The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Audiobook Review)

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Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Author: Mark Twain

Publisher: Recorded Books

Narrator: Norman Dietz

Duration: 11 hours, 11 minutes

Copyright: 1980

Genres: classic fiction, adventure, juvenile

Filed in: Audiobook reviews



THE GIST: This tale picks up right where “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” left off. With the hidden treasure they found, Tom and Huck are wealthy by the standards of the day, and Huck has been taken in by a local widow in an attempt to “civilize” him. Huck soon begins to chafe at the new restrictions on his lifestyle, however, and yearns for the freedom he had before he became a rich man. To complicate matters further, Huck’s drunken father learns of his son’s fortune, and returns to town to see if he can get his hands on it.



It’s all a bit much for Huckleberry Finn, and he decides to light out. A happy coincidence pairs him up with one of the widow’s Negro slaves, Jim, who has also decided to make a run for it upon learning that the widow intends to sell him. The two accomplices fashion together a raft of driftwood and head down the Mississippi river in their now famous journey.



Adventures abound as Huck and Jim float farther and farther down the river. On their voyage south, they encounterrobbers and murderers, feuding families, and traveling confidence men. Of course, the real value of this book, is the fascinating snapshot it gives us of life in the Mississippi river delta in the 1800’s. More importantly, we see, through Huck’s eyes, that the Negro, Jim, is not merely a piece of property, but a thinking human being with ideas and feelings of his own. Pretty ground-breaking stuff considering the period it was written in.



MY THOUGHTS: I was an adolescent boy myself when I first read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, but I remember it well. For weeks afterward, I day-dreamed about building a raft and floating off down the river. I wouldn’t have made it very far, as soon as my asthma medicine ran out, I would have to go home. Mark Twain’s grasp of the nature of boys is right on the money, though. I think that must be hard for a writer, putting themselves in the shoes of a child, but Twain does it masterfully.



NARRATOR: Norman Dietz, who also read “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, sounded even better on “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The accents he uses for the various characters may not be perfectly accurate, especially as Huck and Jim move farther south down the river, but they work. He doesn’t read with a great deal of passion, but his inflection and pacing are good. Overall, I enjoyed his performance.



FINAL WORD: Just like Tom Sawyer, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is an important piece of classic American literature. It would really be a shame if you let your life pass you by without reading this audio book.



FILM ADAPTATION: I’m sure “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has been adapted to film several times, but one of the most notable to me is the 1993 version. This film starred Elijah Wood as Huck Finn, Jason Robards as The King, and Anne Heche as Mary Jane Wilkes.



CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Audiobook Review)

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers (Audiobook Review)

Peter and the Star-Catchers by Dave Barry (Audiobook Review)





If you liked this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:

Get The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Unabridged Classics in Audio) from Amazon.com.



Interested in the movie?

Get The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939) from Amazon.com.



This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.

Audiobook review by Steven Brandt

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