The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (Collins Classics)

This is a reproduction of the original 1885 illustrated Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1st edition. You cannot adjust the font size or type so the print is very small. It is just like reading the original book with all the original illustrations in the right places. I wear specs and found it was not a terrible inconvenience at all. The thing to keep in mind is when the book was written and the subject matters. There is much use of the 'N' word and matters involving slavery, but this is part of the story. The writing is Mark Twain at the height of his storytelling powers. The narrative is told through the person of Huck Finn. The characters shine through and each written conversation is in the character's own dialect. I was thoroughly entranced by the amazing and various adventures involving Huck on his journey throughout the book. The illustrations added to the enjoyment. I will not refer to any part of the storyline as I always think this is better for the reader to discover without any spoilers.

Ashamed to say that I had reached my 60s before actually reading the whole of Huckleberry Finn (after having read Tom Sawyer, also for the first time, and you do need to have read that first). I hadn't realised how good a story-teller Mark Twain was, and if you haven't already done so I would thoroughly recommend them to you. OK, the world is rightly more politically correct now and you have to remember the culture that Twain was writing into, but even this is something of an eye-opener on the white-black divide in Mississippi at the time, but with a good deal of humour mixed in. The story requires you to suspend reality checks to some extent; for example, Huck is totally uneducated and in his early teens, but seems to have an excellent grasp of the geography along the river; perhaps he had just hitched rides on the riverboats and kept his ears open. Unlike 'Tom Sawyer', this book is written in first-person and with phonetic spelling; you just have to read with a Deep South accent! The loss of one star is for the Kindle version, which had an irritatingly large number of words joined together - e.g. 'I tellyouifI catchyoumeddlingwithhimagain' - which you become surprisingly quick at decoding but was a bit wearing. If you've not read it - now's your chance.

Great purchase

This is a really entertaining read that gets better and better the further you get into it, and becomes hilarious once Tom Sawyer arrives on the scene towards the end. My understanding is that this book was removed from being taught in school on the grounds of racism, which I find utterly bizarre. It is true that throughout the book slaves are referred to using the n***** word, which is obvious distasteful. But the book is a reflection of its time and this word is primarily used by white people to illustrate their bigotry and ignorance. Throughout the book slaves are portrayed as altruistic, considerate, warm-hearted and family orientated, whilst all the fraudsters and violent drunks, including Huck's father, are white. That aside, this is a very funny book in which Huck gets into all kinds of scrapes along with Jim, a slave he is trying to free. Personally I found Tom Sawyer the most engaging character despite his late appearance. Indeed, Tom and Huck as a double act come across as a childish precursor for the likes of Morecambe and Wise with Tom and as the daft Eric and Huck as the straighter Ernie. I wonderfully entertaining and occasionally thought provoking read.

A very nicely produced edition of this classic story - although ,unfortunately, the first page of the 'Chronology' is missing! Regarding the story itself, there is a problem for the modern reader relating to some unduly racist language. Nevertheless, the story unfolds in an interesting way until it reaches the final chapters which are a real disappointment. It's as though the writer lost interest - sadly, so does the reader.

Arrived promptly New, but the downside is the print is very small

An enjoyable classic, particularly liked it when Huck says "Jim said bees wouldn’t sting idiots; but I didn’t believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn’t sting me."

I totally didn't know what to expect with this book after reading tom sawyer. but this is even better! It amazed me and surprised me about the adventures. A really good insight into what life was like back then, though author says there is no moral, it seems to have a lot of modern outlook to me, pointing out the unjust treatment of slaves, trickery of con men, strange ways of town folk, dangers of small minded villagers, and all the time centring around the innocence of boyhood, young male outlook, the inner teacher a boy can follow, the kindness and judgement he can learn to develop. OK, there is a repeated word, not used today, and offensive to people of African origin beginning with 'N', I daren't quote it here. However, it was used as in the original text and is correct in its historical usage. Be aware if passing this onto a child and decide for yourself how they may take on board or understand about this aspect in the language. but otherwise a great book. came on time.

This satirical novel is the sequel to 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and is one of the first novels to be written in the vernacular with local color. How about this from Jim ,the slave as an example: " I tuck out en shin down de hill, en `spec to steal a skift `long de sho' som'ers `bove de town, but dey wuz people a-stirring yit, so I hid in de ole tumble-down cooper-shop on de bank to wait for everybody to go `way. Well, I wuz dah all night. Dey wuz somebody roun' all de time". Is that great, or what? The language does slow the reader down, but emits all the local color of the mid 1850s! This is the story of Huck Finn and his adventures down the Mississippi River on a raft trying to escape his drunken father. I never saw so many words go red on Google as I did writing this review of Twain's novel. I loved this book because Twain made me feel like I was in the milieu of the South living on a Mississippian river raft. I could actually feel the heat of the day! Absolutely a great job of recreating the atmosphere of the south before things got chaotic and uncontrolable. In another words, this novel's setting is just before the North/South conflict. This is the second novel that I've read recently pertaining to this time period in the South and quite frankly I'm stunned by the Southerner's cavalier attitude towards the suffering of their slaves. Yet Mark Twain made this novel seem like it had a jocular theme, I guess that's all part of his satirical style of writing. This version of the novel has 148 illustrations and is a reproduction of the original 1885 masterpiece now published by Piccadilly Books, LTD. Does the proverb "boys will be boys" mean: It is hard, often fruitless, to attempt to curb the natural playfulness and tendency to mischief of most growing boys, or does it mean Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn? I think the latter. This novel is the continuing saga of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, two 13-14 year old rascals. This story opens with Huck now living with the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson. Huck has a considerable amount of money in trust with Judge Thatcher, garnered from Injun Joe in the previous Tom Sawyer book. Anyway, Huck's drunken Pap wants the money and somehow gets control of Huck's guardianship and leaves with Huck to a cabin on the banks of the Mississippi River. There Huck is constantly abused, so he fakes his death and heads down river in a canoe. He gets to Jackson's Island ( between Missouri and Illinois ) and discovers that Miss Watson's slave, Jim is there on the run from Miss Watson because he found out that she was going to sell him for $800! Huck learns that the folks back home think either Jim, or Pap killed him. They set off on a raft for incredible adventures. Jim wants his freedom and Huck wants to get away from Pap. On Huck's journeys he runs into many difficult circumstances and harrowing escapes. First on a shore village where he meets the Granderfords, but they have a feud in progress with the Shepherdsons resulting in a big shootout as Huck egresses to the river again. Huck, now back with Jim, meets two incredible grifters on the run from a town's angry crowd. They hitch a ride with Huck and Jim on the raft and this is where the fun starts. The scams they pull off with Huck are hilarious! One of these swindlers says he is the rightful Duke of Bridgewater and the other claims to be the exiled and rightful King of France. I will not tell you anything else, but the plot thickens and the real fun reading starts at this point in the novel ( chapter XIX, page 100 ). According to an article from Wikipedia: "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism". The problem is as I read the novel, I was not convinced one way or the other whether Twain was being real, or satirical. I guess it's too late to ask him. Wikipedia also states: "To highlight the hypocrisy required to condone slavery within an ostensibly moral system, Twain has Huck's father enslave him, 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". Later in Twain's career he became the harbinger of satirical comedy, but was he the future Will Rogers, or Don Rickles? Regardless of my confusion, I have to recommend this novel as it is considered one of the Great American Novels.

Produit arrivé un peu en retard, mais très bel article, la couverture est juste magnifique, le livre en très bon état Je recommande

Che dire, ormai un classico inglese

Man sollte das Buch auf jeden Fall im englischen Original lesen, da große Teile in verschiedenen, sehr unterhaltsamen Südstaaten-Dialekten geschrieben sind. Und auch wenn die Handlung, ohne vorher Tom Sawyer gelesen zu haben, verständlich ist, die Charaktere bereits aus Tom Sawyer zu kennen, fand ich beim Lesen schon von Vorteil. Und wenngleich es aufgrund der Abenteuergeschichten als Jugendbuch gilt, ich hab's nun erst mit 28 gelesen und bin überzeugt, dass das Buch Leser jeden Alters fesselt. Hab mir danach gleich 3 weitere Bücher von Mark Twain besorgt und kann alles von ihm als außerordentliches Lesevergnügen wärmstens empfehlen!

Reading the work becomes richer thanks to the explanations that precede the main text.