Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Review: Mark Twain’s Classic Still Has Teeth

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is at its best when Huck tells you exactly what he thinks happened and you can see something he missed. He’s observant enough to survive on his own and still young enough to take some of the worst things adults have taught him as plain common sense. That gap gives the novel its funniest moments and its most moving ones. It’s also why the book is worth reading alongside Percival Everett’s James, which gives Jim the chance to tell the story for himself.

What is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn about?

Huck Finn escapes his abusive father and encounters Jim, an enslaved man who has fled after learning he may be sold. They travel down the Mississippi on a raft, hoping to reach Cairo, Illinois, where Jim can head up the Ohio River toward free territory. Fog and a missed turn send them farther south. Along the way, they encounter a family feud and two con men who call themselves the duke and the king.

The raft gives Huck and Jim stretches of quiet in which they can talk without performing for the people on shore. Those scenes make the louder episodes feel like interruptions in a friendship you want to see deepen. For Jim, every landing carries the risk of capture. That difference in what the two travelers stand to lose keeps even the funniest chapters uneasy.

Huck’s voice is the reason to read it

Twain gets an extraordinary amount of mileage out of letting Huck report the facts in his own order. When the boy stays with the Grangerfords, he takes in their fine house and their manners with real admiration. Then he notices that the men bring guns to church, where they listen to a sermon about brotherly love. Huck doesn’t need to deliver a verdict. The guns and the sermon tell you everything.

That same technique works on Huck himself. After the fog separates him from Jim, Huck tries to convince Jim the whole ordeal was a dream. Jim has been frightened for him, and when he realizes what Huck has done, he lets him know how badly the joke landed. Huck has to work himself up to an apology. Twain leaves that hesitation in the scene, which gives the apology its weight. Huck is learning how much he owes someone his upbringing taught him he could treat however he pleased.

Why the novel is still worth reading

The novel’s sharpest idea is that a conscience can be trained to give terrible advice. Huck has been taught that helping Jim escape is a sin. When his loyalty to Jim clashes with that belief, he has to decide whether to trust the lessons he grew up with or what he knows about the man beside him. Twain makes that choice gripping because Huck genuinely believes the cost of helping could be eternal.

The book repeatedly uses a racial slur, and some of its humor draws on racist stereotypes. The final stretch is also weaker than the river journey. Once Tom Sawyer takes over the escape scheme, his elaborate games drag on while Jim bears the consequences. The frustration is revealing, even when the comedy wears thin. By then, Twain has given readers ample reason to care about Jim’s freedom and to resent how casually the boys spend his time.

Read Percival Everett’s James alongside it

Percival Everett’s James reimagines the journey from Jim’s perspective. One of Everett’s sharpest choices is to show Jim and other enslaved characters adjusting how they speak around white people. Speech becomes a way of managing danger. It makes you look again at every moment in Twain when Huck hears Jim clearly enough to repeat his words yet misses what Jim might be choosing to keep to himself. For more on what Everett does with that freedom, read our review of James.

Either book works on its own. Reading Twain first gives you the pleasure of recognizing familiar scenes when Everett changes whose knowledge matters. Starting with Everett makes it especially interesting to notice what Huck assumes when you return to the raft.

Final verdict

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a funny, unsettling novel with a narrator whose company is worth the trip. The best moments are small enough to miss if you read only for the adventure. Watch for the apology after the fog. The boy who can talk his way out of almost anything finally has to say something difficult without trying to wriggle out of it. That scene alone makes a good case for reading the book.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

• Read Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn free at Project Gutenberg.
• Find Percival Everett’s James in Doubleday hardcover on Amazon.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook