The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

From Barnes & Noble

From Our Bargain Book Editors: Destined to become the standard text not only for schools and universities but for the general reader as well, this comprehensive edition of Twain's masterpiece includes recently discovered episodes omitted in other editions, as well as other variations taken from the first half of the handwritten manuscript and facsimile reproductions of 30 manuscript pages. Fascinating for the changes, deletions, and additions that Twain made in the original published work, these variations demonstrate the skill and restraint of the writer's creative process. B&W illus.

From the Publisher

America's favorite story teller reads Mark Twain's greatest story -- the broadly comic, ironic tale of a small-town boy and a runaway slave, together on a raft on the mighty Mississippi. It's one adventure after another, told with affection and unabashed joy.

St. Paul Pioneer Press

The man touted as "America's favorite storyteller," Garrison Keillor, has joined leagues with America's other favorite storyteller, Mark Twain. He reads his own adaptation of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." [brought to you by HighBridge Audio] ...Where most readers make Finn sound like a gritty, stream-smart little river rat, Keillor gives him a whiff of wistfulness andyeseven an ingenuous quality. And it will go down in history as the only recording that changes the ending of the book....Keillor even has his own bit of fun, including on the cassette jacket "A Note From the Hero's Father," one Newton P. Finn, a three-term member of Congress from Missouri. Finn claims that the book "has some true parts in it, but most of it is stretched, as you'd expect from a writer who doesn't even use his own name." The whole thing is a powerful lot of fun.

Audiofile

Radio personality and best-selling author Garrison Keillor lends his considerable charm, enthusiasm and taste to this superb reading and abridgment of Twain's classic [brought to you by HighBridge Audio]. His cutting makes no concessions to the Comstockery that has made "Huckleberry Finn" an object of heated debate. Instead, he gives us a "good parts" version, his personal pick of choice passages, edited with sensitivity to narrative flow, style and theme. The same literary tact plays in his voice, along with love and a childlike ingenuousness. The pristine recording is an excellent introduction to Keillor, as well as to Sam Clemens, two of America's most engaging heartland storytellers.

Booklist

This is the first edition of the classic American novel, the first ever to be based on Twain's entire original manuscript.

Billboard - Trudi Miller Rosenblum

Patrick Fraley previously recorded what is surely the definitive audio version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and he achieves the same masterful result with this title. Fraley sounds less like a narrator and more like a storyteller spinning a colorful yarn. His folksy accent is perfect for Huck, and he creates a host of distinctive voices that bring to life the story's colorful cast of characters. Students new to Twain's work will find this an inviting introduction, while adults and Twain fans who have read Huckleberry Finn many times will find added enjoyment and meaning in the new audio version.

Ernest Hemingway

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.

Chicago Tribune - Edward Wagenknecht

First rate.

Yearbook of English Studies - Harold Beaver

As admirable as is now to be expected from the Mark Twain Project of the Bancroft Library.

Los Angeles Times

The story of the classic, controversial tale's latest edition is one of painstaking literary detective work. 'It's like filling in the genome,' for the book, said noted Twain scholar Louis J. Budd. 'Maybe nothing is ever the last word, especially on Twain, but this seems like it.'

Shelley Fisher Fishkin

This is the definitive critical edition of Huckleberry Finn you've been waiting for. Ingenious textual detective work rescues Twain at last from hundreds of careless errors by typists, typesetters and proofreaders. The fascinating explanatory notes help us decode allusions that were familiar to readers in Twain's time but are obscure today, while the reproduced manuscript pages let us compare for the first time first and final drafts of some of the book's most memorable passages. This splendid book belongs in every library, home, and literature classroom.

Chicago Sun-Times - Charles H. Gold

The University of California Press has presented everything needed to understand Twain and his works. They have made him the most accessible of major American writers, the most thoroughly documented.

Choice - M. T. Inge

No other American writer has been served so competently or so successfully in the publication of sound texts as has Samuel L. Clemens by the Mark Twain Project of the University of California in Berkeley.

San Fransico Chronicle

The Mark Twain Project looms over the landscape of literary scholarship like Mount Everest.

Louis J. Budd

Because of the lately recovered half of the manuscript we now have the genome filled in for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, along with the Mississippi-wide expertise that shows us how to comprehend this edition. To borrow from one of the Connecticut Yankee's walking ads, 'All the Prime-Donne will use it.'

Publishers Weekly

In this centenary year of the first American edition of Huckleberry Finn, Neider, who has worked long and well in the thickets of Twain scholarship (this is the ninth Twain volume he has edited), offers a most fitting tribute, for which he will be thanked in some quarters, damned in others. Neider's contribution is twofold: he has restored to its rightful place the great rafting chapter, which the author had lifted from the manuscript-in-progress and dropped into Life on the Mississippi, and he has abridged some of the childish larkiness in the portions in which Huck's friend Tom Sawyer intrudes into this novel. For decades, critics have lamented the absence of the ``missing'' chapter and deplored the jarring presence of Tom in episodes that slow the narrative, but not until now has anyone had the temerity to set matters right. In paring back the ``Tom'' chapters (which he fully documents in his lengthy, spirited introduction, with literal line counts of the excised material), Neider has achieved a brisker read. Though there may be some brickbats thrown at him for this ``sacrilege,'' few should object to the belated appearance of the transplanted rafting chapter in the novel in which it clearly belongs. October 25

Library Journal

The Mark Twain Project used the second half of the original manuscript of Twain's masterwork (given by Twain to the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library), together with the first half from the first American edition of 1885, for its 1985 edition of the novel. In 1990, however, the first half of the original manuscript was found in the attic of the great-granddaughter of James Gluck, the curator of the Buffalo library. While the recovery of the first half of the manuscript (told in detail in "Note on the Text") is itself an interesting detective story, the upshot of the matter is that the present text represents the whole manuscript as Twain surely intended it before typesetters and proofreaders introduced the errors that we have been reading all these years. Most of those numerous errors are minor (misspellings and punctuation errors), but some are significant (three revised sections of the novel, for example). Few but Twain scholars will appreciate the meticulous editing that has gone into this volume, but those who care will be able to see more clearly than ever how carefully Twain revised the novel into its greatness. Highly recommended for all scholarly libraries. Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Though numerous editions of Twain's 1885 novel abound, this is the first to incorporate four previously unknown episodes discovered in 1990 when the first half of the original handwritten manuscript was unearthed. This edition also includes the original illustrations as well as photos of 29 original pages and notes by Twain scholar Victor Doyno. All this at a reasonable price makes Random's comprehensive edition of Huckleberry Finn essential for all libraries.

School Library Journal

Gr 5 Up-The St. Charles Players superbly present the essence of Mark Twain's 1884 classic in this Radio Theatre rendition. With an 18-person cast, they retell the story in a variety of voices, using many of the author's original words as well as adding their own narrative and conversation. This audio version allows youngsters to learn of Huckleberry's trip down the Mississippi on a raft in the company of the (allegedly) runaway slave Jim without bogging them down with hard to understand dialect or offensive words. The style is reminiscent of the Golden Years of Radio drama, with original music and sound effects accompanying the dramatic telling. The aural quality is good, with clear enunciation. Although the action follows the book commendably and includes all the events of major importance, this cannot be used as a read-along version. This is not a drawback, but rather a means of enticing younger students to become acquainted with Twain's work. It would appeal to teachers or librarians who are looking for a lively way to introduce the classics. For older students, also consider Trafalgar Square's three-hour The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Sept. 2000, p. 84).-Joanne K. Hammond, Chambersburg Area Middle School, PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

"One can read it at ten and then annually ever after, and each year find that it is as fresh as the year before..."--Lionel Trilling

Children's Book Watch

The St. Charles Players present a fullcast dramatization in abridged audio form of Twain's classic story of two runaway boys experiencing adventure on the Mississippi. The dramatic reading insures that young listeners will find the story comes alive for them.

Childrens Book Watch - Children's Book Watch

The St. Charles Players presents a multi-cast dramatization of Mark Twain's classic American novel, Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn in their unique and totally entertaining "Radio Theatre" style. This familiar story of Huck Finn, a young boy running away from home with Jim, a Negro slave seeking escape to freedom, is wonderfully retold with each bend of the Mississippi River bringing a new adventure, a chance encounter, a wealth of mischief, fun, and memorable characters. Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn is a rewarding, entertaining, highly recommended, two cassette, 141 minute, audiobook addition to any personal, school or community library collection.

What People Are Saying

Lionel Trilling
One can read it at ten and then annually ever after, and each year find that it is as fresh as the year before...

Ernest Hemingway
All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.

Lionel Trilling
One can read it at ten and then annually ever after, and each year find that it is as fresh as the year before...

T. S. Eliot
...We come to see Huck... as one of the permanent symbolic figures of fiction; not unworthy to tak e a place with Ulysses, Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Hamlet, and other great discoveries that man has made about himself.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0786198915
  
• ISBN-13: 9780786198917
• Format: Other Format, 8pp
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
• Pub. Date: May 2000
• Edition Description: Unabridged, 8 CDs
• Sales Rank: 566,780

• Table of Contents
• Reading Group Guide
• Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Reading Group Guide

1. Critics have long disagreed about exactly what role Jim plays in Huckleberry Finn. Some have claimed, for example, that his purpose is solely to provide Huck with the opportunity for moral growth, while others have argued that he is a surrogate father figure to Huck. What do you think is Jim's role in the novel?

2. The ending of Huckleberry Finn has been the source of endless critical controveryse. Though no less than T. S. Eliot and Lionel Trilling defended the ending on the grounds that it is structurally coherent ("It is right, " Eliot stated, "that the mood of the book should bring us back to the beginning"), many critics feel that the return of Tom Sawyer and his elaborate scheme for Jim's escape reduces what had been a serious quest for freedom to a silly farce. Bernard de Voto wrote, "In the whole reach of the English novel there is no more aburpt or more abrupt or chilling descent." How does the ending strike you?

3. The Mississippi can be considered a character in its own right in Huckleberry Finn. Discuss the role of the river in the novel.

4. How do humor and satire function in the book?

5. Critic William Manierre argued in a 1964-65 essay that "Huck's 'moral growth' has... been vastly overestimated, " noting for example, that when his conscience begins to give him trouble, he decides he will "do whichever came handiest at the time, " and that while Huck can be seen to achieve a kind of moral grandeur when he tears up the note he's written to Miss Watson, that achievement is underminded by his easy acceptance of Tom Sawyer's scheme in the last ten chapters. Do you agree ordisagree?

6. In "The Greatness of Huckleberry Finn, " Lionel Trilling stated that the style of the book is "not less than definitive in American literature, " and Louis Budd has noted that "today it is standard academic wisdom that Twain's precedent-setting achievement is Huck's language." Discuss the effect of Twain's use of colloquial speech and dialect in the novel.

Read an Excerpt