The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn according to Ernest Hemingway “All modern American Literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.”
The novel is a rich source to understand the American way of life in the early days of modernisation. For lovers of Nature and rivers especially, there is no better novel as Mark Twain takes the reader on a magical and mystical journey across the Mississippi. The lyrical quality of the narrative lends it an aura of other worldliness and dreaminess. There are several themes in the novel; Pap as the father who cares very little for Huck, Ole Jim who is the real father figure to Huck, Huck’s dislike of civilisation and discipline, the adventures of the foursome on the boat across the river coast and so on. It could be called a travelogue, a picaresque novel, a satire or a Bildungsromans. Theorists and critics have found a profound statement in the novel on the values of modernity and society.
Other similar books are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, The Prince and the Pauper, Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, Don Quixote and Humphrey Clinker are a few examples.