Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

First published in Britain in 1884 and in the United States in 1885, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn follows a boy’s escape from the constraints of respectable society and his journey down the Mississippi River with Jim, an enslaved man fleeing captivity. Set in the antebellum American South, the novel unfolds through Huck’s distinctive vernacular voice, combining comic adventure with an unflinching portrait of a society shaped by slavery, prejudice and hypocrisy. As the pair travel along the river, Huck is forced to confront the conflict between the moral lessons he has been taught and his growing sense of what is right.

A landmark of American literature, the novel transformed the possibilities of narrative voice through its use of regional speech, humour and a child’s uncertain perspective. Beneath its episodic adventures lies a searching examination of conscience, freedom and the contradictions of a nation founded on liberty while denying it to so many. Both a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and a work of far greater moral complexity, Huckleberry Finn remains one of Twain’s most enduring and debated achievements.

From the book

“You can't pray a lie — I found that out.”

— Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

On Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”

— Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa