num_pages: 292
description: "
  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 is the only one of Mark Twain's various books which can be called a masterpiece. I do not suggest that it is his only book of permanent interest; but it is the only one in which his genius is completely realized, and the only one which creates its own category." T. S. EliotHuckleberry Finn, rebel against school and church, casual inheritor of gold treasure, rafter of the Mississippi, and savior of Jim the runaway slave, is the archetypical American maverick.Fleeing the respectable society that wants to "sivilize" him, Huck Finn shoves off with Jim on a rhapsodic raft journey down the Mississippi River. The two bind themselves to one another, becoming intimate friends and agreeing "there warn't no home like a raft, after all. 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."As Huck learns about love, responsibility, and morality, the trip becomes a metaphoric voyage through his own soul, culminating in the glorious moment when he decides to "go to hell" rather than return Jim to slavery.Mark Twain defined classic as "a book which people praise and don't read"; Huckleberry Finn is a happy exception to his own rule. Twain's mastery of dialect, coupled with his famous wit, has made Adventures of Huckleberry Finn one of the most loved and distinctly American classics ever written. (front flap)
language: English
title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
titlecomplete: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
characters: Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain, Jim Upton, Huckleberry Finn
genres: Classics, Adventure, Young Adult, Novels, High School, School, Read For School, Historical Fiction, Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 1248898
places: Missouri, St. Petersburg, Missouri, Hannibal, Missouri, Mississippi River, The United States of America
series: Adventures of Tom and Huck
publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics