5 October 2016

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Author: Mark Twain
Pages: 327
Genre: Classic, Childrens, Adventure
Book Description:
Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy's adventures in the Mississippi Valley - a sequel toThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer - the book grew and matured under Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck's and Jim's voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.

My Opinion:
Ernest Hemingway once said, 'all modern literature stems from this book,' and I can't say I agree. I like Hemingway and I loved parts of this book but I seemed to struggle a bit.

This novel is actually a sequel to the 'Adventures of Tom Sawyer,' which focuses more on the protagonist's friends and seems to give a background about their friendship. I haven't read this one, mainly because I didn't realise there was a first book in the series and after reading this one, I'm not sure if I'm going to.

I found this novel quite difficult to get into at the beginning. The language is unusual since the writing is in the same way that the characters would speak. As the novel progressed I got use to this attribute however it did provide a rough start to reading.

The main thing I enjoyed were the adventures and character development. The adventures Jim and Huck went on and the mischief they got themselves into was entertaining and, I certainly think it would appeal to younger children.
I felt that Huck's character development was particularly important and wonderful because, despite his age, he begins to realise that Jim isn't just a slave but a human being. He grows fond of him, risking his life to protect him on several occasions. This is a message I'm pleased to have discovered, making the book so much more attractive knowing there's a moral at the end of the tale.

Overall, I don't think I'd read this book again because I found myself getting bored around 2/3s of the way through. I'm still glad to have read it since it is a classic after all and there have been many people to have said to have enjoyed it. In some ways, I feel like an older generation of younger people would have enjoyed this more than modern young readers today, however there are still the lovely qualities of children's books, such as adventure and key messages throughout!

Favourite Quotes:

Human beings can be awful cruel to one another

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Jim said that bees won't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me

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Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better

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I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing
Rating
3 out of 5 stars 


 Next book I'm going to review:
On Writing by Stephen King

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