligent enough to come to their own conclusions.

(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

Славен момък е тоя Хъкълбери Фин, честно слово! Ако не вярвате, питайте мистър Марк Твен, той ще ви каже...

„Приключенията на Хъкълбери Фин“ четох в превод от 65-та година. Чудесно придава атмосферата на по-миналия век в САЩ. Не зная дали съвременен преводач, пък бил той и умел, би могъл така добре да се справи. Малкото, което помня от „Приключенията на Том Сойер“ (освен Беки, леля Поли, която донякъде напомня баба Цоцолана по нрав, и гангренясалия пръст на Том), е, че романът носеше същия дух. А самият Том, разбира се, не пропуска да се появи и да обагри и тукашните премеждия.

Някаква магия има в малките момченца. Благоприличните момиченца не си играят на разбойници, не си измислят кървави клетви, нямат пръчки саби и метли кончета. Момиченцата си играят на сервизи и мама и татко, и общо взето още от малки се подготвят да станат пълноправни и сериозни членове на обществото (скучна работа, но все някой трябва да я върши). Виж, момченцата са друга работа. Съвсем спокойно можеш да скалъпиш освобождаването на негър от робовладелци и то по всички правила на рицарските и там другите му приключенски романи. Оставяш изчегъртани в камък скръбни послания (оф, пришки излязоха от това дълбаене!), копаеш тунел с часове, нищо, че безпрепятствено можеш да влезеш през вратата, за която имаш ключ (не се прави така, не разбирате ли) и освен това помагаш да избяга на някого, който е бил затворник 37 години! Е, те всъщност са били няколко седмици, но на ужким всичко е позволено. Пък и къде остава интересното иначе… Това ми напомня за В., която съвсем не в стила на момиченцата като била малка и се налагало да помага в градината на село и да носи нещо-си-тежко, си представяла, че била роб на галера, който трябвало да мъкне кофи с вода и един ден да се превърне в бъдещия страховит Черен корсар на Емилио Салгари.

Хубаво е да прочетеш подобен роман като дете. Разгаря въображението като нищо друго. Хубаво е да го прочетеш и като възрастен. Виждаш какво изпускаш във всички онези дни, в които си зает с работата-си-за-големи, с чистене на фугите в банята и търкане на загорелия тиган след тиквичките. Хубаво е да се сетиш какво е да си толкова безгрижен, че всъщност да имаш време да го пуснеш на воля онова въображение, дето сякаш ти се беше разгоряло като малък и най-сериозният проблем беше, когато коремчето те подсеща, че май е време за вечеря. Ех, и всичкото това бързане да пораснем…

1- That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace.
2- It don't make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't got no sense, and just goes for him anyway.
3- Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.
4- We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.
This was quite the masterpiece, I just hated Tom Sawyer, I struggled through the last pages for real.