Thursday, June 7, 2018

Book Review #740 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Huckleberry Finn #2) by Mark Twain





'Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft"
Mark Twain's tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work has done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Daupin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents--of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society, which threaten his deep and enduring frienship with Jim.

My Rating: 3/5

I read this book for my goal of reading one book per month from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list.

Firstly, I found the blatant racist language in this book very extreme and I almost didn't finish the book numerous times because of this. For example, in the edition I read (pictured above) I encountered the "N" word 209 times in a book just over 300 pages long which was quite often. 

I did like the adventure side of the story and this is what ultimately enabled me to finish reading it. 

There was such a lively cast of characters and non-stop adventure of a story which if it wasn't for the racist language would be perfect for school reading.

Jim the slave was my favourite character whereas Tom Sawyer was my least favourite which has definitely put me off reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer which is unfortunate as I do have the book on my TBR. 

I really loved the vivid setting of the Mississippi River and the scenery on and around there.

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