Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Oxford World's Classics)
by Mark Twain

List Price: $6.95
Our Price: $3.59
You Save: $3.36 (48%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Oxford World's Classics)

Book Review: indeed, a classic--and never boring
Summary: 5 Stars

Well--of course it's difficult (like everything that's good), for some good reasons. First of all, it's an illiterate white boy from the deep South--of course he speaks dialect (which is not the same as "he cain't spell"). Second, it's tough subject matter Twain tackles. What would you do in this situation? The right thing, which is what you've been told to do--turn Jim in? Or should you follow your heart, as Huck finally does, thinking it'll send him straight to hell? What would Jesus do?

I find this book a rollercoaster ride, one adventure after another. Like many other readers, I am disturbed by the last couple of chapters, but given how Huck is under the influence of Tom Sawyer, it's not unintelligible.

However, I have a bone to pick with this particular edition, by the Oxford UP. The introduction by Emory Elliot is less than satifying. For instance, he claims Twain was highly original in making this illiterate character the narrator of his novel, when of course there was a plethora of for instance slave narratives, often told by semi-literate narrators. He goes on to state that Twain was the first American author to explore "divorce, social strife, and violence"--seemingly forgetting all about, for instance, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," written well before "Huck," where all these issues are discussed.

That said, I am happy to see that this edition features as an appendix the infamous "Raftmen's Passage," essential to the plot but excised by Twain (really, by his editor), and this restores the "original" structure of the novel, making the turn downstream, down South, acceptable. Also, the explanatory notes are quite good. Finally, this OUP edition is worth buying for the cover alone, which has a detail from a gorgeous Homer-painting.

Summary of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Oxford World's Classics)

Classics by Age Books

• Books > Subjects > Children's Books
• Literature & Fiction > Classics
• Genre Fiction
• Literary
• New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature