Time for Twain

We're beginning to read Huckleberry Finn this week, and I've enjoyed three lectures from The Teaching Company to get more background details and some literary criticism.

I delight in Twain's humor, and am looking forward to reading this book for the first time. I'm late to this one, but at least I am reading it now!

One thing the professor (in the lecture series) says about Huckleberry Finn (the book) is that the final third of the book is just botched. I suppose I can write more about my thoughts on this when I come to that point. He gives his own reasons why, but I'll save that for later.

Have you read Huck Finn and enjoyed it for what it is; for the maturing that Huck goes through...realizing that for the time period in which it was set (1840's), certain expressions and societal mores were commonplace?

It is a controversial book, even from the time it first came out. It offended the Bostonian thinkers/writers in the 1880's, for slightly different reasons than it offends others in our day and age. I don't recommend it for younger students, but perhaps mature jr. high and high school would enjoy reading and discussing it with parents and teachers.

I'd enjoy taking a Twain college course, myself! This is the next best way for me to accomplish that.

Javamom

p.s. Hat tip to Maria re: Mark Twain Scrapbook at pbs online. The also have a timeline of Twain's life, lesson and activity plans, and more on the Ken Burns film of Mark Twain.