by Philo Gabriel

Created on: September 14, 2009   Last Updated: January 10, 2010

For the benefit of the few who are not familiar with Mark Twain's most celebrated novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a sequel to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Both novels take place in antebellum Missouri, on the Mississippi River. Tom is I suppose what would pass for middle class back then; Huck is poor and has been abandoned by his abusive father "Pap."

Early in this second book however, Pap, hearing that Huck has come into some money, returns to reclaim custody of Huck - really hold him hostage - to try to get his hands on that money. Huck escapes down the river on a raft, joined by slave Jim, who coincidentally is fleeing because he believes he will be sold into worse conditions.

They have a series of misadventures, eventually inadvertently ending up with distant relatives of Tom's. Because the relatives have never seen Tom in person, Huck is able to pass himself off as Tom and settles in with them for the moment. To complicate things, Tom himself arrives for an unexpected visit. Tipped off by Huck, he pretends to be his own brother.

Tom and Huck make up unnecessarily elaborate, complicated schemes (inspired by children's adventure stories) to help Jim not be returned to slavery. In fact - as Tom knows but neglects to mention so as not to ruin the game - Jim's owners have already freed him. In the end the truth comes out and everybody's happy, and Huck decides as nice as all this is, his heart is on the road (or on the river), and maybe he best "light out for the Territory" on his own.

I sometimes wonder what I would think of this book if I were somehow reading it cold, with no prior knowledge of its reputation, or of the controversies about it.

If I had no awareness that this is a "classic," that almost all literary historians and critics place it near the top of the list of the best and most important American novels, would I have guessed it has that status? Probably not. I can understand why it would be highly regarded, but it doesn't blow me away as far as being among the greatest books of all time.

Still, I've read it multiple times, and always enjoyed it.

The book does an excellent job in using irony and humor to convey certain attitudes and beliefs. The struggle within Huck between individual conscience and the external social, political and religious moral code, for one obvious example.

Or for another example, the attitude toward the slaves as being property, of being at or below the level of livestock. It isn't just that slaves legally

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