Origins: Twain's Life and Career

Twain: Huckleberry Finn

In this course, Professor Thomas Ruys Smith (University of East Anglia) explores Mark Twain's 1884/5 novel, Huckleberry Finn. In the first module, we think about the origins of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain's life and career up to 1884/5. In the second module, we think about what kind of book Huckleberry Finn is, before turning in the third module to the text itself and thinking about Huck and Jim's journey down the Mississippi. In the fourth module, we think about the novel's problematic and controversial ending, before turning in the fifth module to the novel's critical reception, from the very first reviews in 1885 to the criticism of individuals such as Alan Gribben, Jane Smiley, and Toni Morrison.

Origins: Twain's Life and Career

In this module, we think about the origins of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain's life and career up to 1884, when the novel was first published. In particular, we focus on: (i) what the book is about, its influence on American literary culture; (ii) Twain's early life in Hannibal, Missouri, and the importance of the River Mississippi on which the town stood; (iii) Twain's early career: first as a printer, then as a steamboat pilot, his journey from St Louis to New Orleans; (iv) the importance of the Mississippi as a trade route, especially for transporting enslaved people to and from the slave market in New Orleans; (v) Twain's early experience of the slave trade; (vi) the symbolism of the Mississippi in Huckleberry Finn; (vii) the impact of the Civil War on Twain: his move west, his adoption of the pen name 'Mark Train', his first published work; (viii) the legacy of the Civil War, and the extent to which key questions were still unanswered at the time Twain was writing Huckleberry Finn; and (ix) Twain's continued success as a writer, his marriage, family, and his foray into children's literature including the Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).