Synopses & Reviews
"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Hucklberry Finn." (Ernest Heminway)
Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy's adventures in the Mississippi Valleya sequel to Tom Sawyerthe book grew and matured under Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck's and Jim's voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by John Seelye, author of The True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and explanatory notes by Guy Cardwell.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Review
"All modern American literature comes from [this] one book." —
Ernest Hemingway
Synopsis
The original Great American Novel, an incomparable adventure story and a classic of unruly humour, Twain's masterpiece sees Huckleberry Finn and Jim the slave escape their difficult lives by fleeing down the Mississippi on a raft. There, they find steamships, feuding families, an unlikely Duke and King and vital lessons about the world in which they live. With its unforgettable cast of characters, Hemingway called this 'the best book we've ever had'.
This edition features a new introduction and notes by leading Mark Twain scholar R. Kent Rasmussen.
Synopsis
The classic boyhood adventure tale, updated with a new introduction by noted Mark Twain scholar R. Kent Rasmussen and a foreword by Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Republic of Imagination
In recent years, neither the persistent effort to clean up” the racial epithets in Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn nor its consistent use in the classroom have diminished, highlighting the novels wide-ranging influence and its continued importance in American society. An incomparable adventure story, it is a vignette of a turbulent, yet hopeful epoch in American history, defining the experience of a nation in voices often satirical, but always authentic.
Synopsis
From the famous episodes of the whitewashed fence and the ordeal in the cave to the trial of Injun Joe, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is redolent of life in the Mississippi River towns in which Twain spent his own youth. A somber undercurrent flows through the high humor and unabashed nostalgia of the novel, however, for beneath the innocence of childhood lie the inequities of adult reality—base emotions and superstitions, murder and revenge, starvation and slavery. In his introduction, noted Twain scholar John Seelye considers Twain’s impact on American letters and discusses the balance between humorous escapades and serious concern that is found in much of Twain’s writing.
- This new edition includes a new text and, for the first time, explanatory notes
About the Author
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and died at Redding, Connecticut in 1910. In his person and in his pursuits he was a man of extraordinary contrasts. Although he left school at twelve when his father died, he was eventually awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Missouri, and Oxford University. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher. He made fortunes from his writing but toward the end of his life he had to resort to lecture tours to pay his debts. He was hot-tempered, profane, and sentimental--and also pessimistic, cynical, and tortured by self-doubt. His nostalgia helped produce some of his best books. He lives in American letters as a great artist, the writer whom William Dean Howells called "the Lincoln of our literature."
Table of Contents
Introduction by John Seelye ix
Suggestions for Further Reading xxxi
A Note on the Text xxxv
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 9
Appendix: The Raft Episode 309
Explanatory Notes 323