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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (by Mark Twain)
First, thank you very much for sending me this book, Ronny!
The Story: Most people probably know the basic story. Huckleberry Finn is a teenager in 19th century America. He lives in a village in the South. He escapes that life and takes a trip down the Mississippi. On the way, he befriends with runaway slave Jim. Together they decide to go to the states where slavery is prohibited, so Jim can be free. Their adventures take them by a band of boat robbers, a feud of Southern families, bandits, and slave hunters, to name some of the more prominent ones. They also meet two weird men that claim to be a king and a duke and who have Huck participate in some scams on the people of villages they come across. After they can't find enough ways to earn money via scams, the king and the duke sell Jim to a farmer. Huck swindles himself into the family that now keeps Jim, and soon afterwards accidentally Tom Sawyer arrives by accident. Re-united, the two friends make up an elaborate, overcomplicated plan to free Jim, which succeeds in the end. Huck is supposed to go back to the village he came from, but he really doesn't want to ...
The Themes: The story is told by Huckleberry Finn himself, whose thoughts and actions are uniquely those of a teenage boy exploring the world with eyes wide open. The reader watches how Huck faces the issues of growing up and developing one's own opinions of the world. The story is scattered with attempts of Huck explaining the world to himself and arguing with himself over right and wrong. There are a lot of complicated decisions he has to make, and the struggles of coming to those decisions and living with the consequences of which are portrayed very well. The rules of the adults often seem to be wrong or conflicting to him. How is it you are not supposed to lie, yet it seems the right thing at times? How is it people are supposed to do smalltalk? How is it that revenge is more important than peace? And most importantly, this is (I guess) the main theme of the book: What is it with freedom, and how does it relate to slavery and black people? Throughout the book, the reader watches how Huck slowly realizes that Jim is a regular human being and not a lower being as Huck was told. Thus, Jim should not fear for his freedom, Huck discovers. He understands Jim's family issues, discusses with Jim, and in the end Huck risks a lot to save Jim.
Why I liked it: Those intellectual issues make this a piece of world literature, I gather. The reason I enjoyed the book most, though, was how I became immersed into Huck's journey, how I felt with him, and how thrilled I was at the various turns he made. Twain's authentic writing style made it possible. It reminded me of my own childhood, how I sometimes dreamt of adventures. I'm not a nature guy, but laying on the raft in the wild open river is a metaphor I can relate to very well. The situational humor in the stories made for some great laughs on the way as well. When Huck and Tom argue about how to best free Jim and whether a true prison escape has to involve stories scribbled with blood on the wall, snakes and rats, or a cloth ladder smuggled via a cake, that's pure comedy -- because they already got Jim free, they just keep him locked for some more time to do a "proper escape".
Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have tobacker in his coffee;" and found so much fault with it, and with the work and bother of raising the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and petting and flattering up the snakes and spiders and things, on top of all the other work he had to do on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, and things, which made it more trouble and worry and responsibility to be a prisoner than anything he ever undertook, that Tom most lost all patience with him; and said he was just loadened down with more gaudier chances than a prisoner ever had in the world to make a name for himself, and yet he didn't know enough to appreciate them, and they was just about wasted on him. So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn't behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved for bed.
Two awkward issues: Two things have been a little awkward while reading the book. First, the whole text is written in a Southern-American accent from the 19th century, which makes it a complete pain to understand. Eventhough not being a native speaker, I usually don't have any problems with English books (actually, almost everything I read has been in English over the last years). Yet, with this book I was having significant problems understanding Huck Finn's thoughts. And even more so when Jim, the slave friend of Huck's, is speaking. Thus, a warning: If you're not completely familiar with English, this book will take you a long while to get through. One more sample:
I read considerable to Jim about kings and dukes and earls and such, and how gaudy they dressed, and how much style they put on, and called each other your majesty, and your grace, and your lordship, and so on, 'stead of mister; and Jim's eyes bugged out, and he was interested. He says: "I didn' know dey was so many un um. I hain't hearn 'bout none un um, skasely, but ole King Sollermun, onless you counts dem kings dat's in a pack er k'yards. How much do a king git?"
The second awkward thing while reading the book is the very frequent usage of the word "nigger". Well, although this is totally fine in the context of the book (many people did speak that way during those times; on top, Twain also uses the word to point the reader towards racial issues), it was still awkward every time I came across the word. It immediately threw me back into reality every single time, somehow destroying the fictional enjoyment.
Bottom Line: Great fiction. Enthralling story with lively characters. Quite funny. Makes you think about some of the basic issues of life. Yet, hard to read due to its 19th century language.
- Book Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Book Author: Mark Twain
- Buy the book at Amazon.com or Amazon.de, or read it online at Project Gutenberg.
- My rating:
