What’s more, he is a teenager from the antebellum South.
Before we rush to judge Huck-and to criticize Twain for veering so seemingly off course-we’d do well to consider a few key elements of the situations.įirst, Huck is a thirteen (or thereabouts)-year-old boy.
But psychologically, the reversion is as sound as it gets, despite the fury that it inspires. He becomes Tom’s helpless accomplice, submissive and gullible.” And to Marx, this regressive transformation is as unforgiveable as it is unbelievable.įrom a literary standpoint, perhaps it is unforgiveable it is not for me, here, to judge. As Leo Marx put it in a 1953 essay, when Tom enters the picture, Huck falls “almost completely under his sway once more, and we are asked to believe that the boy who felt pity for the rogues is now capable of making Jim’s capture the occasion for a game. And that’s not to mention the worst offence of all: Huck’s behavior once he reunites with his old partner in crime, Tom Sawyer. He doesn’t seem much affected when he discovers, at last, that Jim is alive after all. “It is with the feud that the novel begins to fail, because from here on the episodes are a mere distraction to the true subject of the work: Huck’s affection for and responsibility to Jim.” Huck cares little that Jim might be dead when the two are separated in the fog.
What is it exactly that critics of the novel’s final chapters object to? Jane Smiley sums up the arguments in a 1996 piece for Harper’s. Twain might have offended on other accounts, but there is one thing he got right: not only could Huck fall back to old ways at the tip of a hat-or the arrival of a Tom Sawyer, as the case may be-but he most likely would do so if he were a flesh-and-blood twelve year old fresh off a rafting adventure. But what I will say is that psychologically, Huck’s about-face couldn’t be more sound. I won’t argue for or against the ending’s artistic merits. How could Huck, after building a friendship with Jim for the duration of the book, after deepening his connection and realizing how much more there is to the man than the category “slave,” just turn around and forget him like that? How can he fall back so easily into old habits, as if he hadn’t grown at all from start to finish? It doesn’t make sense. And what’s more, they continue, it’s completely unmotivated psychologically. Eliot and Lionel Trilling-the two most vocal proponents of Huck Finn’s iconic status-had to explain it away. Many readers, reviewers, and critics over the year have found fault with Twain’s ending. And certainly, one of the most frequent contenders to that elusive berth of the Great American Novel. In fact, probably one of the most famous English-language novels of all time, period. The memoir showcases Twain’s razor-sharp wit (as well as a healthy imagination), which would later become his trademark style in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.įrom stagecoach travel to the etiquette of gold hunting, Roughing It makes a classic addition to your Mark Twain library and is a perfect example of how funny the world can be when you’re traveling with the right person.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: one of Mark Twain’s most famous novels. Through his attempts to strike it rich, he meets a motley crew of colorful people, while weaving through humorous mishaps and standing through it all with the endearingly good humor for which he’s famous. The story follows many of Twain’s early adventures, including a visit to Salt Lake City, gold and silver prospecting, real estate speculation, a journey to the Kingdom of Hawaii, and his beginnings as a writer. A hilarious account of how the author tried finding wealth in the rocks of Nevada, it was published before his most famous works and shows why he would grow to become one of the most beloved American writers of all time. Originally published over one hundred years ago, Roughing It tells the (almost) true story of Mark Twain’s rollicking adventures across the United States.
MARK TWAIN MOST FAMOUS BOOKS SERIES
A series of sidesplitting adventures from the iconic American writer.