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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1885) by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is commonly accounted as the first Great American Novel. It was also one of the first novels ever written in the vernacular, or common speech, being told in the first person by the eponymous Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer (hero of three other Mark Twain books). The book was published for the first time on February 18, 1885.
Many agree with what Ernest Hemingway wrote in The Green Hills of Africa: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. ... all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
The book is noted for its innocent young protagonist, its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism, of the time. The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature.
Although the book has been popular with young readers since its publication, and taken as a sequel to the comparatively innocuous The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (which had no particular social message), it has also been the continued object of study by serious literary critics. It also has been criticized because of the 215 occurrences of the word nigger (see "Controversy" below).
Many white characters in the story are depicted as foolish, cruel or selfish, in contrast to the main black character, Jim, who is mostly depicted as smart and unselfish. The story is set before the American Civil War. Huck, as we know from Tom Sawyer is a loose-living young vagabond with no mother and an alcoholic father. He meets Jim, a slave who is about to be sold down the river and separated from his wife and children, and they attempt to go north across the Ohio RiverThe Ohio River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, 981 mi (1,579 km) long in the eastern United States. Of great significance in the history of North America dating from the time of the Native Americans, the river was a primary transportati to freedom. The book tells of their adventures.
Family is one of the most important themes in the book. The attempt by Huck's father to gain custody of him in order to steal the money Huck and Tom had found in the previous book precipitates his flight, staging his own murder to get away. One of the major plot devices in the book is Jim's hiding the death of Huck's father from him. As they travel the river, Huck is frequently involved with families who attempt to adopt him.
Another theme is the life on the Mississippi River, alternately idyllic and threatening. In true picaresqueThe picaresque novel ( Spanish: picaresco from picaro for "rogue" or "rascal") was a popular style of novel that originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term denotes a subgenre of usually satiric prose fiction and fashion, Huck and Jim encounter all the varieties of humanity as they travel: murderers, thieves, confidence men, good people and hypocrites.
It is commonly said that the beginning and ending of the book, the parts in which Tom Sawyer appears as a character, detract from its overall impact. Others feel Tom serves to start the story off and to bring it to a conclusion, and that Tom's ridiculous schemes have the paradoxFor other meanings of "Paradox", see Paradox (disambiguation). Robert Boyle's self-flowing flask fills itself in this diagram, but perpetual motion machines don't exist. A paradox is an apparently true statement or group of statements that seems to lead tical effect of providing a framework of "reality" around the mythical river voyage.
Another theme is Huck's gradual acceptance of Jim as a man, a man better than any other in the book, strong, brave, generous, and wise (though realistically portrayed as imperfect).
Although the Concord, MassachusettsTowns in Massachusetts Middlesex County, Massachusetts Concord is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 16,993. For geographic and demographic information on West Concord, which i library banned the book shortly after its publication because of its "tawdry subject manner" and "the coarse, ignorant language in which it was narrated," the San Francisco ChronicleThe San Francisco Chronicle the self-described "Voice of the West," is Northern California's largest newspaper. Serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area, it has a daily circulation of over 500,000. The paper has been owned by Hearst Communications, In came quickly to its defense on March 29March 29 is the 88th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (89th in Leap years). There are 277 days remaining. Events 1461 Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England. 1638 Swedish colo, 1885:
In the United States, occasional efforts have been made to restrict the reading of the book. At various times, it has been:
The American Library Association ranked Huckleberry Finn the fifth most frequently challenged (in the sense of attempting to ban) book in the United States during the 1990s.
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