Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

About the book

Huck Finn wants to escape both respectable supervision and the violence of his father. On the Mississippi he joins Jim, an enslaved man seeking freedom, and their journey exposes them to households, feuds, confidence tricks, and performances of social authority. Huck's account is immediate, observant, and limited by assumptions he has inherited from the people around him. Twain makes readers notice gaps between those assumptions and the humanity visible in Huck's encounters. The raft can offer companionship and temporary refuge, but the society on shore continually intrudes. Comic inventions sit beside an unsparing portrayal of slavery and racial prejudice. The central tension concerns whether Huck can act on his growing attachment to Jim when the moral vocabulary he has learned tells him otherwise.

• Freedom and slavery
• Conscience
• Friendship

Why read it

For a distinctive spoken voice that exposes contradictions its young narrator cannot always name.

English text