Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) FROM OUR EDITORS
Barnes & Noble Classics offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Huckleberry Finn, rebel against school and church, casual inheritor of gold treasure, rafter of the Mississippi, and savior of Jim the runaway slave, is the archetypal American maverick. Fleeing the respectable society that wants to ᄑsivilizeᄑ him, Huck Finn shoves off with Jim on a rhapsodic raft journey down the Mississippi River. As Huck learns about love, responsibility, and how to make moral choices, the trip becomes a metaphoric voyage through his own soul, culminating in the glorious moment when he decides to ᄑgo to hellᄑ rather than return Jim to slavery.
Mark Twain defined ᄑclassicᄑ as ᄑa book which people praise and donᄑt readᄑ; Huckleberry Finn is a happy exception to this rule. Twainᄑs mastery of dialect, coupled with his famous wit, makes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn one of the most enjoyable and distinctly American classics ever written.
Robert OᄑMeally is Zora Neale Hurston Professor of Literature at Columbia University and the Director of Columbia Universityᄑs Center for Jazz Studies. He is the principal writer of Seeing Jazz (1997), the catalogue for the Smithsonian Institutionᄑs exhibit on jazz and literature, and the coeditor of The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (1996).