This classic book, which is read across many English classes around the country, reached a significant milestone onWednesday.
141 years ago,Mark Twain's most popular book,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,was officially published in the United States. Though the book was released in December 1884 in the United Kingdom and Canada, the U.S. release was delayed due to a printing error involving an illustration.
Noted for "changing the course of children's literature" in the United States,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnfollows a young boy named Huck, who flees his abusive father and travels down the Mississippi River with Jim, a black man escaping slavery. During their journey, Huck encounters a variety of characters and people who portray every socioeconomic class living on or along the river. Themes explored in the novel include the deeply rooted racism before the Civil War and the quest for freedom from society's constraints. The book serves as a direct sequel toThe Adventures of Tom Sawyerand is told in the first-person POV of Huck.
Despite its impact on American literature today,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnwas considered controversial and banned in many classroomsand libraries for years for various reasons. The novel frequently uses the N-word and other degrading terms, and many libraries did not like its coarse language and tone. In addition, many critics argued that, though the book is trying to critique racism, the portrayal of characters like Jim relied on outdated stereotypes. It is important to note that Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was a white American author born and raised in Missouri.
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Over the past century,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnhas been adapted many times through film and TV in various countries. In the United States, the most recent adaptation was the 2014 movieTom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, which starred Joel Courtney as Tom Sawyer, Jake T. Austin as Huck and Katherine McNamara as Becky Thatcher, Tom's primary love interest.
Despite its censorship,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnhas been used to teach American history and literature, offering students a chance to learn about the root causes of racism and the complexities of the pre-Civil War South. After finishingHuckleberry Finn, Twain continued to write books, includingA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,The Gilded Age: A Tale of Todaywith Charles Dudley Warner,Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant,The American Claimant,Personal Recollections of Joan of Arcand more. The American author passed away due to a heart attack on April 21, 1910, when he was 74 years old.
As fellow American author Ernest Hemingway famously said in his 1935 book,Green Hills of Africa: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain calledHuckleberry Finn. It's the best book we've had.All Americanwriting comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
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