Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - wikipedia Adventures of Huckleberry Finn For other uses, see Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( disambiguation ). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 2nd ( 1st US ) edition book cover Author Mark Twain Illustrator E.W. Kemble Country United States Language English Series Tom Sawyer Genre Picaresque novel Publisher Chatto & Windus / Charles L. Webster And Company. Publication date December 10, 1884 ( UK & Canada ) 1885 ( United States ) Pages 366 OCLC 29489461 Preceded by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Followed by Tom Sawyer Abroad Text Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at Wikisource Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( or, in more recent editions, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ) is a novel by Mark Twain, 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 literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry `` Huck '' Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer the narrator of two other Twain novels ( Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective ). It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about 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. Throughout the 20th century, and despite arguments that the protagonist and the tenor of the book are anti-racist, criticism of the book continued due to both its perceived use of racial stereotypes and its frequent use of the racial slur `` nigger ''. Contents 1 Characters 2 Plot summary 2.1 In Missouri 2.2 In Illinois and on Jackson 's Island 2.3 In Kentucky : the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons 2.4 In Arkansas : the duke and the king 2.5 On the Phelps ' farm 3 Major themes 4 Illustrations 5 Publication 's effect on literary climate 6 Reception 7 Controversy 8 Adaptations 8.1 Film 8.2 Television 8.3 Other 9 Related works 9.1 Literature 9.2 Music 9.3 Television 10 See also 11 Footnotes 12 Further reading 13 External links Characters Main article : List of Tom Sawyer characters In order of appearance : Huckleberry Finn ( `` Huck '' to his friends ) is a boy about `` thirteen or fourteen or along there '' years old. ( Chapter 17 ) He has been brought up by his father, the town drunk, and has a difficult time fitting into society. Widow Douglas is the kind woman who has taken Huck in after he helped save her from a violent home invasion. She tries her best to civilize Huck, believing it is her Christian duty. Miss Watson is the widow 's sister, a tough old spinster who also lives with them. She is fairly hard on Huck, causing him to resent her a good deal. Mark Twain may have drawn inspiration for this character from several people he knew in his life. Jim is Miss Watson 's physically large but mild - mannered slave. Huck becomes very close to Jim when they reunite after Jim flees Miss Watson 's household to seek refuge from slavery, and Huck and Jim become fellow travelers on the Mississippi River. Tom Sawyer is Huck 's best friend and peer, the main character of other Twain novels and the leader of the town boys in adventures. He is `` the best fighter and the smartest kid in town ''. `` Pap '' Finn, Huck 's father, a brutal alcoholic drifter. He resents Huck getting any kind of education. His only genuine interest in his son involves begging or extorting money to feed his alcohol addiction. Judith Loftus plays a small part in the novel -- being the kind and perceptive woman whom Huck talks to in order to find out about the search for Jim -- but many critics believe her to be the best drawn female character in the novel. The Grangerfords, an aristocratic Kentuckian family headed by the sexagenarian Colonel Saul Grangerford, take Huck in after he is separated from Jim on the Mississippi. Huck becomes close friends with the youngest male of the family, Buck Grangerford, who is Huck 's age. By the time Huck meets them, the Grangerfords have been engaged in an age - old blood feud with another local family, the Shepherdsons. The Duke and the King are two otherwise unnamed con artists whom Huck and Jim take aboard their raft just before the start of their Arkansas adventures. They pose as the long - lost Duke of Bridgewater and the long - dead Louis XVII of France in an attempt to over-awe Huck and Jim, who quickly come to recognize them for what they are, but cynically pretend to accept their claims to avoid conflict. Doctor Robinson is the only man who recognizes that the King and Duke are phonies when they pretend to be British. He warns the town but they ignore him. Mary Jane, Joanna, and Susan Wilks are the three young nieces of their wealthy guardian, Peter Wilks, who has recently died. The duke and the king try to steal the inheritance left by Peter Wilks, by posing as Peter 's estranged brothers from England. Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas Phelps buy Jim from the `` Duke '' and the `` King ''. She is a loving, high - strung `` farmer 's wife '', and he a plodding old man, both farmer and preacher. Huck poses as their nephew, after he parts from the con men. Plot summary Huckleberry Finn, as depicted by E.W. Kemble in the original 1884 edition of the book In Missouri The story begins in fictional St. Petersburg, Missouri ( based on the actual town of Hannibal, Missouri ), on the shore of the Mississippi River `` forty to fifty years ago '' ( the novel having been published in 1884 ). Huckleberry `` Huck '' Finn ( the protagonist and first - person narrator ) and his friend, Thomas `` Tom '' Sawyer, have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their earlier adventures ( detailed in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ). Huck explains how he is placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her stringent sister, Miss Watson, are attempting to `` sivilize '' him and teach him religion. Finding civilized life confining, his spirits are raised somewhat when Tom Sawyer helps him to escape one night past Miss Watson 's slave Jim, to meet up with Tom 's gang of self - proclaimed `` robbers. '' Just as the gang 's activities begin to bore Huck, he is suddenly interrupted by the reappearance of his shiftless father, `` Pap '', an abusive alcoholic. Knowing that Pap would only spend the money on alcohol, Huck is successful in preventing Pap from acquiring his fortune ; however, Pap kidnaps Huck and leaves town with him. In Illinois and on Jackson 's Island Pap forcibly moves Huck to his isolated cabin in the woods along the Illinois shoreline. Because of Pap 's drunken violence and imprisonment of Huck inside the cabin, Huck, during one of his father 's absences, elaborately fakes his own death, escapes from the cabin, and sets off downriver. He settles comfortably, on Jackson 's Island. Here, Huck reunites with Jim, Miss Watson 's slave. Jim has also run away after he overheard Miss Watson planning to sell him `` down the river '' to presumably more brutal owners. Jim plans to make his way to the town of Cairo in Illinois, a free state, so that he can later buy the rest of his enslaved family 's freedom. At first, Huck is conflicted about the sin and crime of supporting a runaway slave, but as the two talk in depth and bond over their mutually held superstitions, Huck emotionally connects with Jim, who increasingly becomes Huck 's close friend and guardian. After heavy flooding on the river, the two find a raft ( which they keep ) as well as an entire house floating on the river. Entering the house to seek loot, Jim finds the naked body of a dead man lying on the floor, shot in the back. He prevents Huck from viewing the corpse. To find out the latest news in town, Huck dresses as a girl and enters the house of Judith Loftus, a woman new to the area. Huck learns from her about the news of his own supposed murder ; Pap was initially blamed, but since Jim ran away he is also a suspect and a reward for Jim 's capture has initiated a manhunt. Mrs. Loftus becomes increasingly suspicious that Huck is a boy, finally proving it by a series of tests. Once he is exposed, she nevertheless allows him to leave her home without commotion, not realizing that he is the allegedly murdered boy they have just been discussing. Huck returns to Jim to tell him the news and that a search party is coming to Jackson 's Island that very night. The two hastily load up the raft and depart. After a while, Huck and Jim come across a grounded steamship. Searching it, they stumble upon two thieves discussing murdering a third, but they flee before being noticed. They are later separated in a fog, making Jim intensely anxious, and when they reunite, Huck tricks Jim into thinking he dreamed the entire incident. Jim is not deceived for long, and is deeply hurt that his friend should have teased him so mercilessly. Huck becomes remorseful and apologizes to Jim, though his conscience troubles him about humbling himself to a black man. In Kentucky : the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons Traveling onward, Huck and Jim 's raft is struck by a passing steamship, again separating the two. Huck is given shelter on the Kentucky side of the river by the Grangerfords, an `` aristocratic '' family. He befriends Buck Grangerford, a boy about his age, and learns that the Grangerfords are engaged in a 30 - year blood feud against another family, the Shepherdsons. The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons go to the same church, which ironically preaches brotherly love. The vendetta finally comes to a head when Buck 's older sister elopes with a member of the Shepherdson clan. In the resulting conflict, all the Grangerford males from this branch of the family are shot and killed, including Buck, whose horrific murder Huck witnesses. He is immensely relieved to be reunited with Jim, who has since recovered and repaired the raft. In Arkansas : the duke and the king Near the Arkansas - Missouri - Tennessee border, Jim and Huck take two on - the - run grifters aboard the raft. The younger man, who is about thirty, introduces himself as the long - lost son of an English duke ( the Duke of Bridgewater ). The older one, about seventy, then trumps this outrageous claim by alleging that he himself is the Lost Dauphin, the son of Louis XVI and rightful King of France. The `` duke '' and `` king '' soon become permanent passengers on Jim and Huck 's raft, committing a series of confidence schemes upon unsuspecting locals all along their journey. To divert suspicions from the public away from Jim, they pose him as recaptured slave runaway, but later paint him up entirely blue and call him the `` Sick Arab '' so that he can move about the raft without bindings. On one occasion, the swindlers advertise a three - night engagement of a play called `` The Royal Nonesuch ''. The play turns out to be only a couple of minutes ' worth of an absurd, bawdy sham. On the afternoon of the first performance, a drunk called Boggs is shot dead by a gentleman named Colonel Sherburn ; a lynch mob forms to retaliate against Sherburn ; and Sherburn, surrounded at his home, disperses the mob by making a defiant speech describing how true lynching should be done. By the third night of `` The Royal Nonesuch '', the townspeople prepare for their revenge on the duke and king for their money - making scam, but the two cleverly skip town together with Huck and Jim just before the performance begins. In the next town, the two swindlers then impersonate brothers of Peter Wilks, a recently deceased man of property. To match accounts of Wilks 's brothers, the king attempts an English accent and the duke pretends to be a deaf - mute while starting to collect Wilks 's inheritance. Huck decides that Wilks 's three orphaned nieces, who treat Huck with kindness, do not deserve to be cheated thus and so he tries to retrieve for them the stolen inheritance. In a desperate moment, Huck is forced to hide the money in Wilks 's coffin, which is abruptly buried the next morning. The arrival of two new men who seem to be the real brothers throws everything into confusion, so that the townspeople decide to dig up the coffin in order to determine which are the true brothers, but, with everyone else distracted, Huck leaves for the raft, hoping to never see the duke and king again. Suddenly, though, the two villains return, much to Huck 's despair. When Huck is finally able to get away a second time, he finds to his horror that the swindlers have sold Jim away to a family that intends to return him to his proper owner for the reward. Defying his conscience and accepting the negative religious consequences he expects for his actions -- `` All right, then, I 'll go to hell ! '' -- Huck resolves to free Jim once and for all. On the Phelps ' farm Huck learns that Jim is being held at the plantation of Silas and Sally Phelps. The family 's nephew, Tom, is expected for a visit at the same time as Huck 's arrival, so Huck is mistaken for Tom and welcomed into their home. He plays along, hoping to find Jim 's location and free him ; in a surprising plot twist, it is revealed that the expected nephew is, in fact, Tom Sawyer. When Huck intercepts the real Tom Sawyer on the road and tells him everything, Tom decides to join Huck 's scheme, pretending to be his own younger half - brother, Sid, while Huck continues pretending to be Tom. In the meantime, Jim has told the family about the two grifters and the new plan for `` The Royal Nonesuch '', and so the townspeople capture the duke and king, who are then tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Rather than simply sneaking Jim out of the shed where he is being held, Tom develops an elaborate plan to free him, involving secret messages, a hidden tunnel, snakes in a shed, a rope ladder sent in Jim 's food, and other elements from adventure books he has read, including an anonymous note to the Phelps warning them of the whole scheme. During the actual escape and resulting pursuit, Tom is shot in the leg, while Jim remains by his side, risking recapture rather than completing his escape alone. Although a local doctor admires Jim 's decency, he has Jim arrested in his sleep and returned to the Phelps. After this, events quickly resolve themselves. Tom 's Aunt Polly arrives and reveals Huck and Tom 's true identities to the Phelps family. Jim is revealed to be a free man : Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will, but Tom ( who already knew this ) chose not to reveal this information to Huck so that he could come up with an artful rescue plan for Jim. Jim tells Huck that Huck 's father ( Pap Finn ) has been dead for some time ( he was the dead man they found earlier in the floating house ), and so Huck may now return safely to St. Petersburg. Huck is rewarded six hundred dollars for saving the aunts from the con men. Huck gives most of it to Jim for his family. Huck declares that he is quite glad to be done writing his story, and despite Sally 's plans to adopt and civilize him, he intends to flee west to Indian Territory. Major themes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn explores themes of race and identity. A complexity exists concerning Jim 's character. While some scholars point out that Jim is good - hearted, moral, and he is not unintelligent ( in contrast to several of the more negatively depicted white characters ), others have criticized the novel as racist, citing the use of the word `` nigger '' and emphasizing the stereotypically `` comic '' treatment of Jim 's lack of education, superstition and ignorance. Throughout the story, Huck is in moral conflict with the received values of the society in which he lives, and while he is unable to consciously refute those values even in his thoughts, he makes a moral choice based on his own valuation of Jim 's friendship and Jim 's human worth, a decision in direct opposition to the things he has been taught. Mark Twain, in his lecture notes, proposes that `` a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill - trained conscience '' and goes on to describe the novel as ``... a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat ''. To highlight the hypocrisy required to condone slavery within an ostensibly moral system, Twain has Huck 's father enslave his son, isolate him, and beat him. When Huck escapes -- which anyone would agree was the right thing to do -- he then immediately encounters Jim `` illegally '' doing the same thing. The treatment both of them receive are radically different especially with an encounter with Mrs. Judith Loftus who takes pity on who she presumes to be a runaway apprentice, Huck, yet boasts about her husband sending the hounds after a runaway slave, Jim. Some scholars discuss Huck 's own character, and the novel itself, in the context of its relation to African - American culture as a whole. John Alberti quotes Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who writes in her 1990s book Was Huck Black ? : Mark Twain and African - American Voices, `` by limiting their field of inquiry to the periphery, '' white scholars `` have missed the ways in which African - American voices shaped Twain 's creative imagination at its core. '' It is suggested that the character of Huckleberry Finn illustrates the correlation, and even interrelatedness, between white and black culture in the United States. Illustrations The original illustrations were done by E.W. Kemble, at the time a young artist working for Life magazine. Kemble was hand - picked by Twain, who admired his work. Hearn suggests that Twain and Kemble had a similar skill, writing that : Whatever he may have lacked in technical grace... Kemble shared with the greatest illustrators the ability to give even the minor individual in a text his own distinct visual personality ; just as Twain so deftly defined a full - rounded character in a few phrases, so too did Kemble depict with a few strokes of his pen that same entire personage. As Kemble could afford only one model, most of his illustrations produced for the book were done by guesswork. When the novel was published, the illustrations were praised even as the novel was harshly criticized. E.W. Kemble produced another set of illustrations for Harper 's and the American Publishing Company in 1898 and 1899 after Twain lost the copyright. Publication 's effect on literary climate Mark Twain Twain initially conceived of the work as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that would follow Huckleberry Finn through adulthood. Beginning with a few pages he had removed from the earlier novel, Twain began work on a manuscript he originally titled Huckleberry Finn 's Autobiography. Twain worked on the manuscript off and on for the next several years, ultimately abandoning his original plan of following Huck 's development into adulthood. He appeared to have lost interest in the manuscript while it was in progress, and set it aside for several years. After making a trip down the Hudson River, Twain returned to his work on the novel. Upon completion, the novel 's title closely paralleled its predecessor 's : Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( Tom Sawyer 's Comrade ). Mark Twain composed the story in pen on notepaper between 1876 and 1883. Paul Needham, who supervised the authentication of the manuscript for Sotheby 's books and manuscripts department in New York in 1991, stated, `` What you see is ( Clemens ' ) attempt to move away from pure literary writing to dialect writing ''. For example, Twain revised the opening line of Huck Finn three times. He initially wrote, `` You will not know about me '', which he changed to, `` You do not know about me '', before settling on the final version, `` You do n't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of ' The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ' ; but that ai n't no matter. '' The revisions also show how Twain reworked his material to strengthen the characters of Huck and Jim, as well as his sensitivity to the then - current debate over literacy and voting. A later version was the first typewritten manuscript delivered to a printer. Demand for the book spread outside of the United States. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was eventually published on December 10, 1884, in Canada and the United Kingdom, and on February 18, 1885, in the United States. The illustration on page 283 became a point of issue after an engraver, whose identity was never discovered, made a last - minute addition to the printing plate of Kemble 's picture of old Silas Phelps, which drew attention to Phelps ' groin. Thirty thousand copies of the book had been printed before the obscenity was discovered. A new plate was made to correct the illustration and repair the existing copies. In 1885, the Buffalo Public Library 's curator, James Fraser Gluck, approached Twain to donate the manuscript to the library. Twain did so. Later it was believed that half of the pages had been misplaced by the printer. In 1991, the missing first half turned up in a steamer trunk owned by descendants of Gluck 's. The library successfully claimed possession and, in 1994, opened the Mark Twain Room to showcase the treasure. In relation to the literary climate at the time of the book 's publication in 1885, Henry Nash Smith describes the importance of Mark Twain 's already established reputation as a `` professional humorist '', having already published over a dozen other works. Smith suggests that while the `` dismantling of the decadent Romanticism of the later nineteenth century was a necessary operation, '' Adventures of Huckleberry Finn illustrated `` previously inaccessible resources of imaginative power, but also made vernacular language, with its new sources of pleasure and new energy, available for American prose and poetry in the twentieth century. '' Reception In this scene illustrated by E.W. Kemble, Jim has given Huck up for dead and when he reappears thinks he must be a ghost. While it was clear that the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was controversial from the outset, Norman Mailer, writing in The New York Times in 1984, concluded that Twain 's novel was not initially `` too unpleasantly regarded. '' In fact, Mailer writes : `` the critical climate could hardly anticipate T.S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway 's encomiums 50 years later, '' reviews that would remain longstanding in the American consciousness. Alberti suggests that the academic establishment responded to the book 's challenges both dismissively and with confusion. During Twain 's time, and today, defenders of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn `` lump all nonacademic critics of the book together as extremists and ' censors ' thus equating the complaints about the book 's ' coarseness ' from the genteel bourgeois trustees of the Concord Public Library in the 1880s with more recent objections based on race and civil rights. '' Upon issue of the American edition in 1885 several libraries banned it from their shelves. The early criticism focused on what was perceived as the book 's crudeness. One incident was recounted in the newspaper the Boston Transcript : The Concord ( Mass. ) Public Library committee has decided to exclude Mark Twain 's latest book from the library. One member of the committee says that, while he does not wish to call it immoral, he thinks it contains but little humor, and that of a very coarse type. He regards it as the veriest trash. The library and the other members of the committee entertain similar views, characterizing it as rough, coarse, and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people. Writer Louisa May Alcott criticized the book 's publication as well, saying that if Twain `` ( could not ) think of something better to tell our pure - minded lads and lasses he had best stop writing for them ''. Twain later remarked to his editor, `` Apparently, the Concord library has condemned Huck as ' trash and only suitable for the slums. ' This will sell us another twenty - five thousand copies for sure ! '' In 1905, New York 's Brooklyn Public Library also banned the book due to `` bad word choice '' and Huck 's having `` not only itched but scratched '' within the novel, which was considered obscene. When asked by a Brooklyn librarian about the situation, Twain sardonically replied : I am greatly troubled by what you say. I wrote ' Tom Sawyer ' & ' Huck Finn ' for adults exclusively, & it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know this by my own experience, & to this day I cherish an unappeased bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again on this side of the grave. Many subsequent critics, Ernest Hemingway among them, have deprecated the final chapters, claiming the book `` devolves into little more than minstrel - show satire and broad comedy '' after Jim is detained. Although Hemingway declared, `` All modern American literature comes from '' Huck Finn, and hailed it as `` the best book we 've had '', he cautioned, `` If you must read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys ( sic ). That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. '' Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Powers states in his Twain biography ( Mark Twain : A Life ) that `` Huckleberry Finn endures as a consensus masterpiece despite these final chapters '', in which Tom Sawyer leads Huck through elaborate machinations to rescue Jim. Controversy In his introduction to The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, Michael Patrick Hearn writes that Twain `` could be uninhibitedly vulgar '', and quotes critic William Dean Howells, a Twain contemporary, who wrote that the author 's `` humor was not for most women ''. However, Hearn continues by explaining that `` the reticent Howells found nothing in the proofs of Huckleberry Finn so offensive that it needed to be struck out ''. Much of modern scholarship of Huckleberry Finn has focused on its treatment of race. Many Twain scholars have argued that the book, by humanizing Jim and exposing the fallacies of the racist assumptions of slavery, is an attack on racism. Others have argued that the book falls short on this score, especially in its depiction of Jim. According to Professor Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia, Twain was unable to fully rise above the stereotypes of black people that white readers of his era expected and enjoyed, and, therefore, resorted to minstrel show - style comedy to provide humor at Jim 's expense, and ended up confirming rather than challenging late - 19th century racist stereotypes. In one instance, the controversy caused a drastically altered interpretation of the text : in 1955, CBS tried to avoid controversial material in a televised version of the book, by deleting all mention of slavery and omitting the character of Jim entirely. Because of this controversy over whether Huckleberry Finn is racist or anti-racist, and because the word `` nigger '' is frequently used in the novel ( a commonly used word in Twain 's time which has since become vulgar and taboo ), many have questioned the appropriateness of teaching the book in the U.S. public school system -- this questioning of the word `` nigger '' is illustrated by a school administrator of Virginia in 1982 calling the novel the `` most grotesque example of racism I 've ever seen in my life ''. According to the American Library Association, Huckleberry Finn was the fifth most frequently challenged book in the United States during the 1990s. There have been several more recent cases involving protests for the banning of the novel. In 2003, high school student Calista Phair and her grandmother, Beatrice Clark, in Renton, Washington, proposed banning the book from classroom learning in the Renton School District, though not from any public libraries, because of the word `` nigger ''. Clark filed a request with the school district in response to the required reading of the book, asking for the novel to be removed from the English curriculum. The two curriculum committees that considered her request eventually decided to keep the novel on the 11th grade curriculum, though they suspended it until a panel had time to review the novel and set a specific teaching procedure for the novel 's controversial topics. In 2009, a Washington state high school teacher called for the removal of the novel from a school curriculum. The teacher, John Foley, called for replacing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with a more modern novel. In an opinion column that Foley wrote in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, he states that all `` novels that use the ' N - word ' repeatedly need to go. '' He states that teaching the novel is not only unnecessary, but difficult due to the offensive language within the novel with many students becoming uncomfortable at `` just hear ( ing ) the N - word. '' He views this change as `` common sense, '' with Obama 's election into office as a sign that Americans `` are ready for a change, '' and that by removing these books from the reading lists, they would be following this change. Publishers of the book have made their own attempts at easing the controversy by way of less - coarse publications. A 2011 edition of the book, published by NewSouth Books, replaced the word `` nigger '' with `` slave '' ( although being incorrectly addressed to a freed man ) and did not use the term `` Injun. '' Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben said he hoped the edition would be more friendly for use in classrooms, rather than have the work banned outright from classroom reading lists due to its language. According to publisher Suzanne La Rosa `` At NewSouth, we saw the value in an edition that would help the works find new readers. If the publication sparks good debate about how language impacts learning or about the nature of censorship or the way in which racial slurs exercise their baneful influence, then our mission in publishing this new edition of Twain 's works will be more emphatically fulfilled. '' Another scholar, Thomas Wortham, criticized the changes, saying the new edition `` does n't challenge children to ask, ' Why would a child like Huck use such reprehensible language ? ' '' In 2016, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was removed from a public school district in Virginia, along with the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, due to their use of racial slurs. Responses to this include the publishing of The Hipster Huckleberry Finn which is an edition with the word `` nigger '' replaced with the word `` hipster ''. The book 's description includes this statement `` Thanks to editor Richard Grayson, the adventures of Huckleberry Finn are now neither offensive nor uncool. '' Adaptations This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( January 2017 ) Film Huck and Tom ( 1918 silent ) by Famous Players - Lasky ; directed by William Desmond Taylor ; starring Jack Pickford as Tom, Robert Gordon as Huck and Clara Horton as Becky Huckleberry Finn ( 1920 silent ) by Famous Players - Lasky ; directed by William Desmond Taylor ; starring Lewis Sargent as Huck, Gordon Griffith as Tom and Thelma Salter as Becky Huckleberry Finn ( 1931 ) by Paramount Pictures ; directed by Norman Taurog ; starring Jackie Coogan as Tom, Junior Durkin as Huck, and Mitzi Green as Becky The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1939 ) by MGM ; directed by Richard Thorpe ; starring Mickey Rooney as Huck The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1955 ), starring Thomas Mitchell and John Carradine The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1960 ), directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Eddie Hodges and Archie Moore Hopelessly Lost ( 1972 ), a Soviet film Huckleberry Finn ( 1974 ), a musical film Huckleberry Finn ( 1975 ), an ABC movie of the week with Ron Howard as Huck Finn The Adventures of Con Sawyer and Hucklemary Finn ( 1985 ), an ABC movie of the week with Drew Barrymore as Con Sawyer The Adventures of Huck Finn ( 1993 ), starring Elijah Wood and Courtney B. Vance Tom and Huck ( 1995 ), starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Tom and Brad Renfro as Huck Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry 's Big River Rescue ( 2008 ), a VeggieTales parody Die Abenteuer des Huck Finn ( 2012 ), a German film starring Leon Seidel and directed by Hermine Huntgeburth Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn ( 2014 ), starring Joel Courtney as Tom Sawyer, Jake T. Austin as Huckleberry Finn, Katherine McNamara as Becky Thatcher Band of Robbers ( 2015 ), an American crime comedy written and directed by the Nee Brothers Television Huckleberry no Bōken, a 1976 Japanese anime with 26 episodes Huckleberry Finn and His Friends, a 1979 series starring Ian Tracey Huckleberry Finn Monogatari ( ハックルベリー ・ フィン 物語 ), a 1994 Japanese anime with 26 episodes, produced by NHK Other The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1973 ), by Robert James Dixson -- a simplified version Big River : The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a 1985 Broadway musical with lyrics and music by Roger Miller Related works Literature Finn : A Novel ( 2007 ), by Jon Clinch -- a novel about Huck 's father, Pap Finn Huck Out West ( 2017 ), by Robert Coover -- continues Huck 's and Tom 's adventures during the 1860s and 1870s The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1983 ) by Greg Matthews -- continues Huck 's and Jim 's adventures as they `` light out for the territory '' and wind up in the throes of the California Gold Rush of 1849 My Jim ( 2005 ), by Nancy Rawles -- a novel narrated largely by Sadie, Jim 's enslaved wife Music Mississippi Suite ( 1926 ), by Ferde Grofe : the second movement is a lighthearted whimsical piece entitled `` Huckleberry Finn '' Huckleberry Finn EP ( 2009 ), comprising five songs from Kurt Weill 's unfinished musical, by Duke Special Television The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a 1968 children 's series produced by Hanna - Barbera combining live - action and animation See also Mark Twain bibliography List of films featuring slavery The Story of a Bad Boy Footnotes Jump up ^ `` Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( Tom Sawyer 's comrade )... ''. Jump up ^ Twain, Mark. `` Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( Tom Sawyer 's comrade )... - Full View -- HathiTrust Digital Library -- HathiTrust Digital Library ''. HathiTrust. Jump up ^ Jacob O'Leary, `` Critical Annotation of `` Minstrel Shackles and Nineteenth Century ' Liberality ' in Huckleberry Finn '' ( Fredrick Woodard and Donnarae MacCann ), '' Wiki Service, University of Iowa, last modified February 11, 2012, accessed April 12, 2012 Archived March 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. ^ Jump up to : Hill, Richard ( 2002 ). Mark Twain Among The Scholars : Reconsidering Contemporary Twain Criticism. SJK Publishing Industries, Inc. pp. 67 -- 90. ISBN 978 - 0 - 87875 - 527 - 1. Jump up ^ Victor A. Doyno ( 1991 ). Writing Huck Finn : Mark Twain 's creative process. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 191. Jump up ^ 2. Jacob O'Leary, `` Critical Annotation of `` Minstrel Shackles and Nineteenth Century ' Liberality ' in Huckleberry Finn '' ( Fredrick Woodard and Donnarae MacCann ), '' Wiki Service, University of Iowa, last modified February 11, 2012, accessed April 12, 2012 Archived March 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Fredrick Woodard and Donnarae MacCann, `` Minstrel Shackles and Nineteenth Century `` Liberality '' in Huckleberry Finn, '' in Satire or evasion ? : Black perspectives on Huckleberry Finn, eds. James S. Leonard, Thomas A. Tenney, and Thadious M. Davis ( Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 1992 ). Jump up ^ Victor A. Doyno ( 1991 ). Writing Huck Finn : Mark Twain 's Creative Process. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania. Jump up ^ Barbara Foley, `` Satire Or Evasion ? Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn '' by James S. Leonard ; Thomas A. Tenney ; Thadious Davis ; `` The Word in Black and White : Reading `` Race '' in American Literature, 1638 -- 1867 by Dana D. Nelson, '' Modern Philology 92.3 ( 1995 ) : 379 -- 85, JSTOR, accessed April 16, 2012 ^ Jump up to : John Alberti, `` The Nigger Huck : Race, Identity, and the Teaching of Huckleberry Finn, '' College English 57.8 ( 1995 ) : 919 -- 37, JSTOR, last modified February 2012 Jump up ^ Twain, Mark ( Samuel L. Clemens ) ( 2001 ). The Annotated Huckleberry Finn : Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( Tom Sawyer 's comrade ). Introduction, notes, and bibliography by Michael Patrick Hearn ( 1st ed. ). New York, NY ( u.a. ) : Norton. pp. xlv -- xlvi. ISBN 0 - 393 - 02039 - 8. Jump up ^ Cope, Virginia H. `` Mark Twain 's Huckleberry Finn : Text, Illustrations, and Early Reviews ''. University of Virginia Library. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2012. Jump up ^ Mark Twain and Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn : Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( New York : Clarkson N. Potter, 1981 ). Jump up ^ Philip Young, Ernest Hemingway : A Reconsideration, ( University Park : Pennsylvania State UP, 1966 ), 212. Jump up ^ William Baker, `` Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, '' The Antioch Review,. 54.3 ( 1996 ) : 364 -- 65, JSTOR, accessed April 16, 2012 Jump up ^ Rita Reif, `` First Half of ' Huck Finn, ' in Twain 's Hand, Is Found, '' The New York Times, last modified February 17, 1991, accessed April 12, 2012 Jump up ^ William Baker, `` Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain '' Jump up ^ `` Mark Twain -- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( sheep ) First Edition -- Bauman Rare Books ''. Jump up ^ Walter Blair, Mark Twain & Huck Finn ( Berkeley : University of California, 1960 ). Jump up ^ `` All Modern Literature Comes from One Book by Mark Twain '' Jump up ^ Rita Reif, `` ANTIQUES ; How ' Huck Finn ' Was Rescued, '' The New York Times, last modified March 17, 1991, accessed April 12, 2012 Jump up ^ Henry N. Smith, `` The Publication of `` Huckleberry Finn '' : A Centennial Retrospect, '' Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 37.5 ( 1984 ) : 18 -- 40, JSTOR, accessed February 21, 2012 Jump up ^ Norman Mailer, `` Huckleberry Finn, Alive at 100, '' The New York Times, last modified December 9, 1984, accessed April 12, 2012 ^ Jump up to : Leonard, James S. ; Thomas A. Tenney ; Thadious M. Davis ( December 1992 ). Satire or Evasion ? : Black Perspectives on Huckleberry Finn. Duke University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8223 - 1174 - 4. Jump up ^ Shelley Fisher Fishkin, `` Was Huck Black ? : Mark Twain and African - American Voices '' ( New York : Oxford UP, 1993 ) 115. Jump up ^ Brown, Robert. `` One Hundred Years of Huck Finn ''. American Heritage Magazine. AmericanHeritage.com. Retrieved November 8, 2010. If Mr. Clemens can not think of something better to tell our pure - minded lads and lasses he had best stop writing for them. Jump up ^ `` One Hundred Years Of Huck Finn -- AMERICAN HERITAGE ''. www.americanheritage.com. Jump up ^ Marjorie Kehe, `` The ' n ' - word Gone from Huck Finn -- What Would Mark Twain Say ? A New Expurgated Edition of ' Huckleberry Finn ' Has Got Some Twain Scholars up in Arms, '' The Christian Science Monitor, last modified January 5, 2011, accessed April 12, 2012 Jump up ^ Nick Gillespie, `` Mark Twain vs. Tom Sawyer : The Bold Deconstruction of a National Icon, '' Reason, last modified February 2006, accessed April 12, 2012 Jump up ^ Ernest Hemingway ( 1935 ). Green Hills of Africa. New York : Scribner,. p. 22. Jump up ^ Norman Mailer, `` Huckleberry Finn, Alive at 100 '' Jump up ^ Ron Powers ( 2005 ). Mark Twain : A Life. New York : FreePress. pp. 476 -- 77. Jump up ^ Mark Twain and Michael Patrick Hearn, 8. Jump up ^ For example, Shelley Fisher Fishin, Lighting out for the Territory : Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture ( New York : Oxford University Press, 1997 ). Jump up ^ Stephen Railton, `` Jim and Mark Twain : What Do Dey Stan ' For ?, '' The Virginia Quarterly Review, last modified 1987, accessed April 12, 2012 Jump up ^ Alex Sharp, `` Student Edition of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Is Censored by Editor '' Jump up ^ Robert B. Brown, `` One Hundred Years of Huck Finn '' Jump up ^ `` 100 most frequently challenged books : 1990 -- 1999 ''. Jump up ^ Gregory Roberts, `` ' Huck Finn ' a Masterpiece -- or an Insult, '' Seattle Post-Intelligencer, last modified November 25, 2003, accessed April 12, 2012 Jump up ^ `` Wash. teacher calls for ' Huck Finn ' ban ''. UPI. January 19, 2009. Jump up ^ John Foley, `` Guest Columnist : Time to Update Schools ' Reading Lists, '' Seattle Post-Intelligencer, last modified January 5, 2009, accessed April 13, 2012 Jump up ^ `` New Edition Of ' Huckleberry Finn ' Will Eliminate Offensive Words ''. NPR.org. January 4, 2011. Jump up ^ `` A word about the NewSouth edition of Mark Twain 's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn -- NewSouth Books ''. Jump up ^ `` New Editions of Mark Twain Novels to Remove Racial Slurs, '' Herald Sun, last modified January 4, 2011, accessed April 16, 2012 Jump up ^ Allen, Nick ( 5 December 2016 ). `` To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn banned from schools in Virginia for racism ''. Telegraph. Retrieved 29 December 2016. Jump up ^ `` Books suspended by Va. school for racial slurs ''. CBS News. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2016. Jump up ^ Joe Coscarelli, `` Hipster Huckleberry Finn Solves Censorship Debate by Replacing `` N - Word '' With `` H - Word '', '' The Village Voice, last modified January 7, 2011, accessed April 13, 2012 Jump up ^ IMDB, Huckleberry Finn ( 1920 ) ^ Jump up to : wes - connors ( February 29, 1920 ). `` Huckleberry Finn ( 1920 ) ''. IMDb. Jump up ^ IMDB, Huckleberry Finn ( 1931 ) Jump up ^ Matthews, Greg ( May 28, 1983 ). `` The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''. Crown Publishers -- via Google Books. Jump up ^ LeClair, Tom. `` A Reconstruction and a Sequel. '' Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, September 25, 1983. Jump up ^ Kirby, David. `` Energetic Sequel to ' Huckleberry Finn ' is Faithful to Original. '' The Christian Science Monitor, October 11, 1983. Jump up ^ Kirkus Review : The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews. Kirkus, September 9, 1983. Further reading Andrew Levy, Huck Finn 's America : Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece. New York : Simon and Schuster, 2015. External links Wikisource has original text related to this article : Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with all the original illustrations -- Free Online -- Mark Twain Project ( printed 2003 University of California Press, online 2009 MTPO ) Rich editorial material accompanies text, including detailed historical notes, glossaries, maps, and documentary appendixes, which record the author 's revisions as well as unauthorized textual variations. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Digitized copy of the first American edition from Internet Archive ( 1885 ). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at Project Gutenberg `` Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''. Archived from the original on September 22, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2010. Cross-browser compatible HTML edition `` The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''. SparkNotes. Archived from the original on September 19, 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2007. `` The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Study Guide and Lesson Plan ''. GradeSaver. Archived from the original on March 31, 2008. Retrieved April 9, 2008. `` Huckleberry Finn ''. CliffsNotes. Retrieved September 21, 2007. `` Huck Finn in Context : A Teaching Guide ''. PBS.org. Archived from the original on September 14, 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2007. `` Special Collections : Mark Twain Room ( Houses original manuscript of Huckleberry Finn ) ''. Libraries of Buffalo & Erie County. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2007. Smiley, Jane ( January 1996 ). `` Say It Ai n't So, Huck : Second thoughts on Mark Twain 's `` masterpiece '' '' ( PDF ). Harper 's Magazine. 292 ( 1748 ) : 61 --. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn public domain audiobook at LibriVox Mark Twain Bibliography Novels The Gilded Age : A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur 's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse 's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss Short stories `` The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County '' `` Cannibalism in the Cars '' `` General Washington 's Negro Body - Servant '' `` My Late Senatorial Secretaryship '' `` Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls '' `` A Literary Nightmare '' `` A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage '' `` The Invalid 's Story '' `` The Great Revolution in Pitcairn '' `` 1601 '' `` The Stolen White Elephant '' `` Luck '' `` The Million Pound Bank Note '' `` Those Extraordinary Twins '' `` The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg '' `` A Dog 's Tale '' `` Extracts from Adam 's Diary '' `` The War Prayer '' `` Eve 's Diary '' `` Captain Stormfield 's Visit to Heaven '' `` My Platonic Sweetheart '' `` The Private Life of Adam and Eve '' `` Advice to Little Girls '' `` The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine '' Short story collections Mark Twain 's ( Burlesque ) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime Punch, Brothers, Punch ! and Other Sketches Mark Twain 's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £ 1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories The Curious Republic of Gondour and Other Whimsical Sketches The Washoe Giant in San Francisco Plays Is He Dead ? Colonel Sellers Colonel Sellers as a Scientist Essays `` The Awful German Language '' `` Advice to Youth '' `` English As She Is Taught '' How to Tell a Story and Other Essays `` Concerning the Jews '' `` A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth '' `` To the Person Sitting in Darkness '' `` To My Missionary Critics '' `` Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany '' `` What Is Man ? '' `` Queen Victoria 's Jubilee '' `` The United States of Lyncherdom '' `` Fenimore Cooper 's Literary Offenses '' Letters from the Earth Non-fiction Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead ? Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain 's Notebook King Leopold 's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Mark Twain 's Weapons of Satire The Bible According to Mark Twain Christian Science Speeches `` Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism '' `` Votes for Women '' Places and events Conception Birthplace Historic Site State Park Boyhood Home and Museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut Stormfield Publisher, Ulysses S. Grant 's memoirs Twain -- Ament indemnities controversy In popular culture Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Tonight ! The Adventures of Mark Twain ( 1985 film ) Mark Twain : The Musical Family Olivia Langdon Clemens ( wife ) Susy Clemens ( daughter ) Clara Clemens ( daughter ) Jean Clemens ( daughter ) John M. Clemens ( father ) Orion Clemens ( brother ) Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Characters Huckleberry Finn Tom Sawyer Jim Books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ( 1876 ) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1884 ) Tom Sawyer Abroad ( 1894 ) Tom Sawyer, Detective ( 1896 ) Schoolhouse Hill ( 1916 ) Film Tom Sawyer ( 1907 ) Tom Sawyer ( 1917 ) Huck and Tom ( 1918 ) Huckleberry Finn ( 1920 ) Tom Sawyer ( 1930 ) Huckleberry Finn ( 1931 ) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ( 1938 ) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1939 ) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1960 ) Hopelessly Lost ( 1973 ) Tom Sawyer ( 1973 ) Huckleberry Finn ( 1974 ) Huckleberry Finn ( 1975 ) The Adventures of Huck Finn ( 1993 ) Tom and Huck ( 1995 ) Tom Sawyer ( 2000 ) Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn ( 2014 ) Television The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1968 ) Huckleberry no Bōken ( 1976 ) Huckleberry Finn and His Friends ( 1979 ) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ( 1980 ) Back to Hannibal : The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn ( 1990 ) Video games The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ( 1989 ) Square 's Tom Sawyer ( 1989 ) Stage Big River The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ( musical ) Other Huckleberry Finn ( EP ) VIAF : 178806136 LCCN : n79132705 GND : 4311319 - 9 SUDOC : 028556763 BNF : cb120369031 ( data ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn&oldid=804809929 '' Categories : 1884 American novels Adventure novels American adventure novels American children 's novels American novels adapted into films American novels adapted into plays Censorship in the arts Chatto & Windus books Fiction with unreliable narrators Novels about American slavery Novels adapted into television programs Novels by Mark Twain Novels set in Arkansas Novels set in Missouri Novels set in the 19th century Picaresque novels Works about racism 1880s children 's books Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Use mdy dates from January 2012 Articles that link to Wikisource All articles with failed verification Articles with failed verification from October 2017 Articles needing additional references from January 2017 All articles needing additional references Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with LibriVox links Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikisource Alemannisch Azərbaycanca বাংলা Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Кыргызча Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Polski Português Română Runa Simi Русский Scots Simple English Slovenčina Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 11 October 2017, at 08 : 42. 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Question: what was first tom sawyer or huck finn
Answer: Tom Sawyer