Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Norton Critical Editions)

by Mark Twain (Author), Mark Twain (Author), Thomas Cooley (Author), Mark Twain (Author), Mark Twain (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $3.44

  Contexts and Sources provides readers with a rich selection of documents related to the historical background, language, composition, sale, reception, and newly discovered first half of the manuscript of Mark Twain's greatest work. Included are letters on the writing of the novel, excerpts from the author's autobiography, samples of bad poetry that inspired his satire (including an effort by young Sam Clemens himself), a section on the censorship of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by schools and libraries over a hundred-year period, and commentary by David Carkeet on dialects of the book and by Earl F. Briden on its racist illustrations. In addition, this section reprints the full texts of both Sociable Jimmy, upon which is based the controversial theory that Huck speaks in a black voice, and A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It, the first significant attempt by Mark Twain to capture the speech of an African American in print. Criticism of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is divided into Early Responses (including the first negative review) and Modern Views by Victor A. Doyno, T. S. Eliot, Jane Smiley, David L. Smith, Shelley Fisher Fishkin (the black voice thesis), James R. Kincaid (a rebuttal of Fishkin), and David R. Sewell. Also included is Toni Morrison's moving personal Introduction to the troubling experience of reading and re-reading Mark Twain's masterpiece. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.44

• Used

  Hardcover
  1996

  $3.44

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $14.95

  Mark Twain's tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society, which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.

• New

  Hardcover
  2001

  $45.21

  All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn, Ernest Hemingway once declared. First published in 1885, the book has delighted millions of readers, while simultaneously riling contemporary sensibilities, and is still banned in many schools and libraries. Now, Michael Patrick Hearn, author of the best-selling The Annotated Wizard of Oz, thoroughly reexamines the 116-year heritage of that archetypal American boy, Huck Finn, and follows his adventures along every bend of the mighty Mississippi River. Hearn's copious annotations draw on primary sources including the original manuscript, Twain's revisions and letters, and period accounts. Reproducing the original E. W. Kemble illustrations from the first edition, as well as countless archival photographs and drawings, some of them previously unpublished, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn is a book no family's library can do without; it may well prove to be the classic edition of the great American novel.