The man touted as "America's favorite storyteller," Garrison Keillor, has joined leagues with America's other favorite storyteller, Mark Twain. He reads his own adaptation of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." [brought to you by HighBridge Audio] ...Where most readers make Finn sound like a gritty, stream-smart little river rat, Keillor gives him a whiff of wistfulness andyeseven an ingenuous quality. And it will go down in history as the only recording that changes the ending of the book....Keillor even has his own bit of fun, including on the cassette jacket "A Note From the Hero's Father," one Newton P. Finn, a three-term member of Congress from Missouri. Finn claims that the book "has some true parts in it, but most of it is stretched, as you'd expect from a writer who doesn't even use his own name." The whole thing is a powerful lot of fun.
Radio personality and best-selling author Garrison Keillor lends his considerable charm, enthusiasm and taste to this superb reading and abridgment of Twain's classic [brought to you by HighBridge Audio]. His cutting makes no concessions to the Comstockery that has made "Huckleberry Finn" an object of heated debate. Instead, he gives us a "good parts" version, his personal pick of choice passages, edited with sensitivity to narrative flow, style and theme. The same literary tact plays in his voice, along with love and a childlike ingenuousness. The pristine recording is an excellent introduction to Keillor, as well as to Sam Clemens, two of America's most engaging heartland storytellers.
Patrick Fraley previously recorded what is surely the definitive audio version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , and he achieves the same masterful result with this title. Fraley sounds less like a narrator and more like a storyteller spinning a colorful yarn. His folksy accent is perfect for Huck, and he creates a host of distinctive voices that bring to life the story's colorful cast of characters. Students new to Twain's work will find this an inviting introduction, while adults and Twain fans who have read Huckleberry Finn many times will find added enjoyment and meaning in the new audio version.
Billboard
This is the first edition of the classic American novel, the first ever to be based on Twain's entire original manuscript.
The story of the classic, controversial tale's latest edition is one of painstaking literary detective work. 'It's like filling in the genome,' for the book, said noted Twain scholar Louis J. Budd. 'Maybe nothing is ever the last word, especially on Twain, but this seems like it.'
This is the definitive critical edition of Huckleberry Finn you've been waiting for. Ingenious textual detective work rescues Twain at last from hundreds of careless errors by typists, typesetters and proofreaders. The fascinating explanatory notes help us decode allusions that were familiar to readers in Twain's time but are obscure today, while the reproduced manuscript pages let us compare for the first time first and final drafts of some of the book's most memorable passages. This splendid book belongs in every library, home, and literature classroom.
The University of California Press has presented everything needed to understand Twain and his works. They have made him the most accessible of major American writers, the most thoroughly documented. Chicago Sun-Times
First rate. Chicago Tribune
No other American writer has been served so competently or so successfully in the publication of sound texts as has Samuel L. Clemens by the Mark Twain Project of the University of California in Berkeley. Choice
As admirable as is now to be expected from the Mark Twain Project of the Bancroft Library. Yearbook of English Studies
The Mark Twain Project looms over the landscape of literary scholarship like Mount Everest.
Because of the lately recovered half of the manuscript we now have the genome filled in for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, along with the Mississippi-wide expertise that shows us how to comprehend this edition. To borrow from one of the Connecticut Yankee's walking ads, 'All the Prime-Donne will use it.'
In this centenary year of the first American edition of Huckleberry Finn, Neider, who has worked long and well in the thickets of Twain scholarship (this is the ninth Twain volume he has edited), offers a most fitting tribute, for which he will be thanked in some quarters, damned in others. Neider's contribution is twofold: he has restored to its rightful place the great rafting chapter, which the author had lifted from the manuscript-in-progress and dropped into Life on the Mississippi, and he has abridged some of the childish larkiness in the portions in which Huck's friend Tom Sawyer intrudes into this novel. For decades, critics have lamented the absence of the ``missing'' chapter and deplored the jarring presence of Tom in episodes that slow the narrative, but not until now has anyone had the temerity to set matters right. In paring back the ``Tom'' chapters (which he fully documents in his lengthy, spirited introduction, with literal line counts of the excised material), Neider has achieved a brisker read. Though there may be some brickbats thrown at him for this ``sacrilege,'' few should object to the belated appearance of the transplanted rafting chapter in the novel in which it clearly belongs. October 25
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Though numerous editions of Twain's 1885 novel abound, this is the first to incorporate four previously unknown episodes discovered in 1990 when the first half of the original handwritten manuscript was unearthed. This edition also includes the original illustrations as well as photos of 29 original pages and notes by Twain scholar Victor Doyno. All this at a reasonable price makes Random's comprehensive edition of Huckleberry Finn essential for all libraries.
Gr 5 Up-The St. Charles Players superbly present the essence of Mark Twain's 1884 classic in this Radio Theatre rendition. With an 18-person cast, they retell the story in a variety of voices, using many of the author's original words as well as adding their own narrative and conversation. This audio version allows youngsters to learn of Huckleberry's trip down the Mississippi on a raft in the company of the (allegedly) runaway slave Jim without bogging them down with hard to understand dialect or offensive words. The style is reminiscent of the Golden Years of Radio drama, with original music and sound effects accompanying the dramatic telling. The aural quality is good, with clear enunciation. Although the action follows the book commendably and includes all the events of major importance, this cannot be used as a read-along version. This is not a drawback, but rather a means of enticing younger students to become acquainted with Twain's work. It would appeal to teachers or librarians who are looking for a lively way to introduce the classics. For older students, also consider Trafalgar Square's three-hour The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Sept. 2000, p. 84).-Joanne K. Hammond, Chambersburg Area Middle School, PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
"One can read it at ten and then annually ever after, and each year find that it is as fresh as the year before..."--Lionel Trilling
The St. Charles Players presents a multi-cast dramatization of Mark Twain's classic American novel, Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn in their unique and totally entertaining "Radio Theatre" style. This familiar story of Huck Finn, a young boy running away from home with Jim, a Negro slave seeking escape to freedom, is wonderfully retold with each bend of the Mississippi River bringing a new adventure, a chance encounter, a wealth of mischief, fun, and memorable characters. Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn is a rewarding, entertaining, highly recommended, two cassette, 141 minute, audiobook addition to any personal, school or community library collection.
"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn . It's the best book we've had." —Ernest Hemingway
"This welcome new edition brings beautifully to life Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Mark Twain conceived it. Along with the excellent critical introduction and notes, the abundant contextual materials offer a superb recreation of the historical and cultural context in which the novel was written and read.
Eric J. Sundquist Johns Hopkins University
"Broadview's new Adventures of Huckleberry Finn answers the need for an edition of America's most popular canonical novel that provides readers—and most especially student readers at all levels—with the critical tools essential to serious inquiry. The text is reliable and beautifully produced; Stephen Railton's introduction is copious, well informed, and critically suggestive; and the several appendices, featuring a wide selection of contextual materials, nicely anticipate readers' needs.
Forrest Robinson University of California
Run, skip, drive, walk quickly, swim or locomote to your nearest audiobook supplier and procure a copy of Patrick Fraley’s sensational reading of this American classic. Touted on its packaging as a performance, as opposed to a mere narration, this rendition should be recognized as an audio classic in its own right. Fraley recreates Huck, Jim and the rest of the gang flawlessly, using an elastic voice, perfect diction and bubbling enthusiasm. He has mastered the many dialects of this nineteenth-century text, making it easy to follow the story and appreciate Twain’s humor. Fraley also does some serious verbal gymnastics by changing character voices a half-dozen times within a two-minute span. The music between chapters adds to the overall exceptional experience. R.I.G. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
