Book Review: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

When I was in high school, I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but I never read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I thought it was high time I read this American classic. Mark Twain wrote both of these books within twenty years of the end of the Civil War. These books draw upon Twain’s life while he was a youth living in the area. Another thing that drew me to this book was its status as a banned book.

My version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is 308 pages. The story of Huck Finn is spread across 43 chapters. This version also included a brief introduction that discussed Mark Twain’s life and its impact on the story.

The setting for this book is the Mississippi River pre-Civil War. During this period, many of the inhabitants owned slaves and unabashedly referred to them as niggers. It is this term that has caused the book to be permanently listed on the banned book list. This is a term I will not use in this day of age, a 135 years later. To be honest, I am uncomfortable using it even in this context.

Twain told a wonderful story. I was able to visualize the different scenes that Huck Finn was placed in. I could picture myself floating lazily down the river on a raft. Twain provided just enough detail to let your imagination run.

The area where I struggled was with the dialogue. I found especially difficult when one of the slaves was speaking. Twain deftly reflected the different dialects of the region. Fortunately, I had Huck Finn’s self talk to keep me on track.

A prominent theme throughout the book focused on race. Huck Finn had to reconcile a world in which he lived and a world that he preferred. This played out through a trip he took with a runaway slave. The longer he traveled with someone who was different the more that he empathized with him. Huck Finn also matured through the different experiences he had.

I really enjoyed reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Even though it was fiction, Twain set this piece in a specific period of time. Different historical periods fascinate me. This was one of them. You can sum up this book with a Mark Twain quote.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain

This sums up the book perfectly.

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