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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 2nd (1st US) edition book cover | |
| Author | Mark Twain |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | E. W. Kemble |
| Language | English |
| Series | Tom Sawyer |
| Genre | Picaresque novel, children's novel |
| Publisher | Chatto & Windus / Charles L. Webster And Company. |
Publication date | December 10, 1884 (UK and Canada) February 18, 1885[1] (United States) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 362 |
| OCLC | 29489461 |
| Preceded by | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
| Followed by | Tom Sawyer Abroad |
| Text | Adventures of Huckleberry Finnat Wikisource |
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a picaresque novel by American author Mark Twain that was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885.
Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literatureto be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. 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.
The book is noted for "changing the course of children's literature" in the United States for the "deeply felt portrayal of boyhood".[2][better source needed] It is also known for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist over 20 years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.
Perennially popular with readers, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has also been the continued object of study by literary critics since its publication. The book was widely criticized upon release because of its extensive use of coarse language and racial epithets. Throughout the 20th century, and despite arguments that the protagonist and the tenor of the book are anti-racist,[3][4] criticism of the book continued due to both its perceived use of racial stereotypes and its frequent use of the racial slur "nigger".
Plot
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In St. Petersburg, Missouri, during the 1840s, Huckleberry Finn has received a considerable sum of money following The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watsonbecome his guardians. Despite preferring life as an errant boy, Huck stays so he can be part of Tom Sawyer's gang. Huck’s father, "Pap", an abusive alcoholic, tries to appropriate Huck's fortune. When this fails, Pap imprisons him in a remote cabin.
After a delirium tremens crisis in which Pap tries to kill Huck, Huck fakes his own murder and settles on Jackson's Island, where he reunites with Miss Watson's slave Jim, who ran away after overhearing she was planning to sell him. Huck and Jim decide to go down the Mississippi River to Cairo, in the free state of Illinois. After a flood, they find a timber raft and a house floating downstream. Inside the house, Jim finds a man who was shot to death but prevents Huck from seeing.[5] Huck sneaks into town and discovers there is a reward for Jim's capture and he is suspected of killing Huck; they flee on their raft.
Huck and Jim come across a grounded steamboat on which two thieves discuss murdering a third. Finding their raft has drifted away, they flee in the thieves' boat. They find their raft and sink the thieves' boat, then Huck tricks a night watchman into a rescue attempt, which fails when the steamboat sinks. Huck and Jim are separated in a fog. When they reunite, Huck tricks Jim into thinking he dreamed the event. Jim is disappointed in Huck when Huck admits the truth. Huck is surprised by Jim's strong feelings and apologizes.
Huck is conflicted about supporting a runaway slave, but when two white men seeking runaways come upon the raft, his lies convince them to leave. Jim and Huck realize they have passed Cairo. With no way to go upriver, they decide to continue downriver. The raft is struck by a passing steamship, again separating them. On the riverbank, Huck meets the Grangerfords, who are engaged in a 30-year feud with the Shepherdsons. After a Grangerford daughter elopes with a Shepherdson boy, all of the Grangerford men are killed in a Shepherdson ambush. Huck escapes and is reunited with Jim, who has recovered and repaired the raft.
Jim and Huck are joined by two confidence men claiming to be a King and a Duke, and they rope Huck and Jim into aiding in several scams. In one town, the King and the Duke cheat the townsfolk over two nights with a short, overpriced stage performance. On the third, the grifters collect the admission fee from previous audience members bent on revenge, then flee the town. In the next town, the swindlers impersonate the brothers of the recently deceased Peter Wilks and attempt to steal his estate. Huck tries to retrieve the money for Wilks's orphaned nieces. Two other men claiming to be Wilks' brothers arrive, causing an uproar. Huck flees but is caught by the King and the Duke. He escapes but finds they sold Jim to the Phelpses. Huck vows to free Jim, despite believing he will go to hell for it.
The Phelpses mistake Huck for their nephew Tom, who is expected for a visit, and Huck plays along. Their nephew is Tom Sawyer, and when he arrives he pretends to be his brother Sid, and develops a theatrical plan to free Jim. Huck attempts to warn the King and the Duke that Jim alerted the local residents to their scam but sees them tarred and feathered and being run out of town on a rail.
Tom is wounded during Jim's escape. Instead of fleeing, Jim stays to tend to him and is arrested and returned to the Phelpses.[6] Tom's Aunt Polly arrives and reveals Huck's and Tom's true identities. She explains that Miss Watson has died, and that she freed Jim in her will. Tom admits he knew but wanted to "rescue" Jim in style.[7] Jim tells Huck Pap was the dead man in the floating house. Huck declares he will flee to Indian Territory to escape adoption by the Phelpses.
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