Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Signature Performance by Elijah Wood

by Mark Twain

Genres: Audiobook, Classics

MP3 CD

Published January 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Adam Shields · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary:  A quest style adventure with a bit of satire.

Last year I read James by Percival Everett. This year my book group chose to read it and I decided that I needed to read Huck Finn as well. I have not previously read Huck Finn, and while a number of the group had read Huck Finn in school, no one had read it recently when we started. (Although two others read it as we read James, just like I did.)

I HATED Huck Finn. I like the book James. But I honestly can't figure out why so many people love Huck Finn. Maybe it is simply that it was a young adult adventure book when that was fairly new and so people have fond memories of books that they read as children. I have reread a number of books as an adult that I remember fondly from my childhood. Some of them still work, but some do not.

Tom Sawyer is an awful character. I can't read the end of Huck Finn with Tom Sawyer's foolishness without wanting to throw the book across the room. There is no sense to Tom Sawyer's attention to "the right way" that things are done. While at times Huck has naive wisdom and plays like he knows the Duke and King were bad men, his continued desire to save them or go back to them did not make any sense. Huck at times treats Jim as human, but much of the time Jim is a pet.

I know that people suggest that this is satire, but that doesn't do it for me. I can tell that Mark Twain is trying to write satire. But while the ridiculousness of the "escape plan" at the end can only be read as satire, it is just cruelty. The N word is used 219 times by several web articles I found. That is more than once every two pages.

I did understand James more because I read Huck Finn. There was more deviations from the Huck Finn story line than I assumed when I read James the first time. But honestly I think I like James less after reading Huck Finn than I did before I read Huck Finn.

I alternated between reading the text and listening to an audiobook narrated by Elijah Wood. The audio was well produced, but the audio just confirms that this is not a book that should be read by kids. It is not that kids can't hear the N word in any book. But that Huck Finn whitewashes slavery and encourages dehumanization and uses humor to cover up the story. We already have problems telling the real history of slavery and reconstruction in United States history, we do not need to perpetuate fictionalized white washing as to confuse the history.

If I had not been reading James with a book club and wanting to have the comparison between Huck Finn and James I would not have finished the book. Even so I had to force myself to finish it.

[Conimarie S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in middle school and remembered it being somewhat lighthearted and funny. I'd never read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but I wanted to read James for a few bookmarks in the Goodreads winter challenge and for the 52 Book Club Challenge, so I figured I'd better read Huck Finn first.

First, Elijah Wood as the narrator was first-rate! His ability to capture the dialect and switch between the characters was superb. He brought the story to life for me. I chose the audiobook so I could listen to it while commuting to work each day and while at work when able. I am so glad I chose this version.

As far as the story goes, I thought it was well written and the Mark Twain style I remembered. I loved it up until Tom Sawyer came into the picture. I understand part of the premise of the books, both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, featured classism but Tom's treatment of both Huck and Jim made me angry. His 'I'm better than you, I read books and I know the right way ' mentality just upset me. Huck and Jim had done so well for themselves the entire book and then Tom comes in and takes over. It was frustrating. It was also fascinating though how Huck and Jim's street smarts were more useful than Tom's book smarts.

Overall I'm glad I read this book and I'm glad it evoked the anger it did. I think that's what it was supposed to do. Thankfully my hold for James was available today so I'm now one chapter into James. I'm excited to hear the story from his perspective--especially the part that made me angry.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good performance. I wanted to read this book before reading James for book club and this fitted the bill perfectly. The content of the book of course is problematic and of its time so not enjoyable from that point of view. All is quite an adventure story and an interesting account of the changing attitude of Huck in particular until the last long section of Jim's imprisonment when the book and Huck and Tom seem to totally lose their way and any respect and so listening to that was extremely tedious but there you are. was just glad to get it done then.
Did meet my purpose of reading this classicc easily so 4 stars. Well done Elijah Wood!

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed revisiting Huck through this audio version. Elijah Wood was unexpectedly good as the narrator - not that he isn't an engaging narrator or actor, but it just didn't seem like he matched with the book (not true, as it turned out).