Huck Finn's America: Mark Twain and the Era That Shaped His Masterpiece

About this book

A provocative exuberant and deeply researched investigation into Mark Twains writing of Huckleberry Finn which turns on its head everything we thought we knew about Americas favorite icon of childhood. In Huck Finns America award-winning biographer Andrew Levy shows how modern readers have been misunderstanding Huckleberry Finn for decades. Twains masterpiece which still sells tens of thousands of copies each year and is taught more than any other American classic is often discussed either as a carefree adventure story for children or a serious novel about race relations yet Levy argues convincingly it is neither. Instead Huck Finn was written at a time when Americans were nervous about youth violence and uncivilized bad boys and a debate was raging about education popular culture and responsible parenting casting Hucks now-celebrated freedom in a very different and very modern light. On issues of race on the other hand Twains lifelong fascination with minstrel shows and black culture inspired him to write a book not about civil rights but about races role in entertainment and commerce the same features upon which much of our own modern consumer culture is also grounded. In Levys vision Huck Finn has more to say about contemporary children and race that we have ever imaginedif we are willing to hear it. An eye-opening groundbreaking exploration of the character and psyche of Mark Twain as he was writing his most famous novel Huck Finns America brings the past to vivid surprising life and offers a persuasiveand controversialargument for why this American classic deserves to be understood anew.