Review #2
In perhaps the most famous scene in Twain's novels, this book opens with Tom skipping school, dirtying his clothes, and being forced to white-wash a fence in punishment. Tom, however, cleverly escapes the punishment by convincing his friends to give him trinkets for the "privilege" of doing his work for him.
He then trades all these trinkets for Bible verse tickets at Sunday School, which he then trades in for a Bible, but then incorrectly shows off his Bible knowledge by saying that the first two disciples were David and Goliath.
Tom falls in love with Becky, but Becky's affections are short-lived. Tom and Huck Finn head out to a graveyard near the town drunk to play. They witness a murder by Injun Joe. Later, Injun Joe blames the town drunk, who is arrested.
Tom, Huck and a friend named Joe run off to an island to be pirates. Their families assume them dead, so the boys surprise them by showing up to their own funerals. Tom testifies to Injun Joe's guilt at the town drunk's murder trial.
Tom and Becky go play in a cave, and get lost. As they wander about, they find Injun Joe burrying some treasure. Searchers find Tom and Becky, and the cave is sealed with Injun Joe inside (he starves to death). Later, Tom and Huck go back and get Injun Joe's treasure, which is invested for them. Huck is adopted by Widow Douglass.
This book is cute and funny in Mark Twain's style, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Huck Finn. The book does a lot less to dispell racial stereotypes (the villian is a Indian in this book), and other than the whitewash scene, I don't think this book is as memorable.
However, it is certainly worth reading for it's fame and presence in contemporary writing...
29 May 2007
The Adventures of Huck Finn
Review # 1
The Adventures of Huck Finn is the classic story of Huck Finn traveling up the Mississippi River with a slave named Jim. Huck is escaping his abusive father, and Jim is escaping being sold to a plantation in the deeper south. As they travel down the river, Huck and Jim meet a number of adventures: the find a log raft with a man who has been shot, they run into a band of robbers and steal their loot and they convince some vigilantes that they are suffering with smallpox to narrowly escape.
Huck and Jim wreck their raft and Huck gets pulled into a Hatfield and McCoy style battle between two families (the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons). Thankfully, Jim repairs the raft and Huck escapes. Huck and Jim pick up two con artists who travel with them. The get involved in a scandal with the Wilkes family (involving false identity and lots of gold) but the con artists narrowly escape and continue to travel with Huck and Jim. Finally, the con artists sell Jim to a farmer who turns out to be Tom Sawyer's Aunt and Uncle.
Aunt and Uncle mistake Huck for Tom and Tom shows up and plays Tom's younger brother Sid. They plan an elaborate escape for Jim, but Tom is shot in the process. Jim helps Tom and Jim is recaptured. Tom's Aunt Polly shows up and sets it all right (Jim is actually free, Huck's dad is dead, etc). Huck sets out west for more adventures.
This is a pretty cute book and certainly is a famous one. I read it back in High School, but I remember being amused. I would recommend that anyone read it because of the sheer number of cultural references that come out of this book (or from the Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer partnerships in general). Be aware, however, that the language in the book is mature, reflecting the racial tones of Twain's time. I don't think that means it is inappropriate for children, it just means that if your kids read it, it will be worth talking to them about what the words mean and why they were used in that time period.
The Adventures of Huck Finn is the classic story of Huck Finn traveling up the Mississippi River with a slave named Jim. Huck is escaping his abusive father, and Jim is escaping being sold to a plantation in the deeper south. As they travel down the river, Huck and Jim meet a number of adventures: the find a log raft with a man who has been shot, they run into a band of robbers and steal their loot and they convince some vigilantes that they are suffering with smallpox to narrowly escape.
Huck and Jim wreck their raft and Huck gets pulled into a Hatfield and McCoy style battle between two families (the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons). Thankfully, Jim repairs the raft and Huck escapes. Huck and Jim pick up two con artists who travel with them. The get involved in a scandal with the Wilkes family (involving false identity and lots of gold) but the con artists narrowly escape and continue to travel with Huck and Jim. Finally, the con artists sell Jim to a farmer who turns out to be Tom Sawyer's Aunt and Uncle.
Aunt and Uncle mistake Huck for Tom and Tom shows up and plays Tom's younger brother Sid. They plan an elaborate escape for Jim, but Tom is shot in the process. Jim helps Tom and Jim is recaptured. Tom's Aunt Polly shows up and sets it all right (Jim is actually free, Huck's dad is dead, etc). Huck sets out west for more adventures.
This is a pretty cute book and certainly is a famous one. I read it back in High School, but I remember being amused. I would recommend that anyone read it because of the sheer number of cultural references that come out of this book (or from the Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer partnerships in general). Be aware, however, that the language in the book is mature, reflecting the racial tones of Twain's time. I don't think that means it is inappropriate for children, it just means that if your kids read it, it will be worth talking to them about what the words mean and why they were used in that time period.
28 May 2007
A summer of Reading
As I mentioned in my description, I finished my Master's degree this May in Speech Communication. I'm off to start my PhD in the fall, which must mean I'm well-read right? My younger cousin showed me this list (below) of the 101 books her university recommends she read before she starts there as an undergrad. A quick survey revealed I hadn't read nearly as many as I would have guessed. So, this summer before I start my PhD seems like a good time to read the books I should have read at least 6 years ago.
A quick note before you think I did no reading as a kid. I've chosen not to count any books I read only part of (for example, I've only read the Inferno part of Dante's Divine Comedy), any books that I've seen the movie but not read (Alice in Wonderland, for example) or any books I've read long enough ago to forget the basic plot (i. e. Pilgrim's Progress). I intend to spend this summer doing two things, then, with this list. I'm going to go through the books I have read and write plot synopses and my opinions on the works, and I'm going to read as many of the books I have not yet as I possibly can. Stay tuned so see how this all works out.
If I counted correctly (which is a gamble), I've read 41 of the 101 I should have read. I better improve that ratio. So, keep checking back on my progress.
A quick note before you think I did no reading as a kid. I've chosen not to count any books I read only part of (for example, I've only read the Inferno part of Dante's Divine Comedy), any books that I've seen the movie but not read (Alice in Wonderland, for example) or any books I've read long enough ago to forget the basic plot (i. e. Pilgrim's Progress). I intend to spend this summer doing two things, then, with this list. I'm going to go through the books I have read and write plot synopses and my opinions on the works, and I'm going to read as many of the books I have not yet as I possibly can. Stay tuned so see how this all works out.
If I counted correctly (which is a gamble), I've read 41 of the 101 I should have read. I better improve that ratio. So, keep checking back on my progress.
A list of books
Books I've read are indicated by a *
1. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes*
by A. Conon Doyle
2. Death Comes to the Archbishop*
by Willa Cather
3. Adventures of Tom Sawyer*
by Mark Twain
4. Death of a Salesman*
by Arthur Miller
5. The Aneid*
by Virgil
6. Dialogues*
by Plato
7. Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
8. Diary of a Young Girl*
by Anne Frank
9. All Quiet on the Western Front*
by Erich Maria Remarque
10. The Divine Comedy
by Dante
11. The Ambassadors
by Henry James
12. Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
13. Androcles and the Lion
by George Bernard Shaw
14. Don Quixote*
by Miguel De Cervantes
15. Animal Farm*
by George Orwell
16. The Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams
17. Antigone*
by Sophocles
18. Emperor Jones
by Eugene O'neill
19. Around the World in Eighty Days*
by Jules Verne
20. Essays
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
21. Autobiography
by Benjamin Franklin
22. Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev
23. Babbitt*
by Sinclair Lewis
24. Federalist Papers
by Alexander Hamilton and Others
25. Brave New World*
by Aldous Huxley
26. Great Expectations*
by Charles Dickens
27. The Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thorton Wilder
28. The Great Gatsby*
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. The Call of the Wild*
by Jack London
30. Green Mansions
by W .H . Hudson
31. Canterbury Tales*
by Chaucer
32. Green Pastures
by Mark Connelly
33. Confessions
by Saint Augustine
34. Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
35. Conquest of Space
by William Ley
36. Hamlet*
by William Shakespeare
37. Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevski
38. Hiroshima
by John Hersey
39. Cry the Beloved Country*
by Alan Payton
40. The House of Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
41. Cyrano De Bergerac*
by Edmond Rostand
42. Huckleberry Finn*
by Mark Twain
43. David Copperfield*
by Charles Dickens
44. The Iliad*
by Homer
45. Intruder in the Dust
by William Faulkner
46. The Odyssey *
by Homer
47. Ivanhoe
by Walker Scott
48. The Old Man and the Sea*
by Ernest Hemingway
49. Jane Eyre*
by Charlotte Bronte
50. Oliver Twist*
by Charles Dickens
51. Jungle Books
by Rudyard Kipling
52. Oregon Trail
by Francis Partama
53. King Arthur and His Noble Knights
by Thomas Malory
54. Our Town *
by Thornton Wilder
55. Kon-tiki
by Thor Heyerdahl
56. A Passage to India*
by E.M .Forster
57. Kristin Lavransdatter
by Sigrid Undsel
58. Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
59. The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper
60. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
61. The Late George Apley
by John Phillips Marquand
62. The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene
63. The Life of Samuel Johnson
by James Boswell
64. Pride and Prejudice*
by Jane Austen
65. Life on the Mississippi
by Mark Twain
66. Pygmalion*
by George Bernard Shaw
67. Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years
by Carl Sandburg
68. Quo Vadis
by Henry Sienkiewicz
69. Lives
by Plutarch
70. The Red Badge of Courage*
by Stephen Crane
71. Lord Jim
by Joseph Conrad
72. The Republic*
by Plato
73. Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis
74. The Return of the Native
by Thomas Hardy
75. The Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy
76. The Rivals
by Richard Brissley Sheridan
77. Moby Dick*
by Herman Melville
78. Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
79. Mutiny on the Bounty
by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
80. The Scarlet Letter*
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
81. Screwtape Letters*
by C.S. Lewis
82. My Antonia *
by Willa Cather
83. She Stoops to Conquer
by Oliver Goldsmith
84. Mythology
by Thomas Bullfinch
85. Silas Marner
by George Eliot
86. Napoleon
by Emil Ludwig
87. The Silent World
by Jacques Cousteau
88. Nineteen Eighty-four*
by George Orwell
89. Six Wings: Men of Science in the Renaissance
by George Sarton
90. Northwest Passage
by Kenneth Roberts
91. Tale of Two Cities*
by Charles Dickens
92. Vanity Fair*
by William Thackeray
93. Tales
by Edgar Allen Poe
94. Walden
by Henry D avid Thoreau
95. Treasure Island
by Robert Lewis Stevenson
96. War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
97. The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James
98. The Way of All Flesh
by Samuel Butler
99. Two Years Before the Mast
by Richard Henry Danna
100. Wuthering Heights*
by Emily Bronte
101. The Universe and Doctor Einstein
by Lincoln Barnett
1. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes*
by A. Conon Doyle
2. Death Comes to the Archbishop*
by Willa Cather
3. Adventures of Tom Sawyer*
by Mark Twain
4. Death of a Salesman*
by Arthur Miller
5. The Aneid*
by Virgil
6. Dialogues*
by Plato
7. Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
8. Diary of a Young Girl*
by Anne Frank
9. All Quiet on the Western Front*
by Erich Maria Remarque
10. The Divine Comedy
by Dante
11. The Ambassadors
by Henry James
12. Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
13. Androcles and the Lion
by George Bernard Shaw
14. Don Quixote*
by Miguel De Cervantes
15. Animal Farm*
by George Orwell
16. The Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams
17. Antigone*
by Sophocles
18. Emperor Jones
by Eugene O'neill
19. Around the World in Eighty Days*
by Jules Verne
20. Essays
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
21. Autobiography
by Benjamin Franklin
22. Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev
23. Babbitt*
by Sinclair Lewis
24. Federalist Papers
by Alexander Hamilton and Others
25. Brave New World*
by Aldous Huxley
26. Great Expectations*
by Charles Dickens
27. The Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thorton Wilder
28. The Great Gatsby*
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. The Call of the Wild*
by Jack London
30. Green Mansions
by W .H . Hudson
31. Canterbury Tales*
by Chaucer
32. Green Pastures
by Mark Connelly
33. Confessions
by Saint Augustine
34. Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
35. Conquest of Space
by William Ley
36. Hamlet*
by William Shakespeare
37. Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevski
38. Hiroshima
by John Hersey
39. Cry the Beloved Country*
by Alan Payton
40. The House of Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
41. Cyrano De Bergerac*
by Edmond Rostand
42. Huckleberry Finn*
by Mark Twain
43. David Copperfield*
by Charles Dickens
44. The Iliad*
by Homer
45. Intruder in the Dust
by William Faulkner
46. The Odyssey *
by Homer
47. Ivanhoe
by Walker Scott
48. The Old Man and the Sea*
by Ernest Hemingway
49. Jane Eyre*
by Charlotte Bronte
50. Oliver Twist*
by Charles Dickens
51. Jungle Books
by Rudyard Kipling
52. Oregon Trail
by Francis Partama
53. King Arthur and His Noble Knights
by Thomas Malory
54. Our Town *
by Thornton Wilder
55. Kon-tiki
by Thor Heyerdahl
56. A Passage to India*
by E.M .Forster
57. Kristin Lavransdatter
by Sigrid Undsel
58. Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
59. The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper
60. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
61. The Late George Apley
by John Phillips Marquand
62. The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene
63. The Life of Samuel Johnson
by James Boswell
64. Pride and Prejudice*
by Jane Austen
65. Life on the Mississippi
by Mark Twain
66. Pygmalion*
by George Bernard Shaw
67. Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years
by Carl Sandburg
68. Quo Vadis
by Henry Sienkiewicz
69. Lives
by Plutarch
70. The Red Badge of Courage*
by Stephen Crane
71. Lord Jim
by Joseph Conrad
72. The Republic*
by Plato
73. Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis
74. The Return of the Native
by Thomas Hardy
75. The Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy
76. The Rivals
by Richard Brissley Sheridan
77. Moby Dick*
by Herman Melville
78. Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
79. Mutiny on the Bounty
by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
80. The Scarlet Letter*
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
81. Screwtape Letters*
by C.S. Lewis
82. My Antonia *
by Willa Cather
83. She Stoops to Conquer
by Oliver Goldsmith
84. Mythology
by Thomas Bullfinch
85. Silas Marner
by George Eliot
86. Napoleon
by Emil Ludwig
87. The Silent World
by Jacques Cousteau
88. Nineteen Eighty-four*
by George Orwell
89. Six Wings: Men of Science in the Renaissance
by George Sarton
90. Northwest Passage
by Kenneth Roberts
91. Tale of Two Cities*
by Charles Dickens
92. Vanity Fair*
by William Thackeray
93. Tales
by Edgar Allen Poe
94. Walden
by Henry D avid Thoreau
95. Treasure Island
by Robert Lewis Stevenson
96. War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
97. The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James
98. The Way of All Flesh
by Samuel Butler
99. Two Years Before the Mast
by Richard Henry Danna
100. Wuthering Heights*
by Emily Bronte
101. The Universe and Doctor Einstein
by Lincoln Barnett
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