The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Ratings824
Average rating3.6
Definitely a hot take...
This book is less than stellar. Often meandering and lackadaisical in its plot. I enjoyed the episodic nature of Tom Sawyer, but this book has no real “interesting” developments and ends quite frustratingly.
I admire the honest approach of racism in society and how it can impact youth, but I really feel that the ending completely unravels all the good nature it had built in the pages before it.
Interested to see how my perspective changes on the story after I read James.
Bored, hard to follow. I wanted to try 100 books to read in lifetime but I think some books I'm just not interested in and this is one. Don't want to continue to force myself to read something I don't like.
This is a DNF for me. I made it through 40% of this book and that was a struggle. I couldn't push myself anymore. I was so bored and just didn't care about anything that was happening.
My dad read this book to me as bedtime stories when I was a kid, and I've read it a couple of times since, but not for many years. I re-read it this week in preparation for reading Percival Everett's James. On one hand I was in familiar and beloved territory, especially in scenes where Huck is lying his head off to some adult and in danger of getting caught. On the other hand, the incessant use of the "N" word is shocking, and it's more shocking to me that I don't remember it being incessant from previous readings.
This time around I also recognize more clearly how subversive this book is on the subject of race and slavery, in Huck's worry about how helping a runaway slave is "wrong" according to the social rules he's been raised to believe, and how there must be something wrong with him for not being able to turn Jim in, and in so many other subtle and not so subtle details of the story.
If you can set aside the horrifying callousness towards black enslaved people, the grim blood feud that kills off an entire family, and the grifters out to rob as many people as they can, Huck Finn's adventures are also hilarious and beautiful in parts. But the hilarity is also mixed up with callousness. I agreed with Jim that they'd had enough of kings and dukes, but honestly, I'd had enough of Tom Sawyer's insistence on prolonging Jim's imprisonment so that he could mimic the Count of Monte Cristo or other romantic escapes from prison.
This is an important piece of Americana, a great satire on American morals and conscience during slavery, and a classic adventure tale all in one, and it's ripe for a retelling from James's side. I'm looking forward to seeing what Percival Everett does with it.
I listened to the well done audiobook version read by Elijah "Frodo" Woods and know this contributed to my engagment in the story. I am extremely intrested in reading "James" as it seems to be on every "Best of 2024" list I've seen. And since it builds directly off "Huck," I thought it was time to finally read this famous (infamous?) novel which I skimmed when assigned it in high school decades ago. Although Woods did the voices well, I was not impressed with the story. It's a good "road" (river) tale with elements of the "buddy" genre, yet there's not much focus to the plot. It seems more like a series of vignettes rather than a plot with suspenseful development. There's some humor, but it gets lost in storylines which take much too long to unfold. And then there's the "n-word" issue. Dang - Twain/Huck uses it A LOT - likely at least 150 or 200 times. While it was so hard to hear to the point of numbness, it was a reminder of how this word was used as a categorical name of an entire group of human beings. I hope the value of "James" makes the difficulty of enduring "Huck" first worth the effort.
Read this in preparation for reading James by Percival Everett. My only previous brush with Twain was when I was assigned to read Tom Sawyer in middle school. I was so bored by it, I opted to watch the movie instead and never touched another Twain, though I was told Huck Finn is the better book. Reading it as an adult, I have more of an appreciation for Twain's wit and humor. I also think 11-year-old me was valid in her complaints that all the books we were assigned to read were “boy” books.
I didn't despise the writing from a talent/skill perspective, but I am horrified at the use of the n-word, the constant stream of racism and misogyny and the absolute tedium of having to deal with the last 3rd of the book which once again brings the unbearable Tom Sawyer to the front and center.
Summary: Huck Finn runs away from home and meets up with Jim, who has escaped slavery and with whom Huck experiences a series of adventures. Although the book is told through the young Huck Finn’s perspective, it deals with some heavy themes, such as racism and injustice.
3.5 stars. I'm pretty divided about this book. Some parts I really loved others I hated.
I disliked how some parts felt dragged out (ex. The king and duke) and the last couple chapters with Tom were painful to get through (the little sh*t). I just had to stop reading it a couple times because of it. While there are other negatives there's also a lot of positives.
I enjoyed the classic adventures and not knowing what will happen to Huck and Jim whenever they'd meet people on land. And as interesting the adventures are, this book gives Huck the choice of what being “civilized” means. His dad: being a drunk, violent and rascist or the widows way: wear uncomfortable clothes, educated and also rascist. The book is trying to convey to the reader that for all their claims to being civilized, they are the ones lacking in morals and education. And Huck thinking he'd be damned for making the choice choses his own path and saying one of my favourite lines ever.
...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.
This book had some shining moments, but, that end though.
For now it's 3.5 stars but I might change it in the future, I don't know. This book will be on my mind for a while.
I loved this book, the accents and slang made everything I read come to life.
It is bizarre reading this in 2020 in the context of the protests and Black Lives Matter, but it is illuminating, at least insofar as it regards from where this all has sprung. I don't know that I can recommend the read while all this is so raw.
I did end up enjoying it some, but I found it hard to get into, and in general I think it's just a case of ‘this story isn't for me'. Huck Finn is a little too reckless and adventurous for me to not constantly feel like he's in danger. And Tom Sawyer is just.... a bad influence? Like that boy is just too much. Wayyyyyyy too much. I couldn't deal with him.
Whenever The King and The Duke were around I was worried for Huck Finn's safety. By the time Huck Finn reaches Aunt Sally he has become more tolerable, and when Tom Sawyer shows up, Tom is clearly the worse of the two, which automatically puts Huck Finn in a better light.
I don't know, there were some parts to enjoy, but for the most part it just wasn't for me.
Fantastic read.
This abridged version feels complex, like Richmal Crompton's “William” stories.
Es divertido, gracioso, estupido y profundo, todo a la vez.
Huck es ingenuo e ingenioso. Es capaz de creer que se puede disfrazar de chica para conseguir informacion y conseguirlo!
El dialogo introspectivo donde decide seguir los designios de su corazon a costa de condenarse al infierno eterno es de lo mejor que he leido en mucho tiempo.
No one show my father this review for he will be wholly disappointed.This book just wasn't my style. The plot was very haphazardly put together and it felt like it was being planned as it was being written. I didn't care a ton for the characters, but perhaps that would have been a bit different if I had read [b:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 24583 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404811979s/24583.jpg 41326609] before this. Frankly, I was kind of bored with this and had to force myself to finish it. I think my displeasure was also heightened since this was the last required reading I had to do and it was also my least favorite of the three.Maybe I'll read another Mark Twain book at some point, just for my dad.
This is one of those books that shows how disconnected I am from the world. There is nothing here for me, I couldn't stand over and hour of this.
Huckleberry Finn is a kid. He has friends. He plays with them. He has an abusive redneck father that explores and beats him. He rather be with him then go to school. That's all it took for me to stop reading this.
Read 1:08/11:14 10%
Похоже на О'Генри, а его книги мне не очень нравятся. Сам персонаж понравился больше, чем Том Сойер, но все эти истории про аферистов слишком похожи и предсказуемы.
‰ЫПNotice: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.‰Ыќ
I keep telling myself I'm not going to read any more children's books unless I'm reading them to my children. I convince myself that I'll find more enjoyment or more utility reading grown-up books. Lately though, I've found that every time end up reading a book with a child protagonist, I prove myself wrong. Huck Finn is another case in point.
The most poignant part of the book for me was when Huck was struggling with whether or not to turn Jim in. Huck knew that it was his duty to allow Jim to be returned to his master, but Huck had grown to love Jim and didn't want to hurt him. His reasoning was that he'd feel bad not turning Jim in, but then again, he'd feel much worse if he did betray him and turn him in. Faced with a no-win situation, Huck went with his heart and was true to his friend. The payoff when Jim once again shows his gratitude to Huck is powerful and moving.
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.
“My goodness, and she so well only last week! Is she took bad?”
“It ain't no name for it. They set up with her all night, Miss Mary Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours.”
“Only think of that, now! What's the matter with her?”
I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says:
“Mumps.”
“Mumps your granny! They don't set up with people that's got the mumps.”
“They don't, don't they? You better bet they do with THESE mumps. These mumps is different. It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said.”
“How's it a new kind?”
“Because it's mixed up with other things.”
“What other things?”
“Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all.”
“My land! And they call it the MUMPS?”
“That's what Miss Mary Jane said.”
“Well, what in the nation do they call it the MUMPS for?”
“Why, because it IS the mumps. That's what it starts with.”
“Well, ther' ain't no sense in it. A body might stump his toe, and take pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull up and say, ‘Why, he stumped his TOE.' Would ther' be any sense in that? NO. And ther' ain't no sense in THIS, nuther. Is it ketching?”
“Is it KETCHING? Why, how you talk. Is a HARROW catching–in the dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the whole harrow along, can you? Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a harrow, as you may say–and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you come to get it hitched on good.”
“Well, it's awful, I think,” says the hare-lip. “I'll go to Uncle Harvey and–“
“Oh, yes,” I says, “I WOULD. Of COURSE I would. I wouldn't lose no time.”
“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.