Book Review: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

ISBN:  0395775507

Published:  January 26th, 2008 (first published 1884)

Publisher:  Houghton Miffllin Company

Read from April 21st to May 10th, 2011

Synopsis from Goodreads:

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN This is Twain's masterwork written at the height of his power. Twain himself refers to it as "a book of mine where a sound heart & a deformed conscience come into collision & conscience suffers defeat."

The book contains belly-laughing humor intertwined with themes of profound moral significance. Huck, escaping from the confines of his existence on the shore, has found life to be "free and easy living on a raft" with Jim, a black man fleeing from slavery. When faced with the crucial decision to turn over Jim to his rightful owner, he studies the consequences, then says to himself, "All right, then, I'll go to hell."

Review:

I read this book for school and completely forgot to write a review for it.  I have mixed feelings about this book.  Some parts of it I really loved, and other parts I found really boring.

We talked a lot about the symbolism in class, and I loved that part of the story.  After reading the story, I was surprised at how much I liked the characters.  It took a little bit to get used to some parts of it.  For instance, it was hard for me to understand Jim first, but I got used to it after a bit.

I think this is an American classic that everyone needs to read.  Most teenagers today would probably find it boring, but I think they would benefit from reading it.