After yesterday’s indie bookstore post, today you get… a book review! And not just any book, mind you, but a classic. It’s from one of my favorite satirists of all time, Mark Twain. On This Day In History, 1885, Twain published a sequel to his smash 1876 hit, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His new book?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
At the book’s heart is the journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on a raft. Jim runs away because he is about to be sold and separated from his wife and children. Huck goes with him to help him get to Ohio and freedom.
Huck narrates the story in his distinctive voice, offering colorful descriptions of the people and places they encounter along the way. The most striking part of the book is its satirical look at racism, religion and other social attitudes of the time. While Jim is strong, brave, generous and wise, many of the white characters are portrayed as violent, stupid or simply selfish. The naive Huck ends up questioning the hypocritical, unjust nature of society in general.
Even two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed with a splash. A month after its publication, a Concord, Massachusetts, library banned the book. They called its subject matter “tawdry” and its narrative voice “coarse” and “ignorant.” Other libraries followed suit. Thus began a controversy that continued long after Twain’s death in 1910.
In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African-American groups. They said it was racist in its portrayal of black characters – despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery. As recently as 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district over Huck Finn. She claimed that making Twain’s novel required reading made already existing racial tensions even worse.
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You just gotta love it when the critics call your work “tawdry.” That’s almost as high praise as “coarse” and “ignorant.” And so, with the publication of Huck Finn, Twain scores the ironic literary trifecta. Or, as no less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared:
“There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”
Ummmm – OK then. Whether you love or hate Twain, that may be overstating things a bit? But, Ernie always did tend toward purple prose…. Which brings us to today’s Word of the Day – and no, it’s not “tawdry.” (For that one, go here and skip to the end.) Rather it’s this:
A generally pejorative term for writing or speech characterized by ornate, flowery, or hyperbolic language. The double meaning of the term “purple” is useful: It is both imperial and regal – demanding attention – as well as overly ornate, ostentatious, and sometimes even profane.
Sorry, Papa. Like Twain, I was only being ironic. Just please don’t call me “tawdry,” OK?
Bonus Mark Twain quotes:
And of course, my all-time favorite:
Yer welcome.