Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with  the poetry and vigor of the American people, Mark  Twain's story about a young boy and his journey  down the Mississippi was the first great novel to  speak in a truly American voice. Influencing  subsequent generations of writers -- from Sherwood  Anderson to Twain's fellow Missourian,  T.S. Eliot, from Ernest Hemingway and William  Faulkner to J.D. Salinger --  Huckleberry Finn , like the river  which flows through its pages, is one of the great  sources which nourished and still nourishes the  literature of America. "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn . It's the best book we've had." --Ernest Hemingway Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with the poetry and vigor of the American people, Mark Twain's story about a young boy and his journey down the Mississippi was the first great novel to speak in a truly American voice. Influencing subsequent generations of writers -- from Sherwood Anderson to Twain's fellow Missourian, T.S. Eliot, from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner to J.D. Salinger -- Huckleberry Finn , like the river which flows through its pages, is one of the great sources which nourished and still nourishes the literature of America. Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with  the poetry and vigor of the American people, Mark  Twain's story about a young boy and his journey  down the Mississippi was the first great novel to  speak in a truly American voice. Influencing  subsequent generations of writers -- from Sherwood  Anderson to Twain's fellow Missourian,  T.S. Eliot, from Ernest Hemingway and William  Faulkner to J.D. Salinger --   Huckleberry Finn , like the river  which flows through its pages, is one of the great  sources which nourished and still nourishes the  literature of America. Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with the poetry and vigor of the American people, Mark Twain's story about a young boy and his journey down the Mississippi was the first great novel to speak in a truly American voice. Influencing subsequent generations of writers -- from Sherwood Anderson to Twain's fellow Missourian, T.S. Eliot, from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner to J.D. Salinger -- "Huckleberry Finn, like the river which flows through its pages, is one of the great sources which nourished and still nourishes the literature of America. The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices. CHAPTER 1 DISCOVER MOSES AND THE BULRUSHERS You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly--Tom's Aunt Polly, she is--and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece--all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year round--more than a body could tell what to do with. The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back. The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel