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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Written by Garrison Keillor and Mark Twain

Narrated by Garrison Keillor

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

First published in 1884, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece of world literature. Narrated by Huck himself in his artless vernacular, it tells of his voyage down the Mississippi with a runaway slave named Jim. As the two journey downstream on a raft, Huck's vivid descriptions capture the sights, smells, sounds, and rhythms of life on the great river. As they encounter traveling actors, con men, lynch mobs, thieves, and Southern gentility, his shrewd comments reveal the dark side of human nature. By the end of the story, Huck has learned about the dignity and worth of human life-and Twain has exposed the moral blindness of the "respectable" slave-holding society in which he lives. Huckleberry Finn was Twain's greatest creation. Garrison Keillor approaches it with the respect and affection it deserves. "This is an abridgement of Mark Twain's book, keeping the parts I loved as a boy-Huck's story, the big river at night, the boasting of the raftsmen, the Duke and the Dauphin, the lynching, the feud-and lopping off the last third of the book, where Tom Sawyer comes in and makes a big production of freeing Jim. I had Huck free him instead. If you enjoy the reading, I am sure Mr. Twain will forgive me." -Garrison Keillor
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 1, 2003
ISBN9781598873337
Author

Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor, born in Anoka, Minnesota, in 1942, is an essayist, columnist, blogger, and writer of sonnets, songs, and limericks, whose novel Pontoon the New York Times said was “a tough-minded book . . . full of wistfulness and futility yet somehow spangled with hope”—no easy matter, especially the spangling. Garrison Keillor wrote and hosted the radio show A Prairie Home Companion for more than forty years, all thanks to kind aunts and good teachers and a very high threshold of boredom. In his retirement, he’s written a memoir and a novel. He and his wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson, live in Minneapolis and New York.

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Reviews for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Rating: 4.042194092827004 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is a classic I had managed to evade for many years and now wish I had evaded it a few more. What a tremendous disappointment, in spite of Twain's ability to evoke the Mississippi River as a very real presence, even a main character in the novel.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I understand that this book was considered The Great American Novel for it's time period, but it didn't resonate with me. Part of it was the character of Huck, part of it was the seemingly scattershot nature of his adventures on the Mississippi River (it certainly wasn't the language, I have no problem with that in this or any other book), but by the time the story got to the fued between the Grangerfords and the Shepardsons, I had checked out of the story. The rest was one of the toughest slogs I've ever had to get through in reading. (Each time it was for a class assignment--the last time was to see if I had the wrong idea about the book,. I wasn't) I won't be reading it again.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Audio book performed by Thomas Becker

    I cannot believe that I had never read this classic of American literature before.

    Huck Finn has been living with the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, being “civilized” and schooled. Judge Thatcher doles out his allowance and he is “tolerable happy.” But when his father returns to town and kidnaps Huck, he decides he has to rely on his own wits. Huck manages to escape via canoe and sets up camp on an island in the Mississippi, where he soon discovers that the runaway slave Jim is also camped. Together, they set off down the river to find their freedom.

    There’s plenty of adventure and near misses for any reader in this wonderful yarn. Huck and Jim encounter scalawags and kind strangers, as well as a few friends.

    I like how Twain has both Jim and Huck think on their situation and converse about the right thing to do, exploring the standards of the day and whether they were truly good. Despite his resolve to give up being good and go the other way, Huck is a boy with a conscience and his efforts almost always are towards the good.

    Becker’s performance of the audio is wonderful. In his voice, Huck is innocent yet cunning. The Duke and Prince are ridiculously pompous. My only problem with his performance is the poor way he voices the women, but that doesn’t diminish the genius of Twain’s writing.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Huck Finn's voyage with Jim holds much significance and is still debated today. Read it and you decide what it means, but I'll say this- this book is about friendship, war, crime, unjustified hate and prejudice, religion and freedom and still manages to stay lighthearted. Worth it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Published, 1885, first published in UK, 1884I listened to the audio read by B. J. HarrisonI thought I had read this before, but now that I have reread it (or not), I can’t say that I remember a thing. This is an adventure, a quest, of Huckleberry Finn, a poor motherless boy with a drunken father who beats him and his adventure on the Mississippi River with the runaway slave, Jim. Jim is running away from slavery because he fears being sold south but ironically Jim and Huck head off, going further and further into slave country as they go down the river. OPENING LINE: You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but that ain't no matter.QUOTES: "All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up.”CLOSING LINE: I been there before.The importance of this book is that it is the first American novel written in the vernacular of the characters living in the area along the river. It is a story about slavery but was written after slavery was abolished. It is a satire of entrenched racism. This book has been banned and may even still be banned because of its language and use of the racial slur “nigger” or more politely said, “the n word”. The book really is antiracist. Huckleberry Finn spends time on the raft with Jim who he promises not to turn in. Huck feels he is sinning by not turning in the runaway and finally reconciles by saying “all right, then, I’ll go to hell”. While on the raft, Huck gets to know a black man. MY REACTION: as I said in the beginning, I was surprised not to remember anything about this book. I must have only read Tom Sawyer. so glad I decided to reread. I think it is definitely a young person’s novel. I liked the first part best, the trip with Jim down the river and I liked the part least where Tom joins Huck and play the prank on Tom’s relatives. The use of the “n” word is so frequent and with our current awareness that this word is distasteful, it was distracting. Because it is a classic adventure story that occurs on the Mississippi River, I do think it holds a special place in American literature. What I liked best was the River, the Mississippi River is such a great river character in literature. I rated it 3 stars, mostly for enjoyment factor, I think it just didn’t work as well as it would have would I have been reading it in sixth grade.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My star rating is from a 30-year retrospective view, in which the paper I wrote on the symbolism of the river (I know, ugh) still clouds my perceptions of the book, which I had read previously and enjoyed.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm listening to the audio version read by Elijah Woods. He did a great job with the dialects, and the story is of course a classic, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I love the characters, though - it's amazing how good Twain is at creating unique lovable characters.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My father first read this book to me as a child. I have seen movies and theater versions since but nothing lives up to the characters developed by Twain. The relationships between the various characters, particularly Huck and Jim, are so well written. Their adventures are great fun--situations only Twain could come up with. Everyone should read this book to get a feel for what it was like to live in this time and place.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful voice for the Finn character. Excellent setting and world building. The racism is a little hard to take.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the Twain work most writers of the 20th century claim is THE American novel. I would rather place "Tom Sawyer" in that spot, but there are underlying social issues in "Huckleberry," not the least of which is the constant use of the word "nigger." This has caused the book to be censored by many a school district.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Huckleberry Finn is a young boy whose life hasn’t been easy, with no mother and an abusive drunkard for a father who only has time for Huck when he wants something. After Huck and Tom Sawyer found $6,000.00 in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huck is placed with a widow woman who cleans him up and sends him to school. It isn’t long before his father, with a desire to get his hands on Huck’s money, shows up. He kidnaps Huck and both mistreats him and holds him captive. Huck eventually breaks free by faking his own death. He comes across Jim, a runaway slave and together they journey down the Mississippi River on a raft and forge a lasting friendship. This was a re-read for me, but I do believe that I both enjoyed the story and got more out of it on this second go. Not only does this character have one of the best names in literature, Huckleberry is also a great character to read about. He is a realist and adapts readily to most situations but he seems to be most comfortable when actually on the river. There is a simple decency to the boy, he tries to do the right thing. This trip on the river teaches him many life lessons and the reader is able to see him grow and develop into a conscientious and caring person.I struggled a little at the beginning of the book with the various dialects, but once I picked up the rhythm this was a very fun story. Mark Twain uses straightforward language, humor and a simple story line to show both the hypocrisy of slavery and the ridiculousness of many of society’s rules.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story of a young boy and an escaped slave down the Mississippi on a raft. In each chapter the hero meets an archtypal character of the American landscape. Been said American Literature started and ended with Huckleberry Finn. I'll agree it started here.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Follows the story of a young boy living in the rural south. He escapes his life there to run away down the Mississippi with a run-away slave, Jim. A classic must-read and very entertaining.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A lot of the time reading 'classics' can be a bit disappointing when they don't live up to the hype, but I absolutely loved Huck Finn and couldn't put it down. It was really funny and absolutely drew me into its world.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In seinem berühmtesten Werk lässt Mark Twain die bereits aus seinem Roman "Tom Sawyers Abenteuer" bekannten Figuren erneut auftreten. Diesmal ist die Geschichte in der Ich-Perspektive aus Sicht des ungebildeten, am Rande der Gesellschaft lebenden Huckleberry Finn verfasst. Dieser reisst von zu Hause vor seinem alkoholkranken und prügelnden Vater aus und reist gemeinsam mit dem entlaufenen Negersklaven Jim auf einem Floß den Mississippi flußabwärts. Dabei bestehen die beiden zahlreiche Abenteuer und werden in diverse Gaunereien verwickelt anlässlich derer Huckleberry Finn immer wieder Gelegenheit bekommt, sein grundgutes Wesen zu offenbaren.Sprachlich bemerkenswert ist,dass sämtliche Protagonisten nicht in der Hochsprache sondern in ihren eigenen Dialekten, quasi so wie ihnen der Schnabel gewachsen ist, sprechen. Twain sorgt so für Authenzität zu Lasten der Lesbarkeit. Die aus Sicht eines die (Erwachsenen)-Welt gerade erst entdeckenden, staunenden Kindes gezogenen Rückschlüsse sowie satirische Seitenhiebe des Autors bringen den Leser immer wieder zum Schmunzeln. Trotzdem hat mich das Werk nicht überzeugt, zu hanebüchen sind die geschilderten Abenteuer und Wendungen.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is a classic story of growing up and friendship. It is the language used that is distracting and hard to parse. Accented phonetic spelling is my least favorite way to illustrate differences in speech.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This one took me a while to get through, but it was rewarding in the end. Huck is such a loveable character, from his innocence and naivety to the humour he brings throughout, he really is one the most memorable characters in the entirety of fiction. I really enjoyed the sections with the king and the duke, but it probably did take a turn for the worst towards the end I won't give it away but I nearly gave myself a headache from rolling my eyes.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Obviously the greatest work of American LIterature.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Really enjoyed reading this after tackling a couple of George Eliot classics this was a nice break. I haven't laughed out loud to many books but this one got me eventually. Capable readers from age 11 or so would enjoy it (not that I've managed to convince any to finish it).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a very interesting book. The adventures were so ridiculous and unrealistic that they were hysterical. What I mean by that is that most of the things Huck does, like getting caught up in with people trying to steal money from orphans, wouldn't happen to regular people. I think that's what makes this story so different. Huck hates having to act civilized and so when his father kidnapped him, he doesn't really mind. After getting beat up many times though, Huck decides that he needs to run away. This book is full of the adventures he goes through trying to stay hidden from his past and the people that he meets along the way. There are points in this book where you're sure that Huck is going to be found out, and sent back. But Huck and his friends always outsmart everyone. While I did enjoy the plot, the way this book was written was very different. It added a lot to the book because it helps you really visualize Huck, but it is very difficult to understand. I would recommend this book only if you have time to break down the text and really understand it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of a young boy, and his travels down the Mississippi River. It is one of the most famous novels of all time, and Mark Twain is an author that I don't think gets enough talk-time in high school. For that reason, among others, I chose this novel. Huckleberry Finn is a great character, and his story deals a lot with issues of race and power, issues that I would do well to expose my students to. I know that this book comes with controversy, namely it's use of the n-word, which would warrant a discussion of the time period and the context of the book's setting. I just think this novel is too rich a learning experience to leave off the list.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Twain can tell a story like no other. I would happily re-read this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked it much better the second time. Mark Twain has an amazing writing style. Definitely recommend.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Things I liked:

    The characters voice and train of thought frequently made me smile. The way his mind came up against big moral issues like slavery and murder and things like that were provocative, making me wonder about my own rational for strongly held beliefs.

    Things I thought could be improved:

    The section at the end when Tom Sawyer was doing all manner of ridiculous rituals as part of the attempt to free Jim I thought stretched credibility of Huck or Jim going along with him. Even with the reveal at the end that Jim was really free anyway I found it tiresome after a while. While I don't mind the idea of Tom trying to add some romance to the escape, I think it definitely could be have been edited down to about a third of what it was.

    Highlight: When Jim finds Huck again after being lost on the raft. Huck plays a trick on him to convince him it was all a dream. Jim falls for it but then catches on and shames Huck for playing with his emotions. That made both the character of Jim and Huck sing for me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    What’s to even be said about this book? It’s Twain’s greatest accomplishment. It manages to undertake a variety of difficult themes (i.e. race relations) and make it possible for a seventeen year old to not only understand it, but be inspired by it.

    Down with censorship. Twain wrote what he meant. He was probably smarter than you, PTA president-soccer mom-Volvo-driving-bitch.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I don't know if I can add much more than what's already been written and said about this enduring classic, except that it's one of the few books that ought to be read by every single member of the human race. Hilarious, enduring in its critical view of racism and endearing in exposing many other human flaws.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read "Huckleberry Finn" in high school. In the intervening years, whenever I would hear that this book was being challenged or censored or banned from school districts, I would inevitably scoff. How could people be so closed-minded, I would think to myself, as to overlook the redeeming values of this text, one that has proven so accessible to students over the last century as a portrait of the evils of slavery, just because of the offensive nature of one historically-accurate word used within it.I've doubled in age since I first picked up the book, and just finished reading it again. And here's what I didn't remember: This book is harsh. Huck Finn isn't an abolitionist, just an opportunist who won't feel too bad if he accidentally gets taken for one. While he struggles to reconcile Jim's kindnesses towards him with everything he has been taught about slaves as property, and ultimately helps Jim to escape, he doesn't exactly do it for all the right reasons. And while the book is a satire of the time and place about which it was written, it is still the story of a black man filtered through a white person's perspective. Over and over, Huck has adventures while Jim is hiding in the swamp, or in costume in a wigwam, or locked up in a shed. If you were to tell the story from Jim's perspective, it would involve a lot of hiding and waiting. Our collective memory as a society is somewhat inaccurate; this is not the story of how Huck helps free Jim, but of how Jim helps free the mind and morality of Huck. Seeing the book now, I would question whether high schoolers have the necessary life experience and mentality to get this perspective out of the narrative. But for older readers, the book is worth a second look.The Barnes and Noble edition contains an introduction and notes by Robert G. O'Meally. The first half of the introduction offers insightful critical perspectives, but the second half veers too specifically into O'Meally's own personal academic interests, casting the novel as a precursor to the Blues tradition. The notes, also, can be irritating to educated readers, as they clearly presuppose younger readers with a less developed vocabulary and critical eye. While the edition is still an excellent buy with its attractive binding and affordable price, you might want to ignore the annotations unless you are one of the teenagers in the intended audience for them.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It has been many years since I read his book. I recently listened to the audiobook while driving to and from work the past couple of weeks.Mark Twain was one of the best writers of his time. His stories feel so real and you can get lost in the storytelling. The story of Huck Finn is no different.Huck is a young boy in Mississippi in the 1800s. Slavery is prominent; which means so is racism. Huck recently falls into a lot of money ($6000 sounds funny these days to call that a lot but it was a fortune back then). He's scare of his absentee abusive drunken father taking it away. When his dad shows up to do just that, Huck forms a plan to escape. He fakes his own death. The rest of the book tells of Huck's travels and trials. Makes you wonder how one small boy gets into so much trouble. He runs into Jim, a runaway slave that belongs to his guardian. This is where the boy must decide what is right. Society rule is to turn Jim in (Jim could get beaten or even hung for running away), but Huck's conscience says Jim is a good man who deserves to be free. I recommend everyone read this book. Look past the racist remarks and see them for what they are. A glimpse into a time that is long past and learn from the young boy, who even though he lives in a period where segregation and degradation of people are the norm, he looks into his own heart and makes a friend of someone so much different then himself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What can you say about a book that is such a classic? My mother recommended this book to me (a surprise as she’s not the biggest classics fan) so I bought it to read as part of my daily commute. I can’t believe I didn’t read it at a younger age (or even see a movie- I’m sure there is one) until now. This is the ultimate boy’s own adventure (even though I’m not a boy).The first thing that struck me about this book is the voice of Huckleberry Finn- you feel like he is sitting beside you, telling his story. Mark Twain is excellent at getting all the characters’ voices to sound true in both accent and feeling. Jim is incredibly patient with the boyhood escapades of Huck and Tom. The supporting characters of the Duke and the King are hilarious in their ability to think up new schemes.There are many themes covered in this book –class, racism but the book does not feel like it’s preaching at you. Huckleberry and Jim fall into a number of situations and scrapes but it all flows beautifully, just like the Mississippi, a rollicking yarn. Read it to your children before they grow up! (OK, so it’s not all that PC with the use of the word ‘n*****’ but it is a great book. Not the Great American Novel – isn’t that The Great Gatsby? – but it is a lot of fun).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Now this was a book that I could enjoy reading! It's about time! What I love the most about Huck Finn is that it's a simple story, with nothing too over the top plot-wise. You've just got a kid who ran away from home, floating down the Mississippi River on a raft with a slave who's running away because he heard he was going to be sold down South. And, well, that's about it! They talk, they run into people, they experience different adventures based on the towns they pass and the people in them, and it's a learning and growing experience for our main character, Huck, which says a great deal for those of us who have experienced the single-mindedness of Tom Sawyer. *Snorts* For one thing, when Tom Sawyer appears in this book the couple of times you see him, not only are you shocked by the manner of his thinking and the utter nonsense he pulls everyone into, but it just made me mad that he was so over-the-top and made everything a MILLION times more complicated than it needed to be! Arg! Okay, so towards the end it all played out for the best, perhaps. But STILL. The kid needs to seriously be smacked upside the head for being such a jerk of things! He's a smart kid, and he knows how to take advantage of others. That's been his thing since anyone's first met the character. But it can get reaaaally frustrating to those of us that don't know that we're being put on or why we're doing things so lengthy and miserably intense when the easy solution is sitting RIGHT THERE.

    I definitely feel that there was a great deal of charm to this book however. The way that Huck and Jim act and interact is always fun and delightful, and half the time it's a wonder watching Huck learn so much from being with Jim over this long journey. You get to just sit back and enjoy everything as it unfolds. And when there are intense, life-and-safety threatening things going on, you're pulled to the very edge of your seat with anxiety for these characters that have come to mean so much to you, that's you're almost unaware of how it happened or at what point you started to really and honestly care about them. But I think that's part of the charm of Mark Twain's writing here, because that's the exact same way that Huck experiences his attachment to Jim: not knowing if he cares, or how much he cares, until all these different events come along and put him in a hard place, where he has to make some life-changing decisions--not just for himself either, but ultimately for Jim as well. It shows his character, how strong he is, even when he feels he's lost most of the time, or guilty of one thing or another that is really tied to him in no way. We've got to remember that Huck's just a kid, but he's a kid going through some majorly adult decisions a lot of the time, and a kid that's been through a lot just from the way you see him react to certain things. This is a boy that's been around and knows the world, even if he isn't an expert in it, and even if he isn't the most educated.

    I think, in part, it's this lack of any strict education or upbringing that makes Huck the wonderful character that he is: because he's got much less to influence him besides his own feelings, and his own logic, and his heart. He's a kid that uses his brain, and that makes mistakes, but he sure as the sun rises does his best to figure his way out of things--and he CAN too, what's more! He's capable, even though he's nothing special at all. And it's this great ability of his to choose what he feels is best over anything else that truly made me admire his character.

    That's why, when Tom Sawyer got involved and Huck once again became a secondary, if not background character even, I was ROYALLY steamed! This was Huck's story! It's got HIS name on the book! And Tom Sawyer just has a way of waltzing in, destroying everything that we just achieved, and stealing not only the show but the spotlight itself--permanently. From the moment Tom once again enters the picture in the latter part of the book, we lose everything that we gained throughout the story, and that's what frustrates me so IMMENSELY. And it kills me too, because Huck just goes right along with it, like it's no big deal. He sits there and goes right back to thinking all those things he's been probably told all his life: that he was born bad and will stay bad; that he's not smart, and he'll never be smart enough to out-do others; that he's nothing special, and so he's not going to try to be anything special. And it just irks me to see him like that! I feel like if he had the chance to be on his own with Jim for a time longer, that he would have grown so much more, so that maybe someday, this attitude that he's nothing at all would disappear, and he'd take claim of the fact that he is somebody strong and worthwhile!

    Who knows what's going to happen from here though. Readers, I definitely think this is a book that most people can enjoy. It's got a few things in it that I think are meant to be blatantly grating and even insulting, but that's how we learn and begin to think, and I know that's how Mark Twain intended it to be read and thought about. Take a chance on it if you haven't read it before! It's one of the better reads in the batch of Classic literature we're all told to read, I feel! And I hope you enjoy it as much as I did~!