I hated “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”.
And “Huck Finn” … I never really got it.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | October 1, 2022 12:43 AM |
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a boy's book for the mid-Victorian era. "Huck Finn" is a book for adults, and the first 3/4 of it are a masterpiece, but it has a very strange conclusion (Tom's plan at the end makes no sense).
Some of Twain's best books are actually his non-fiction books, including his travel books "Roughing It" and "The Innocents Abroad." I also very much like "Life on the Mississippi."
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 25, 2022 11:39 PM |
I like The Stranger too.
Tom Sawyer is completely different animal from Huckleberry Finn. And I think Twain was pressured to include Tom in Huck Finn by the editors. The novel ended up a minstrel show disaster in the final act and the resolution was stupid. Twain also wrote two sequels to Tom Sawyer with Huck and Jim going on adventures.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 25, 2022 11:52 PM |
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 26, 2022 12:21 AM |
The Mysterious Stranger is brilliant, as is The Five Boons of Life. You can read that at the link.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 26, 2022 12:25 AM |
I like Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court...I also like Prince and the Pauper
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 26, 2022 1:48 AM |
We used to have to take turns reading books out loud in my high school English class. Nobody wanted to get a paragraph from Huck Finn with the n-word in it. Teachers didn't give a shit that we felt uncomfortable reading that out loud. 1988.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 26, 2022 1:57 AM |
Its all about the context r6...not everything is meant to be offensive. Ignoring something doesnt make it go away.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 26, 2022 2:31 AM |
Explain that to a 16 year old.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 26, 2022 2:34 AM |
The best one - I don't know. I enjoyed this a lot, however.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 26, 2022 2:37 AM |
Your teacher should have r8
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 26, 2022 2:38 AM |
I couldn't get into his Joan of Arc book. Great writer, but female characters weren't his strong suit.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 26, 2022 3:50 AM |
Naked Came a Mysterious Stranger
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 26, 2022 5:19 AM |
I liked The Innocents Abroad.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 26, 2022 5:58 AM |
I remember reading Mark Twain in junior high, circa 1980, and our English teacher had to explain every “joke”. Nobody laughed.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 26, 2022 6:04 AM |
Then Mark Twain FAILED you, r14.
Did you hear that? Be funnier, Mark Twain!
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 26, 2022 6:10 AM |
Yeah R15, that was sort of our English teachers response as well.
Guessing you’re a boomer.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 26, 2022 6:17 AM |
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is just superlative.
Parts of “Roughing It” made me laugh louder than I ever have from a book.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 26, 2022 6:21 AM |
R1, Tom's plan at the end makes sense as the ultimate troll by Twain of the South's twisted attachment to slavery, and the sick criminal laws that went with it. Unlike Huck, whose camaraderie and love for Jim could be dismissed by prosperous racists as the lowdown proclivities of a no-account white-trash son of the local drunk, Tom was a child of the respectable Southern bourgeoisie. And this Southern child could think of no game more fun than that of aiding and abetting a slave escape. That was a felony in the South at the time--to a Southern slaver that would be like a child wanting to pretend to be a terrorist or stickup artist. Today's wokesters shriek about how callous Tom's game endangered Jim by delaying his liberation. But Tom was a child, and the child's affinities were more human than those of the adults around him. Twain tops it off by closing with Tom and Huck making clear they'd rather light out for the Territories with Jim than stick around Southern society to be "sivilised."
It's awesome. Perhaps the greatest American novel. "Moby Dick" is up there, but there's no jokes.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 26, 2022 6:55 AM |
I think Pudd'nhead Wilson, despite its flaws, contained some of Twain's greatest and funniest critiques of slavery and racism in America.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | October 1, 2022 12:43 AM |
