The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Illustrated)

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is the great American novel. Ernest Hemingway claimed that “All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” In rare agreement with Hemingway, T.S. Eliot called it a “masterpiece.” The story centers on the unlikely friendship between the runaway orphan Huck and the escaped slave Jim as they raft down the Mississippi River. Along the way, they encounter con men and thieves, saints and sinners, murderers and saviors, a real microcosm of 19th century America. The real story, though, is about race in American society. Twain teaches his readers some hard lessons about life and race in America, some of which are dated, and some still very much alive. Huck Finn was a controversial book when it was published, and it remains one today; it is both one of the most commonly assigned and banned books in American history. Even its detractors, however, never deny the importance of the book on American society and literature. Beyond its significance, Twain’s account is story-telling at its best. Huck Finn contains a rollicking narrative of two runaways trying to be free while being carried along by the current of the Mississippi, the lifeblood of 19th century America.