Customer Reviews

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : An Authoritative Text Contexts and Sources Criticism (Norton Critical Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mark Twain's 1885 novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," has had a long history, during which it has been and still is both reviled and celebrated. Essentially the story of the picaresque travels and adventures of a young Missouri boy and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, in 1840's America. Taking cues from books like "Don Quixote" and Jonathan Swift's works, and a fraught relationship to Sir Walter Scott's historical romances and those of his protege, James Fenimore Cooper, Twain constructs a masterful first person narrative, through the eyes of 14 year old Huckleberry and a profound and hilarious satire on American culture.

"Huckleberry Finn" begins in tension - Huckleberry's fortune and wardship with the well-meaning widow Douglas has him in a bind. The widow wants to 'sivilize' him, taking him out of the happy go lucky, easy going lifestyle he loves, while his fortune of six thousand dollars has him living in perpetual anxiety of his father, a violent drunkard whose absence only makes Huck more anxious about his return. When Huck's pap does return, sure enough, Huck is remanded, more or less, to Pap's custody, and kept prisoner in a secluded cabin. Though he is no longer being 'sivilized,' his time with Pap becomes more and more tense and lonely, driving Huck to stage his own death and run away from Pap and from civilization. Early in his escape, on a small island in the Mississippi River, he meets Jim, a slave from his town of St. Petersburg, who has run away, planning to raise money in the north to buy his family out of slavery. Together, Jim and Huck form a friendship that will take them up and down and all around the Mississippi River.

"Huckleberry Finn" deals with a great many social issues, and none more interestingly than with conventional morality. With Huck, he effectively creates an outside position from which to view American culture as he sees it, with all of its pretentions and faults. Huck doesn't put much stock in widow Douglass' or Miss Watson's strictly defined notions of religion or morality - throughout the novel, we see him in constant conflict with himself over the fine line between what is considered right and wrong, and what is accepted as such. Huck's inner negotiations with prayer and morality, good and evil, are at the heart of the novel. His post-Emersonian, proto-Nietzschean manner of dealing with himself and his relationship to society is fascinating and compelling. His relationship with the runaway slave Jim, of course, is also a focal point of the novel - the ways in which Jim and Huck depend on and care for each other is both moving and of course, socially and politically suggestive and significant, especially in the historical context of the novel, both the setting, prior to the Civil War, and its published era, at the tail end of Reconstruction. Those who would be offended by racial epithets in common parlance during this time period would be advised to take historical context into account before railing against the novel's racial politics - if one gets unduly caught up in nitpicking such things, one falls into the trap of the satire, become a target in the process.

As satire or black comedy, "Huckleberry Finn" has at every moment the ability to make us laugh out loud at ourselves and at the situations in the novel - from the fraudulent actions of the King and the Duke, to Tom Sawyer's needlessly elaborate scheme to free Jim from slavery, to well-born cultured families feuding, to all the cross-dressing that goes on in the novel (and there is a lot of it!). Again, though, as black comedy, we may often catch ourselves laughing, then wondering, hey, that isn't very funny - this is the brilliance of Twain's artistic achievement; to make us laugh while looking critically at ourselves. A book that is uniquely American, Twain's humour, wit, and style contribute to give us a look at both Antebellum and post-Reconstruction America through the eyes of innocence and experience, to see how far the nation had come since the days of Washington, and how far it still had (and has) to go.

This 1998 Norton Critical Third edition of "Huckleberry Finn" is truly amazing. It restores the entire text from the manuscript, including among other things, the "Raftsman's episode" and all of the original illustrations. The supplementary materials in this edition are top-shelf also, with excerpts covering the controversy surrounding the novel, from its publication to the present. The critical selections are excellent as well, especially the incisive and yet startlingly personal essays by T.S. Eliot and Toni Morrison. This is probably the best current edition out there of this tremendous, and tremendously complicated American classic.

A subject of controversy today, as it has been since its publication, Huckleberry Finn is by any measure, despite obvious flaws, one of the great works of American Literature. Much confusion surrounds the interpretation of Twain's story, mostly because of the presence of Jim, who was one of the first multi-dimensional black characters in all of fiction. There has been a resulting tendency to grant him primacy of place in analysis of the novel and to read it as a statement, pro or con, about Slavery. This is really not the appropriate way to understand the story. Jim is obviously vital, but his story is secondary, or at least only complimentary, to that of Huck himself. For our purposes, we'll try looking at the novel as if Huck was the central character, which of course he is, a fact which would apparently surprise most modern critics.

Approached in this way, we can see that, far from being an aberrational instant of a major popular author tackling the race question, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn instead falls directly into the mainstream of American Literature, with clear antecedents in The Last of the Mohicans and Moby Dick and obvious successors in everything from the Western to the hard-boiled detective story and most directly in works like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Cool Hand Luke. If we look at just the novels named above, we find that they all share the same central theme--dissatisfaction with the secure but restrictive clutches of "civilization" and the desire for freedom. Each of them is about men who have escaped or are trying to escape from some form of civil society, from some system that denies them liberty.

This is particularly important in the case of Huck Finn because, while academics view it strictly through the lens of Jim's escape from Slavery, the core of the novel is Huck's dash for freedom. Indeed, while Twain is often criticized for the elaborate scheme that Tom and Huck develop to free Jim at the end of the novel--criticized because it turns his state of slavery into a joke and a source of amusement for the boys--the critics miss the point that it is Huck who ultimately ends up reenslaved. This is why the story concludes with his famous vow:

I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can't stand it. I been there before.

I think you've got to grant Twain the benefit of the doubt here and assume that he was not merely setting up a sequel. Presumably we can take this statement seriously and it would appear to reveal the entire point of the book--Huckleberry Finn views the formal structures of civilization as intolerable. It is in this sense that the book fits into the continuum of our Literature and of our politics and gives it a valid claim to being one of the great American novels.

Before we go, a couple of other similarities in these books deserve mention. One conspicuous shared aspect of these novels is that they are all specifically about men. Women appear only as oppressors or figures of idolatry. I believe this is a function of the concrete difference in the political philosophies of the two genders--men tend to favor freedom and the risk it entails, while women most often opt for security even at the cost of surrendering liberty. Even if you disagree with this theory, which would put you in good company, it is certainly true that the central story line of all of these books involves the heroes moving away from more secure settings into riskier but freer environments.

The other noticeable similarity of the stories is the frequent presence of the "noble savage" character. Whether it be Chingachgook or Queequeg or Jim or The Chief, they represent man in the state of nature, unsullied by the dandifying influences of civilization. They are nearly aspirational figures, archetypes brought along in order to show the hero what he could be like if he succeeds in freeing himself. This is a curious residue of the idyllic beliefs of men like Jean-Jacque Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson. I won't take the time here to discuss this fully; I merely note that the theme recurs and point out that the idea that primitive man was somehow more free than modern man is asinine. Hobbes had it right when he referred to life in the state of nature as "nasty, brutish and short."

From the foregoing analysis, it may seem to some folks that I am trying to diminish Jim's stature or deny Twain's originality; this is not the case. Instead, I am suggesting that in mankind's long and schizoid struggle between Freedom and Security, America is the place, more than any other, which has sought to vindicate the cause of Freedom. It is natural, therefore, that our very best literature draws upon these ideas. Huckleberry Finn has many flaws--it is overlong; it has really jarring changes in tone; at times it is merely cruel when trying to be funny; and for the modern reader, the portrayal of Jim is quite disconcerting, so condescending as to make us uncomfortable--but it is above all else a quintessentially American novel and Huck is an archetypal American figure. As a nation, we represent the ideal of "lighting out for the Territory", of providing captive peoples with freedom and opportunity. It is in this context that, regardless of its shortcomings, Huckleberry Finn must be reckoned a central text in the American Canon.

GRADE: A-

Beware this edition - at least until the printing problems are resolved. I bought two copies and each copy duplicated pages 85-116 and did not include pages 117-148. Amazon has not yet provided replacements so I wonder if all its print run of this edition is affected in the same way.

This is the best book ever. I read it for AP English and was dreading the assignment. But when I read the book I was completely blown away. The overall message of the folly of prejudice was nothing but the purest satire ever created. The writing was directed toward a mass audience with a heroic purpose, and the intellectuals of the time understood the message. Segregation, prejudice, and the devil of SLAVERY were so aptly addressed and yet, so subtly that it went over the heads of the non-intellectuals of the time. Hailed as a masterpiece of an adventure story it was so much more. Some reviewers have hinted at homosexuality in regards to the relationship between Huck and Jim. There was nothing but an honest friendship between the two. MAD PROPS to my main man, Mr. Samuel Clemens (a.k.a Mark Twain).

This Norton Critical Edition is truly the best version of Huck Finn one could find, with the original Kempel drawings, footnotes that fully explain textual issues without being intrusive, and well-chosen criticism. It is invaluable to me as a graduate student, and would be just as useful to the casual but attentive reader.

Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (1885) is generally agreed to be the greatest American novel of the nineteenth century. In fact, when all American novels are considered together, only F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925) approaches it in stature. Unlike the often artificial, theatrical, and tongue - in - cheek The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn is a driving, rollicking, and robust first - person narrative propelled by both dramatic, often hilarious action and masterful characterization.

First introduced in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) as a coarse bumpkin the town elders find undesirable company for other boys, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn reintroduces Huck as an introverted young lad of fourteen who is both generally naive and cautiously shrewd, uneducated but clever, deeply human, ingenious, and fully accepting of his tattered form and misfit status. While Apollonian Tom carefully plans, creates, and acts out his fantasies and fantasy personas, the simpler, Dionysian, nudity - loving Huckleberry simply is who he believes himself to be. Lacking the need to imagine a larger transcendental identity for himself, Huck spontaneously and consistently lives the sort of vital, active life Tom craves but only sporadically enjoys.

For Huck, "solid comfort" means enjoying a good pipe while resting under a tree in the woods, free of rules, regulations, "petticoat despotism," parental figures, "social improvement," and scholastic education. But The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn finds its protagonist with little time for blissful rumination. Escaping both his prim, would - be adoptive mother, the Widow Watson, and his abusive, vagabond father by faking his own murder, Huck joins forces with fellow runaway Jim, Miss Watson's black slave and yard hand, upon whom suspicion of the homicide has unfortunately fallen. Setting off down the Mississippi River in whatever vessel is available for the taking, the two embark on a series of calamitous adventures that test their individual strength, resourcefulness, and loyalty to their principles and one another.

A product of its time, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn honestly reflects the racist attitudes prevalent in post Civil War America. Superstitious, gullible, fearful, and constantly wide - eyed in astonishment, Jim is a stereotypical burlesque negro of the period. But, as in Erskine Caldwell's Georgia Boy (1943), Jim, like Caldwell's Handsome Brown, consistently shows strength of character, moral fortitude, common sense, and an frequent admirable penchant for putting the interests of others ahead of his own. Though Jim is the novel's primary fall guy, buffoon, and figure of fun, even a cursory reading of the novel reveals that almost all of the characters, regardless of gender, race, age, or social position, are fools, dupes, charlatans, and aggressively silly, limited personalities caught in their own narrow, selfish perceptions.

As British and American folk songs from 'Mattie Groves' and 'Henry Martin' to 'Fennario' and 'Follow The Drinking Gourd' attest, life in the 'good old days' was anything but a bucolic idyll. Though rarely less than comic, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn reflects this reality: degeneracy, murder, senseless bloody feuds, theft, and mercenary lawlessness are the rule of the day. Unlike The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, which illustrated a single if protracted episode of evil within small town American life, Huck's story takes place in a larger fallen world in which the white picket fence, bread - and - butter chip pickle life of the earlier book has passed away.

Here more than in any other work, Twain proves himself a master of language. Chapter Sixteen, the "Raftsman's Passage" episode, which the author omitted from the first edition, is a spectacular example of Twain at the height of his literary power. When Huck becomes a stowaway aboard an immense raft by night, he witnesses a group of virile roustabouts and scalawags bragging, boasting, and squaring off around a fire in sneering, full - blooded fashion. Two of the rogues, each the baddest of the bad, circle around one another as their fistfighting duel begins. The first states he is "the original iron - jawed, brass - mounted, copper - bellied corpse - maker from the wilds of Arkansas, the man they call Sudden Death and General Desolation...sired by a hurricane, dam'd by an earthquake, half - brother to the cholera, nearly related to the small pox on the mother's side...blood's my natural drink, and the wails of the dying is music to my ears!" Not to be outdone, the second admits "I scratch my head with the lightning and purr myself to sleep with the thunder...I put my hand on the sun's face and make it night on the earth...I bite a piece out of the moon and hurry the seasons - I shake myself and crumble the mountains. The massacre of isolated communities is the pastime of my idle moments, the destruction of nationalities the serious business of my life!" Needless to say, the absurd battle that follows less that justifies their claims of virile dominance and world subjugation.

T. S. Eliot wrote enthusiastically about the dominant role the Mississippi River plays in the novel, a questionable position readers may dispute, for The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, with its emphasis on characterization, action, and down - home folk wisdom, spends little energy on mood or lyrical passages evoking nature at the height of summer. The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn finally succeeds, despite wordiness and occasional lengthy uninspired passages, because Huck is humble, self - reliant everyman who modestly seizes the potential in every situation to turn events to his favor -- and typically towards the good and the humane. Those editions which include the original illustrations by Edward Winsor Kemble and John Harley should be particularly rewarding to readers.

Huck Finn is a vivid character, endearing himself to the reader as he contends with the obstacle course artfully set before him. As a child of perhaps 12, I first read this book and was caught up in the adventure. I was delighted with each new predicament, anxious to have Huck extricated from it and on his way to another exciting experience. If you want to lose yourself in a book, this is a good choice. Not only is it entertaining to read, but there is also substance to it. One of the things I appreciated about this novel was that Huck was a genuine free spirit, with true beliefs, untainted by the enslaving power of society. (I envy him still today.) The author's wisdom shines through this young fellow's heart and soul.

The authoritative Text and criticism of HUCKLEBERRY FINN is definitely a scholarly edition of this wonderful story. It arrived by the Amazon shipping deadline, there were quite a few underlinings and comments by the previous owner, and of course, it's Mark Twain at his best.

The initial delivery of this book was a minor error of available editions. Unfortunately, the course requiring this as a reading text is inflexible. Joanne quickly replaced the book with the desired edition. A great book vendor to work with.

This is THE American classic. There's no need to argue.

If you're looking for a copy of this book to add to your library, I recommend the Norton Critcal edition. Controversial illustrations, criticism, orignial advertisements, and a lot more "truck" are inside that edition along with a wonderfully annotated text.