Summary of the story of the adventures of Huckleberry Finn in chapters

Main characters

The writer’s first book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” was liked by readers so much that he was simply forced to write a sequel.
Mark Twain had a negative attitude towards slavery; this topic is also touched upon in his works. The author's contemporaries negatively assessed such thoughts, but later critics had to change their point of view. The genre of the book is a novel, although it contains many adventures. All characters appear in the text gradually. List of main characters from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

Huckleberry Finn, Huck is a boy aged 13-14 years old, the main character of the work. He was raised by a drunkard father, so it is difficult for him to adapt to society. Tom Sawyer is his best friend, the leader of the boys in all their fun. He is considered the best fighter and inventor.

Huck saved the widow Douglas from an attack by robbers, after which the woman decided to take him in with her. She tries to instill good manners in the boy, but he does not like his upbringing. Her sister, Miss Watson, lives with her. She is very strict, which is completely unacceptable for Huck. This family is served by a devoted slave, Jim. The black man became friends with the boy, and together they tried to escape from the widow and her sister.

Old Finn is Huckleberry's father, a tramp and an alcoholic. He considers his son property, so he often beats him, but he always turns to the boy for money for a new portion of alcohol. The aristocratic Grangeford family took in Huck after his travels with Jim.

A kind woman, Judith Loftes, plays a minor role in the story. Many critics call her the best female character in the book. The Duke and the King are two swindlers posing as members of the ruling dynasty. Huck and Jim did not reveal the truth, so they served them. Fraudsters tried to deprive the Wilkes sisters of their inheritance. Dr. Robinson found out about their scam, but no one believed him. Huck called himself a nephew of the Phelps family. Aunt Sally is a nervous but gentle woman, and Uncle Silas is a preacher and farmer.

Summary of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” for a reader's diary

Author's name : Mark Twain

Title : The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Number of pages : 298. Mark Twain. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Publishing house "Alpha Book". 2021

Genre : Romance

Year of writing : 1884

The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Kuchmina Nadezhda Vladimirovna.

Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 27 years.

Escape from home

Conventionally, the entire work can be divided into several parts. It is more convenient to read a summary of the book chapter by chapter. Conditional components of the retelling:

The whole story began in an industrial town on the banks of the Mississippi. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were able to get rich; their adventures are described in Mark Twain's first book. The main literary character saved the widow Douglas and settled with her. The woman, together with her sister, is trying to make the boy well-mannered and educated.

Huck himself resists studying and devotes more time to friendship: he often runs away with his friend Tom, a master of inventing fun and entertainment. Everyone in the town believes that the boy's father drowned while drunk. The widow decided to adopt him, but suddenly the father returned and took his son along with the money.

The new judge did not know the conditions in which Huck lived, so he returned him to his father . But he tried to rehabilitate the alcoholic, although all efforts were in vain. The old man continued to drink alcohol and beat his son. He forbade the boy to go to school, since “a son should not be smarter than his father” (quote from the work).

River Journey

In the next part of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain described the boy’s adventures on the river and island. When Huck arrived on the island, he found a black man named Jim there. He was Miss Watson's slave and was afraid that he would be sold to the southern states, so he ran away. Jim hoped to get to a place where he would be free. Then he could earn enough money to ransom his family.

A severe thunderstorm began, the river overflowed, overflowed its banks and flooded the island. But the boy and Huck found a dry cave and took refuge in it. The river surprised the fugitives - a raft and a floating house appeared on its surface. In the home they found the body of a naked man. Jim warned Huck not to go near the dead man.

After the thunderstorm, the boy decided to find out what was happening in the city . He changed into a girl's dress and went home. On the street he heard that everyone already knew about his death. People blamed Huck's death first on his drunkard father, and then on an escaped Negro slave.

One woman saw smoke over the island and sent her husband to check if the killer was hiding there. The boy heard this and hurried there first to warn his friend about the danger.

The fugitives built a hut on their raft, took refuge in it and went down the river. They sailed only at night, because during the day they were afraid that they would be noticed. They had to eat what Huck got in the cities. The boy stole food from benches and stores. The travelers were heading to Cairo, where there is no slavery. But they could not reach this city.

Analysis of the work

This book is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . The plot takes place in the 19th century in the USA.

Summary

Huckleberry Finn is a street boy who is adopted by the Widow Douglas. She was very kind, she wanted to instill good manners in the child, wean him from swear words and spitting, and send him to school. The boy was a freedom-loving person, so he quickly became bored with the instructions. He wanted to get rid of guardianship as quickly as possible.

Finn was friends with the resilient Tom Sawyer. This was his only consolation in life. The friend was constantly inventing different things to do. They had an interesting time together.

Over time, the boy got used to his new life. But unfortunately, his father appeared in the city at that moment. He was a drunkard and a violent man. The man often beat his son and mocked him. Huckleberry was frightened by this news. He immediately went to Judge Thatcher and gave him all his savings so that his father would not take them away.

After some time, the parent found Huck, he was dissatisfied that his son had everything, and he was also studying. The man did not want the boy to become educated. He kidnapped the child, brought him to a forest hut, and kept him there under lock and key. At first, Huck resisted, but then he resigned himself and began to lead his old lifestyle.

One day the father got drunk and attacked the boy with a knife. Then Huck realized that he had to run. Huckleberry escaped on a boat, faking his death . The boy swam to some island and settled on it. At this place he met the fugitive Jim. They began to live together.

One day, the comrades saw a floating house with a dead man inside it. They took everything they needed and hurried to leave the place.

Huck was tormented by what was happening in his hometown. He dressed up as a girl and went to investigate. In the city, the boy learned that everyone considered him the murderer of his own father. There is a good reward for the capture of Huck and Jim. The boy was afraid for his friend. He hurried to get to the island as quickly as possible. From then on, Finn was careful, carefully covering his friend.

Many adventures awaited the guys; they met two adventurers named King and Duke, who turned out to be criminals. At first, Huck was amused by these guys, but after the robbers wanted to deceive the orphans, he protested . The criminals carefully thought out their operation, but Finn foiled it. He had to flee from their revenge. To do this, he turned to Tom Sawyer for help. Since he was resourceful, everything was resolved successfully. The guys returned home.

It turned out that the woman who adopted Huck had died. She left a will in which she indicated that she was freeing Jim from slavery.

Characters and main idea

The boy and his friend travel for a very long time and meet many people. Therefore, the book contains a large number of characters who in one way or another participate in the adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The main characters of the novel:

Huckleberry Finn is a freedom-loving, kind, brave boy.
Tom Sawyer is his best friend. He has a rich imagination and an adventurous spirit. This is a resourceful and smart guy.
Widow Douglas is the woman who adopted Huck, kind and caring.
Jim is a black fugitive. A kind, naive person and loyal friend of Huckleberry.

From an early age, the boy saw his father's drinking, bullying and beatings. But despite this, he did not become a callous and evil person. The boy always remained kind, cheerful and loyal. Huck did not abandon his friends in trouble, he acted according to his conscience.

The author wanted to show, using the example of this hero, that if a true friend is nearby, then no obstacles or dangers are scary. This is the main idea of the novel.

Thus, the work teaches the following:

Always remain a kind, understanding and loyal friend.
Take care of others, help them.
In any circumstances you need to remain human.

Grangefords and Shepherdsons

The next part of the book continues the description of the journey. At first the boy was tormented by pangs of conscience, because he helped a slave escape from his mistress. But later he sincerely became attached to the black man.

On a dark night, a steamer met on the raft's path, but the travelers did not notice it. Their small ship capsized on the waves. The fugitives swam ashore and ended up on the estate of the Grangerford aristocrats. The boy introduced himself to the head of the family, the colonel, with a fictitious name and remained to live in his house.

Huck began working on a rich estate. He noticed that the Grangerfords were at odds with the Shepherdsons. It became clear to him that this was an old confrontation. But the boy, without thinking about the consequences, passed a note from Shepherdson to the colonel’s youngest daughter, the young beauty Sophia.

The next day, the lovers ran away to get married secretly . Both families rushed in pursuit of them. The final battle ended with everyone from the two ancient families dying. Huck watched the bloody tragedy from a high tree. This scene came as a real shock to him.

After this, the boy went to the swamps, where he found Jim. The slave was rescued by the Grangeford blacks, who also repaired the damaged raft. The travelers again set off along the river, and Huck regretted that he had not warned the colonel about his daughter’s escape. The boy blamed himself for the death of two families.

Encounter with scammers

The travelers' next stop was in the forest. There they met two men who were being chased by an angry crowd. The boy helped them onto the raft. The fugitives were of different ages: an old man of about seventy and a thirty-year-old man. The first declared that he was King Louis XVII, and the second the Duke of Bridgewater.

Although Huck realized that they were lying, he did not tell the black man about it. He did not tell the truth about himself to the fugitives. The boy tried to maintain peaceful relations between those on the raft. To get food, the company performed performances and performances in coastal cities. The travelers staged plays based on Shakespeare, the king posed as a preacher, and Jim was presented as a captured slave. This allowed them to float down the river even during the day.

Phelps Plantation

Huck found out where his comrade was taken - to the Phelps plantation. The boy decided to save him. It turned out that the owner of the plantation was Tom Sawyer's aunt. Huck pretended to be his friend and developed a plan to save the black man.

Tom helped him with this. But the boy had an unbridled character, he constantly came up with some kind of fun. This time, Huck's friend decided that the black man should escape through the tunnel. Over time, Tom added more and more details to the plan, turning the rescue into a solemn event.

Tom sent the owner a letter with a short story and a warning that gang accomplices would come for Jim. Because of this, their neighbors from other plantations came to the aid of the Phelps. The escape was a success, only Tom was wounded during it.

Tom recovered quickly and was already thinking about new entertainment and adventures, and Huck decided to go to the lands of the Indians. He didn't like that Aunt Sally, who adopted him, decided to raise him.

Plot

The homeless child Huckleberry Finn was adopted by the widow Douglas. The kind woman wanted to raise him properly: instill good manners, wean him from dirty curses and spitting, and send him to school. It is not surprising that the freedom-loving boy very quickly got tired of the endless instructions, and he dreamed of getting rid of such guardianship. His only consolation was his friendship with the cheerful Tom Sawyer, who was always coming up with some kind of fun.

Gradually, Huck began to get used to his new life, but an unexpected disaster happened: the boy’s father appeared in the city. He was an inveterate drunkard, a cruel man who, while drunk, beat his son and mocked him in every possible way. Frightened, Huck went to Judge Thatcher and gave him all his money so that his father would not take it.

Soon old Finn came to his son. He was clearly unhappy with the kind of life he was leading with Aunt Douglas. Being a lost man, he did not want his son to study and become educated. His father kidnapped Huck and took him to a forest hut, where he kept him under lock and key. At first the boy resisted, but then returned to the lifestyle he had led before. When the drunken old man rushed at his son with a knife, Huck realized that it was time to fight. He escaped on a boat, having previously faked his own death.

Huck swam to a secluded island and settled there. On the spot, he discovered the fugitive Jim and invited him to live together. One day, friends came across a floating house, inside of which there was a dead man. Having taken the necessary things, the friends hurried to sail away from this terrible place.

Huck, tormented by ignorance, disguised himself as a girl and went to explore the city. He learned that everyone considered old Finn or black Jim to be guilty of his death. The authorities offered a generous reward for the capture of these two suspects. Huck, fearing for his friend, hurried to return and sail away from the island. Now the boy became more careful and covered his black friend in every possible way.

During their travels, Huck and Jim met two adventurers who called themselves the King and the Duke. The boy was amused by their antics, but when the criminals decided to deceive the three orphans in the most unscrupulous way, he protested. As a result, Huck thwarted the well-thought-out operation of the scammers. Fleeing from their revenge, the boy turned to his faithful friend Tom Sawyer for help. Thanks to Tom's resourcefulness, everything turned out well. When the guys returned home, they learned about the death of the widow Douglas. In her will, this kind woman freed Jim from slavery.

Reader reviews

Mark Twain's book has been filmed several times. The films turned out to be quite interesting for both children and adults. The main character was admired by the boys. Analysis of the work allows us to characterize Huckleberry:

Before reading a book, you can read reviews from those who have already read it.

I listened to Twain's audiobook because the summary interested me. Together with Huck, I experienced all the adventures and dreamed of the same freedom that he has. The work is easy, it is suitable not only for children. Adults will also enjoy this book.

I remember reading a summary of Twain’s book at school to fill out my reading diary. Already at the institute I re-read it completely. I didn’t even notice how many pages there were, I was so engrossed in reading. Huck became for me the embodiment of freedom and madness.

I bought my son a paper book with high quality illustrations. I myself read the original and the translation of the work. I think it's more suitable for boys. Adults see in the text not childish fun, but serious problems: slavery, dysfunctional families, the hard life of orphans. Children do not notice this; they are fixated only on the cheerful adventures of the main character.

Source

Chapters I-VII

Huckleberry Finn, on whose behalf the story is told, has become rich and lives with the Widow Douglas. With the help of her sister, the old maid Miss Watson, the widow tries with all her might to raise him into a cultured person. Huck is saved from torment only by his best friend Tom Sawyer, who can come up with a bunch of different fun things.

Gradually, Huck gets used to civilized life, he even begins to like going to school.

The hardest thing was getting used to living in a house and sleeping on a bed; Only before the onset of cold weather did I sometimes escape into freedom and sleep in the forest, and it was like a vacation.

Widow Douglas is going to adopt a boy. Huck's father, drunkard Finn, has not appeared in St. Petersburg for about a year; everyone believes that he drowned.

One day at breakfast, Huck spills salt. The bad omen comes true - that same day the boy sees a well-known footprint in the freshly fallen snow. Only old Finn wore boots with a cross of nails on the soles. Huck immediately rushes to Judge Thatcher and gives him all his money so that his father does not drink it away.

That same evening, Daddy Finn appears in person. He claims his son and his money and forbids Huck to attend school, not wanting his son to become smarter than him.

Widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher decide to sue Huck from dad Finn, but the new judge, who does not know the old man, believes that it is not right to take his only son away from his father, and undertakes to rehabilitate the old drunkard. Nothing comes of this - dad Finn drinks and is rowdy.

The judge was very angry. He said that the old man could probably be corrected with a good bullet from a gun, but he didn’t see any other way.

Huck does not leave school to spite his father. Finally, Widow Douglas runs out of patience and threatens Daddy Finn with prison. Angry, the old man kidnaps Huck and locks him in a forest hut.

Huck returns to his old life. He is satisfied with everything except his father’s frequent drinking bouts, during which he chases his son with a knife in his hands. Realizing that one day his father will kill him, Huck fakes his own murder, escapes on a shuttle found off the coast of the Mississippi and hides on Jackson Island.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” - a reader's diary based on the novel by Mark Twain

Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884 in Great Britain.

Description of the book for the reader's diary

Author:

Mark Twain
Title of the work:
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
Genre:
novel
Year of writing:
1884
Publisher:
Azbuka-Klassika
Year of publication:
2019
Number of pages:
352

The main characters and their brief characteristics

Huckleberry Finn (Huck) is a street child, a freedom-loving, good-natured boy. Tom Sawyer is Huck's best friend, a great dreamer, and a lover of adventure. Widow Douglas , a kind woman who adopted Huck, dreamed of making him a cultured, worthy person. Jim is a black runaway, kind, naive, loyal. Old Finn is Huck's father, a dissolute man, a drunkard. The King and Duke are adventurers who traveled with Huck and Jim.

Time and place of the plot

The novel takes place in the second half of the 19th century in the South of the United States, even before the outbreak of the Civil War. The work gives vivid descriptions of small towns located along the Mississippi River, along which the main character traveled.

Summary and plot

Gradually, Huck began to get used to his new life, but an unexpected disaster happened - the boy’s father appeared in the city. He was an inveterate drunkard, a cruel man who, while drunk, beat and abused his son in every possible way. Frightened, Huck went to Judge Thatcher and gave him all his money so that his father would not take it.

Soon old Finn came to his son. He was clearly dissatisfied with the kind of life he led with Aunt Douglas. Being a lost man, he did not want his son to study and become educated. His father kidnapped Huck and took him to a forest hut, where he kept him under lock and key. At first the boy resisted, but then returned to the lifestyle he had led before. When the drunken old man rushed at his son with a knife, Huck realized that it was time to fight. He escaped on a boat, having previously faked his own death.

Huck, tormented by ignorance, disguised himself as a girl and went to explore the city. He learned that everyone considered old Finn or black Jim to be guilty of his death. The authorities offered a generous reward for the capture of these two suspects. Huck, afraid for his friend, hurried to return and sail away from the island. Now the boy became more careful and covered his black friend in every possible way.

A very brief summary for a reader's diary

Huck's father took him away and the boy had to pretend to be dead to escape. Together with Jim, they sailed on a raft, but met two scammers. Huck saved Mary Jane's inheritance, but the king sold Jim. Huck was mistaken for Tom, and Tom was mistaken for Sid. The boys dug a tunnel and freed Jim. Aunt Polly revealed the boys' deception, and Jim received his freedom.

Retelling plan

Huck lives with the Widow Douglas.
The appearance of Father Huck.
Huck and his father in the hut.
Faking death.
Huck and Jim on the island.
Floating house with a dead man.
On a raft downstream.
Broken steamer.
Blood feud.
Meeting with the king and duke.
Sermon and performance.
Peter's legacy.
Jim is in bondage.
Huck and Tom.
Jim's release.
Tom's injury.
Aunt Polly explains everything.

Main thought

If a faithful friend is nearby, no adventures or dangers are scary.

What does it teach

The story teaches us to value freedom and friendship. Teaches honesty, loyalty, courage. Teaches to help those in trouble. Teaches not to look for adventures on your own head.

Review and what you liked

I really liked this story and liked Huck Finn the most. He was a very kind and honest boy who wanted to be free and just enjoy life. He befriended a runaway slave and helped him. And Huck was not such an adventurer as Tom. He knew life better and experienced a lot of injustice. That’s why he valued freedom.

Conclusion and my opinion

Huck's life can hardly be called cloudless. From an early age, he saw nothing but the endless drunken antics of his cruel father. However, his soul did not become angry or hardened. He was a kind boy with a pure heart who never abandoned his friends in trouble. He always acted according to his conscience, even if his actions ran counter to the hypocrisy of adults.

Proverbs

Seek good, but bad will come on its own.
All is well that ends well.
Friend is known in trouble.
They don't cry when they take off their hair.
Those who face people do not have their backs to them.

Quotes from the text

“...This is all rubbish, rubbish; and rubbish are those people who throw dirt on their friends' heads and make them laugh..." "...What kind of plan is this if no fuss is required with it?.." "...If I had a dog as annoying as a conscience, I would poison her. It takes up more space than all the other insides, but it’s of no use...”

Dictionary of new and unfamiliar words

The cinder is the remnant of an unburned candle. A horseshoe is a device for protecting a horse's hooves. Stagecoach is a horse-drawn vehicle for intercity transportation of passengers. A sentry is an armed guard who performs the combat mission of protecting and defending the post assigned to him. Tobacco is the dried, crushed leaves and stems of certain types of plants, used for smoking, snorting or chewing. A pipe is a device for smoking specially prepared and cut tobacco. A gang is a gathering of bad people, robbers, thieves, a fraudulent partnership.

Chapter VIII-XI

After getting some sleep and watching his body being searched for in the river, Huck explores the island and stumbles upon Jim, Miss Watson’s black man. She decided to sell Jim to the South, and the black man fled to the northern states to become free, earn money and ransom his family.

Huck finds a cave at the highest point of the island, and he and Jim make a good living. Soon a terrible thunderstorm begins with heavy rain, the Mississippi overflows its banks and floods the island, but the water does not reach the cave. Huck and Jim catch a link from a raft with a strong flooring in the river. Then a whole house floats past their island. Huck and Jim search it, find many useful things, money and the corpse of a man, to whom the black boy does not allow him to approach.

So days passed after days, and the river again subsided and entered the banks.

Huck decides to visit the city and find out the latest news. Dressed in a woman's dress, he knocks on a house on the outskirts where people who have recently moved to the town live. An unfamiliar woman tells Huck that at first Finn’s dad was suspected of his murder, but he disappeared to God knows where. Now the fugitive black man Jim is considered the killer and they are looking for him throughout the area. A woman noticed smoke over the island and sent her husband there to see if a black man was hiding there. She quickly realizes that Huck is not a girl, but she lets him go, believing a new lie.

Chapter XII-XV

Huck and Jim build a hut on a raft and set off up the Mississippi, north. They sail at night, feeding on what Huck manages to buy or steal in coastal towns.

Huck decides to quickly escape, returns to Jim and discovers that the poorly tied raft has floated away. Unnoticed by the bandits, Huck and Jim steal their boat with all the goods. The bandits remain on the sinking ship.

I thought how scary it was, even for murderers, to find ourselves in such a hopeless situation. I think: who knows, maybe someday I’ll be a bandit myself - I guess I won’t like such a thing either!

Having reached the nearest ferry, Huck sends people to the ship, but they find no one. Huck and Jim catch up with their raft, and during the day they discover many useful and expensive things among the goods looted by the bandits.

Main characters

Huckleberry Finn (Huck) is a street child, a freedom-loving, good-natured boy.

Tom Sawyer is Huck's best friend, a great dreamer, and a lover of adventure.

Widow Douglas, a kind woman who adopted Huck, dreamed of making him a cultured, worthy person.

Jim is a black runaway, kind, naive, loyal.

Old Finn is Huck's father, a dissolute man, a drunkard.

The King and Duke are adventurers who traveled with Huck and Jim.

Please note that we also have:

for the most rational -

Summary of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

for the most impatient -

A very brief summary of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

Chapter XVI—XVIII

Huck and Jim continue their journey to the city of Cairo on the border of Illinois, beyond which the lands free from slavery begin. On the way, they get lost in the fog and find each other again. Huck is tormented by his conscience, because he took the black man away from his rightful owner and helps him become free, but he cannot betray Jim.

It soon turns out that they sailed past Cairo. Without the boat that the friends lost, it is impossible to sail upstream, and the raft turns south.

One very dark night, the travelers do not have time to miss an oncoming steamship, and the raft sinks. Huck loses Jim, gets ashore and stumbles upon a large estate.

Huck comes up with a new name and story for himself and remains in the rich house of the Grangerford family. The head of the family, the colonel, his sons and daughters are very noble people. For a long time they have been at enmity with the Shepherdsons, a neighboring aristocratic family. No one remembers how the blood feud began, but things have gone far, Grangerfords and Shepherdsons are killing each other by the dozens.

Huck does not want to interfere in a feud that does not concern him, but one day he, without knowing it, gives the colonel’s youngest daughter, Sophia, a letter from young Shepherdson.

On the same day, one of the Grangeford blacks brings Huck to the swamp, where the boy meets the missing Jim. Local slaves hid him on a small island in the middle of a swamp. They found the raft and helped Jim fix it.

The next day, Sofia elopes with her blood enemy to marry him. The lovers manage to escape the chase, and a massacre begins between the Grangefords and the Shepherdsons, as a result of which both families are completely destroyed. Huck can only regret that he did not tell the colonel about that damned note.

After waiting out the massacre on the tree, Huck makes his way to the swamp to Jim, and the friends set off on a journey again.

I was glad to get away from the blood feud, and Jim was away from the swamp. We said that there is no better home than a raft.

Summary

Chapter 1

Huckleberry Finn, at the request of Thomas Sawyer, returned again to Aunt Polly, Widow Douglas, who took the homeless boy “into her house to raise her instead of her son.” The measured, comfortable life in Aunt Polly's house brought terrible boredom to Huck, who again thought about escaping.

Chapter 2

At night, best friends - Tom and Huck - ran away from home in search of new adventures. They "found Joe Harper, Ben Rogers and two or three other boys" and swam across the river together. The friends decided to organize the “Tom Sawyer Gang,” which would engage in murder and robbery. The guys took the oath and began to discuss future plans, and then “everyone went home.”

Chapter 3

For about a month, the friends “played robbers, then stopped” - they got tired of it. During this time, they did not kill or rob anyone, but only “imagined it all for fun.” Huck did not understand the meaning of such a game, but it was useless to argue with Tom.

Chapter 4

Huck began going to school, and “learned to read letters, write a little, and mastered the multiplication tables.” At first the boy hated school, but over time he got used to it. When Huck was especially tired of the right life, he “went off to wander somewhere aimlessly.” But even Aunt Polly noticed that Huckleberry had “considerably improved from his former self.”

Huck felt that his father had returned, who had not been seen in the city for a long time. Fearing that his father would take away the money that Huck found with Tom Sawyer, he asked Judge Thatcher to take his share of the capital.

Chapter 5

In the evening, Huck found his father in his room, and at first he was scared, but quickly pulled himself together. The boy's father "was about fifty years old, but looked even older." He looked very unkempt and was dressed in rags.

The father demanded the money, but Huck showed him a receipt written by Judge Thatcher and announced that he was no longer the owner of his capital. Then he took the dollar from his son and went into the city to buy vodka - after all, he “didn’t take a drop in his mouth all day.”

The widow Douglas tried to deprive the malicious drunkard of his paternal rights, but the new judge in the city refused her this. He decided to make a decent man out of old Finn - he brought him into his house, fed him, and dressed him. However, that night Finn got drunk and started a row. So the judge changed his mind.

Chapter 6

One day, Finn waylaid his son and took him against his will to some shack in the forest, where he kept him locked up. Huck again began to lead a chaotic lifestyle, knowing “neither books nor learning.” Meanwhile, old Finn was drinking heavily and seeing snakes everywhere.

Chapter 7

Huck decided to run away from his father and live completely alone on a small deserted island. He carefully prepared for the escape - he hid a boat with food supplies, dishes, fishing rods and a gun. In addition, Huck cleverly faked his own murder so that no one would think of looking for him.

Chapter 8

Huck witnessed how the city residents searched for his body in the river. On the ship that sailed not far from the island, “everyone was talking about the murder,” and the boy had no doubt that now they would not look for him.

Soon Huck realized that he was not the only inhabitant of the island - the black Jim, who was hiding from the slave traders, also settled here. It turned out to be much more fun together on a deserted island.

Chapter 9

Jim and Huck explored the island and "found a large, deep cave in the rock." During the day, the friends hid in it, and at night they sailed on a shuttle along the river. One day they noticed a floating house, in which there was a dead man and many valuable things. The friends were delighted with their find and took a lantern, knives, candles, an old blanket and much more to the island - in a word, everything that would improve their life on the island.

Chapter 10

The next day, Huck "came across a rattlesnake." He killed her and, deciding to play a trick on Jim, placed her near the sleeping black man. As luck would have it, a second snake crawled up to Jim and “bite him right on the heel.” Soon “his foot became quite swollen, and his whole leg too,” but Jim managed to neutralize the effect of the poison with a hefty dose of vodka.

Huck decided to have a little fun and go into town to find out the latest news. In order not to arouse suspicion, Jim suggested that his friend “dress up as a girl.” In the town, Huck noticed an unfamiliar woman who had recently arrived in these parts. He decided to chat with her.

Chapter 11

Huck introduced himself as Sarah Williams, and from the woman he learned the story of his own “murder.” According to one version, the killer turned out to be old Finn, according to another, the escaped black man Jim.

The woman quickly managed to expose Huck, who was forced to confess everything to her. She promised not to betray the fugitive, but advised not to catch the eye of women in this outfit - he can be easily identified by his manners.

Huck learned that soon they would be looking for Jim on their island, and he hurried to return to his friend’s cave to find a safer place.

Chapter 12

The friends dragged all their belongings onto a large raft with a hut, and set off downstream. Soon they came across a small ship that had crashed on the rocks. Hearing voices, Jim decided to hide.

Huck began to watch the ship and noticed bandits who intended to shoot one man, and then take valuables from the cabins and sail to the shore by boat.

Chapter 13

After consulting with Jim, Huck cut the rope with which the boat was tied to the ship, and together with the stolen goods they set off. After some time, friends met the ferryman and reported that the people on the sunken ship needed help.

Chapter 14

Jim and Huck began to look at the loot stolen by “swindlers on a broken steamer.” There were a lot of useful things here - the friends had “never been so rich.” Huck was very happy with his free life, while Jim was frankly tired of adventure.

Chapter 15

The friends developed a plan - to get to the Ohio River, “sell the raft, transfer to a steamship, and quickly make their way along the Ohio to the free states.” This was the only way they could be completely safe. Thick fog prevented further travel, and Huck decided to play a prank on the black man. However, his joke turned out to be unsuccessful, and Jim was offended by his friend. The boy, tormented by remorse, decided to ask for forgiveness.

Chapter 16

Jim shared with Huck his dream - to be free and collect enough money to ransom “his wife, who lives as a slave on a farm.”

Huck was embarrassed by the fact that he was helping a runaway black man hide. However, he consoled himself with the fact that Jim himself ran away from the mistress, without his participation.

One day, a boy saved a black man who had attracted the attention of two men on a boat. Huck told them that it was his father who suffered from smallpox. The men hastened to leave.

At night, without noticing the signal light, a ship collided with Huck and Jim’s raft, and the friends only miraculously managed to escape. When Huck emerged from the water, he began to call Jim, but he did not respond. Huck had to swim alone to the shore, where he found a log house.

Chapter 17

So Huck ended up in the house of Colonel Grangerford. Having found out that the boy was not one of the Shepherdsons, the owner showed all his hospitality - he gave him clean clothes and fed him well. Huck told the sad story of his fictional family, and the colonel invited him to “live here like at home” as long as he liked.

Huck decided that “they were a nice family, and such a nice house.” He met Beck, his peer, a good-natured boy, the son of a general.

Chapter 18

“Colonel Grangerford was a true gentleman,” and his family was his equal. He had five children: grown men Bob and Tom, sisters Charlotte and Sophia, and the youngest, Beck. The colonel had a large fortune and loved to organize dances and merry picnics.

The only thing that prevented him from enjoying life to the fullest was another noble family - the Shepherdsons, with whom the Grangerfields had long been at enmity. Men even went to church with guns.

Meanwhile, Huck met Jim. He said that he had repaired the raft and they could continue their journey.

A terrible tragedy unfolded in the Grangerford family. Sophia "ran away with young Garney Shepherdson to marry him." The Grangerfords immediately gave chase. During the shootout, all the men were killed.

Chapter 19

Huck and Jim continued their journey along the river. One day they had to save two people who were being chased by “people with dogs.” They turned out to be petty swindlers who pretended to be noble nobles. One of them introduced himself as the Duke, and the second as the King. Huck and Jim pretended to believe these scoundrels, but they themselves made fun of them with all their might.

Chapter 20

So that the new fellow travelers would not suspect something was wrong, Huck told them a fictitious story about Jim. The scammers decided to print an announcement in the printing house that the Negro Jim had already been caught. Now travelers could sail safely even during the day - if someone approached their raft, they would always have time to tie up a black man and show an advertisement about his capture.

Chapter 21

One day, friends stopped in a provincial town to act out one of Shakespeare's tragedies. But instead they witnessed the conflict between Colonel Sherborne and old man Bogs. They showered each other with “various abusive words,” and in the heat of the quarrel the colonel killed Bogs. The angry crowd decided “that Sherborne should be executed according to Lynch law,” that is, by hanging.

Chapter 22

Colonel Sherborne, with a double-barreled gun in his hands, stood “completely calm and cool, without saying a word.” Looking around the crowd, he showed himself to be a fearless man who demanded to see the daredevil who would hang him. The colonel's fiery speech influenced the people, and they slowly began to disperse.

The scammers' idea of a Shakespearean tragedy failed, and then they decided to attract the residents of the town with a new advertisement. It indicated an evening performance to which “ladies and children” were not allowed.

Chapter 23

The piquant performance was that, decorated in all the colors of the rainbow, “the king jumped onto the stage on all fours, completely naked.” His appearance caused great delight, but when the curtain fell after the naked king, people realized that they had been deceived.

The angry spectators wanted to beat up the unfortunate artists, but decided, on the contrary, to praise the performance in order to fool other townspeople. Thus, the Duke and King managed to collect good revenue on the second evening. The third time they did not take risks and continued on their way.

Chapter 24

The next refuge for the travelers was also a small town, where the king learned interesting news from a local boy. As it turned out, a wealthy townsman, Peter Wilkes, had recently died here, and his two brothers were supposed to attend his funeral. A new plan immediately matured in the minds of the scammers, and they went to the town under the guise of the deceased’s closest relatives.

Chapter 25

The king and duke managed to get into the role so much that not only Mr. Wilkes' neighbors, but also his daughters believed them. One of them even showed the crooks a will, according to which the brothers of the deceased received an impressive amount of money, a tannery and land. The letter also indicated “where the capital of six thousand dollars is hidden: downstairs, in the cellar.”

Only one person did not believe the scammers - the doctor of the late Mr. Wilkes. However, this did not stop them from getting money.

Chapter 26

Huck felt sorry for the gullible Wilkes sisters. Feeling like a “low scoundrel,” he decided to return their legitimate money at any cost. The boy managed to find out where the scammers hid the bag of money and re-hide it.

Chapter 27

After the funeral, the scammers decided to sell their “inheritance” as soon as possible. They immediately announced “the sale at auction of the house, the blacks, and all the property.” The sisters were very sad to part with the slaves, but the impostors consoled them by inviting them to England. The girls immediately began to pack their suitcases.

Chapter 28

Huck admitted to one of the sisters that her uncles were impostors, and offered to go to someone “to stay for three or four days.” Meanwhile, the auction for the sale of real estate and slaves began to drag on, and the real heirs of Mr. Wilkes appeared in the city.

Chapter 29

The Wilkes brothers immediately launched an investigation to prove the fraud that had taken place. The deceased's doctor called on the neighbors to make sure that the king and duke "did not sneak away until the whole matter was cleared up." It soon became clear that the bag of money had disappeared, and the impostors blamed the blacks for the disappearance. In order not to tempt fate, they fled the city at the first opportunity, continuing their journey on a raft.

Chapter 30

Once safe, the king and duke began accusing each other of stealing the money. Soon the insults escalated into a fight, and unexpectedly for everyone, the king admitted that it was he who stole the “inheritance.” This confession made Huck feel much better.

Chapter 31

Subsequently, all the schemes of the scammers were doomed to failure, and “in the end they completely lost heart.” To earn a living, they decided to sell Jim to the planter Phelps. Having learned about this betrayal, Huck decided to “steal Jim from captivity.”

Chapter 32

Huck went to the Phelps plantation, where he was very warmly received by the owners. It turned out that they were expecting the arrival of their nephew Tom Soirea, and confused him with Huck. The boy easily took on this role because he knew perfectly well the life story of his best friend.

Chapter 33

Huck went to the city where he met Tom Sawyer. He told his friend about all his adventures, and the friends decided to free the black man. To ward off suspicion, Huck introduced Tom as his brother, and he also stayed at the Phelps house.

Meanwhile, Jim told everyone that the performance that the king and duke wanted to give in the city was pure fraud. The townspeople decided to teach the swindlers a lesson and kicked them out in disgrace.

Chapter 34

Huck suggested stealing the key from old man Phelps, freeing Jim and sailing away on a raft. However, Sawyer did not like this plan - it turned out to be too simple and uninteresting. He proposed his wonderful plan, which would “make Jim a free man,” but would certainly lead them to mortal danger. Huck happily approved.

Chapter 35

Tom, fascinated by novels about robbers, was always upset when everything turned out “too simply and uncomplicated.”

At first, Tom suggested that Jim saw off his leg for greater effect. Then he decided that the black man should definitely keep a diary, using a shirt instead of paper and a pen “from an old tin spoon”, and using “his own blood” as ink. At the same time, he was not at all embarrassed by the fact that Jim was illiterate.

Huck reminded his friend that there would already be plenty of difficulties, and their main task was to free Jim.

Chapter 36

Tom and Huck began to dig under the hut in which Jim was locked. For Sawyer, it was an exciting game that he would stretch out for many years. However, Jim needed to be saved, and then the boys baked a cake for him, in which they hid the sheet needed to make a rope ladder.

Chapter 37

Mrs. Phelps was “unconscious of anger” - her candles, spoon, shirt and other items suddenly disappeared. The boys realized that the theft might not be in vain for them, and partially returned the stolen items. As a result, the woman completely lost count and gave up on everything.

Chapter 38

Making a quill pen out of a tin spoon “turned out to be one hell of a tricky thing,” but Jim assured that making his inscription would be much more difficult. Tom did not accept any objections - the escaped prisoner must certainly leave a farewell message.

Realizing that the message on the wall of the hut could quickly be erased, he offered to bring a millstone from the mill. The boys were “completely exhausted and drenched in sweat,” and they had to turn to Jim for help, who rolled the heavy millstone into his hut.

Chapter 39

Having decided that Jim must definitely have some kind of living creature, his friends caught him “about fifteen of the most selected rats,” as well as “various spiders, beetles, frogs and caterpillars.” Problems arose only with the snakes, which were constantly trying to crawl somewhere. It was difficult for Jim to get used to all these living creatures - he was especially afraid of spiders, because of which he could not sleep peacefully.

Three weeks later everything was ready to escape. For fun, Tom began writing intimidating anonymous letters, which caused great confusion throughout the area. The Phelps couple “said they would put a black man on guard at both doors all night,” but this did not bother Tom at all.

Chapter 40

The boys began to stock up on provisions for the upcoming escape. To hide the traces of his crime, Huck was forced to hide an impressive piece of butter under his hat. Finding himself in the living room, where there were “fifteen farmers and all with guns,” the boy felt feverish. All these men gathered to protect the farm from attack by unknown criminals who sent mysterious letters.

The boys managed to free Tom, but he was wounded in the leg. Jim and Huck insisted that their friend see the doctor.

Chapter 41

Huck took his friend to the doctor, and he returned to the Phelps house. Here everyone believed that “that the black man was crazy” - before escaping, he wrote a strange message on a millstone, built a ladder from rags, and left a shirt with “African letters written in blood.”

Chapter 42

Soon a strange procession headed towards the Phelps house - Tom on a stretcher, the doctor, Jim tied up, and “behind them a whole crowd of people.” The farmers walking behind were very angry. They wanted to hang the black man immediately so that others would be discouraged from running away from their masters.

The doctor tried to reassure them, saying that Jim had been faithfully caring for the boy and had not even thought about running away. Soon, Huck and Tom's deception was revealed, and they had to tell about everything.

Chapter 43

It turned out that “old Miss Watson had indeed given Jim her freedom,” and he was now a free man. Tom gave him forty dollars as compensation for playing the "prisoner's role" so patiently.

Meanwhile, Tom was already “making new plans” and invited his friends to go “to seek adventure in Indian Territory.” Huck agreed, but he was sure that his father "took all the money from Judge Thacher and drank it away." Jim assured that old Finn would never hurt the boy again - the dead man on the houseboat turned out to be the boy's father.

Tom quickly recovered from his wound, and began to happily wear “his bullet around his neck like a watch.” Huck increasingly began to think about his friend’s proposal to go to Indian Territory - Mrs. Phelps decided to adopt him and “civilize” him, but he could not stand it...

Chapter XIX—XXIII

Several days pass. Friends sail again at night and enjoy life. One day, Huck finds an empty boat and goes ashore to look for berries in the forest. There he meets two men who “didn’t do anything like that, that’s why they’re being chased by dogs.” Huck rescues them and transports them to his raft.

The tramps turn out to be seasoned swindlers. One of them, a young man of about thirty, “reveals the secret of his origin” and is said to be a direct descendant of the Duke of Bridgewater. The second, a bald old man of about seventy, does not remain in debt and introduces himself as the legitimate king of France, Louis XVII, the unfortunate son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Huck understands that both are swindlers, but does not want to quarrel with them and does not dissuade Jim.

There's nothing worse than arguing on a raft; the most important thing when you are sailing on a raft is that everyone is happy, not quarreling and not being angry with each other.

Huck hides the truth about himself and Jim from the scammers and comes up with another legend about a lonely orphan.

The crooks join Huck and Jim. Traveling down the Mississippi, they "collect tribute" from coastal towns. The Duke teaches the king to act out Shakespeare's plays, and the king acts as a preacher at every opportunity and robs gullible townspeople. In order to travel freely during the day, the scammers pass off Jim as a runaway slave who is caught and taken to his master. They don't suspect that this is the case.

Noticing that performances based on Shakespeare's plays are not successful, the Duke paints the king and makes him jump around the stage naked. The performance is funny, but very short. The audience realizes that they have been duped, and comes to the next performance with pockets full of rotten fruit, rotten eggs and dead cats.

The Duke and King have to flee. After this, the naive Jim is finally convinced that all kings are swindlers.

What was the use of telling Jim that this was not the real king and duke? Nothing good could come of this, and besides, it was as I said: they were no different from the real ones.

Huck does not want to upset Jim also because the poor black man is very homesick for his family who remained in slavery.

Summary of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Twain M.

Chapters 1-8

The narration is told in the first person. Huck Finn complains about his difficult existence in the widow's foster home: you can't smoke, you can't put your feet on a chair. The Widow Douglas and her sister, the spinster Miss Watson, completely tormented Huck with their moralizing and prayers. One salvation is Tom Sawyer with his endless inventions. One day, going to a cave at night for a meeting of a gang of robbers, the boys stole candles from the widow Douglas's kitchen, and left five cents as payment. On the threshold of the kitchen, the black man (Widow Douglas's slave) Jim is dozing. Tom takes off his hat and hangs it on a branch above his head. Jim tells all the surrounding blacks about how the witches joked about him - they almost rode him around the world. And he made a hole in a nickel and made it his talisman. Tom gathers a gang of robbers, having little idea who they will kill and rob, and what, exactly, ransom is. The children played robbers for a month, and then they got tired of it and the gang broke up. After the holidays, Huck begins to go to school and learns to read and write. But he’s not good at math: he only learned up to “six seven – thirty five.” The little tramp gradually begins to get used to his new life. And suddenly Huck’s father, a cruel drunkard, returns to the city. The boy understands that his fate will change dramatically for the worse. The father will take away his son's entire fortune and spend it on a wild life. Judge Thatcher understands Huck's fear and allegedly acquires capital from him. Huck has no money now! The father comes to Huck and reproaches him for the fact that his son, you see, is arrogant, and even learned to read. He promises to beat him up mercilessly, takes away the remaining few dollars, gets outrageously drunk, wanders around the streets and acts out. The bully is thrown into prison. The new judge is trying to re-educate the old man: he takes him into his house, dresses him in everything new, and persuades him not to drink. However, the old man runs away from the house and drinks away all the new clothes. The drunkard is trying to sue Thatcher for his son’s money, but the trial is being deliberately postponed all the time. The tramp kidnaps Huck and takes him to a wooden shack on the river bank. Huck would have liked a free life by the river and in the forest, but the old man beats him with a stick - the boy is covered in scars. Having drunk himself to the point of delirium tremens, the father chases his son with a knife.

Huck cannot stand this and manages to escape. He arranges his escape so that people think that the boy was killed by unknown robbers. Huck floats down the river to Jackson's Island. On the island, the boy discovers traces of a still hot fire. It turns out that this is the black Jim. He ran away from his owner, old Miss Watson, who was going to sell him to Orleans. I couldn’t resist the promised pile of money—eight hundred dollars. Huck was brought up in the belief that blacks should be slaves, and not turning over a runaway is a crime. However, he vows not to give Jim away. A hungry black man greedily eats the supplies captured by the prudent Huck in the house of his crazy dad. An adult black man and a white boy have fascinating conversations about superstitions that they consider to be true, about wealth and poverty, about fate and luck.

Chapters 9-14

Jim and Huck find a cave on the island and move into it. Just in time - a thunderstorm begins, then heavy rains that cause severe flooding. The river is rising. While sailing on a shuttle, the fugitives come across a houseboat that has been swept away by the water. And in the house, Jim discovers a dead man, killed in the back with a knife, and covers his face with rags - very scary. Huck is not going to look at the dead man. In the house, the friends found many useful things, in their opinion, - in particular, worn-out cotton dresses. And even a whole eight dollars sewn into the lining of a man’s coat! Bored with life on the island, Huck dresses up as a girl, puts a hood on his head and goes to the town to explore. In a small house, he looks through the window and sees a sweet woman knitting by candlelight. The woman lets the “girl” into the house and begins to talk about how Huck Finn was killed. Many thought that his father had killed him and wanted to lynch the old hooligan, but he disappeared. A reward of two hundred dollars has been announced for his capture. For the capture of the black Jim - three hundred dollars. There are versions that it was a black man who killed Huck. The hunt has begun for Jim - three hundred dollars aren’t lying around on the road! The narrator noticed smoke on Jackson Island - was that where the fugitive was hiding? She says that this very night her husband will go there “with one neighbor.” Huck is terribly worried: he must have time to warn Jim! Out of excitement, not knowing what to do with his hands, he begins to thread a needle... Based on his clumsy manners, the hostess determines that this is a boy, not a girl. Huck manages to convince her that he is an orphan who ran away from his cruel farmer owner to his uncle. The boy manages to warn his black friend about the danger. They hastily load their belongings and supplies onto the raft (the raft was found during a flood) and leave the island. On the raft, the couple settled down thoroughly: they built a cozy, durable hut. Friends obtain food by fishing and hunting, sometimes “borrowing” a watermelon or melon (or even a gaping chicken) from the gardens. One day, travelers find a half-submerged steamship and climb onto it to take something from it. The initiator is Huck. On the ship, Huck discovers a gang of bandits who cannot divide the loot and are planning to kill someone. The boy decides to take away the boat on which the bandits sailed to the ship and report the gang to the sheriff of the nearest town. Jim, trembling with fear, tells his young friend that the raft has become untied and floated away. At some terrible moment, it seems to Huck and Jim that they will not be able to get into the boat: two criminals are loading some stolen things into it and are going to sail, leaving the third, who is somehow objectionable to them, on the steamship doomed to destruction. Luckily for the fugitives, the bandits rise up again to take a share of the loot from the one they condemned to death. Jim and Huck instantly jump into the boat and take off running! They managed to find their raft - lucky! But the ship sank before the rescuers reached it, sent there by Huck with the help of incredible lies. In the bundles of goods that the bandits robbed on the ship and loaded into the boat taken by the fugitives, a lot of valuables were found: boots, a blanket, clothes, a telescope, many books and three boxes of cigars. On some new island, travelers take a break and smoke first-class cigars. Huck reads books aloud to Jim - more and more about kings and dukes, and then the friends talk about the salaries of rulers of different countries and whether King Solomon was wise - in Jim's opinion, not very much, otherwise why would he have so many wives? Would a smart person live in such a mess?

Chapters 15, 16

Huck and Jim are swimming with a purpose. In the Northern States (after the Civil War), blacks are not considered slaves. Once the fugitives reach the city of Cairo (in some translations - Cairo), and Jim is free! The fugitive is already dreaming of how through hard work he will save money to ransom his children and wife. And if they refuse to sell them, then they will steal them! Huck is tormented by his conscience: he helps a runaway black man, and he is so dissolute that he is going to kidnap his children! It's getting more and more difficult to navigate the river. Hunters for runaway blacks are prowling everywhere. Jim is not the only one on the run. Huck has to lie every now and then. - Yes, sir... There is a white one on the raft... You can check. I even ask you to help... My dad is on the raft, he is completely sick... He has... It’s okay, sir... Black smallpox... Such lies scare away people who are afraid of infection. One day the raft collides with a steamship. Huck nearly drowned and lost Jim.

Chapters 17, 18

A wet boy comes across an old log house in the dark. Frightened by the barking dogs, he freezes in place. He is allowed into the house with great precautions. Huck habitually lies that he fell from the ship. He was traveling alone, all his numerous relatives had died, except for his sister Mary Ann, who ran away from home and got married... The poor orphan was changed into dry clothes and fed delicious corn cakes with fresh butter. Huck is offered to stay, especially since in this rich, hospitable house he has a peer - Buck. Colonel Grangerford, the owner of the house, is a true gentleman. He was unusually kind, and if he frowned, it was only for half a minute, but this was enough for the whole family to walk on line for a week. He had a wife, whom Huck calls “old lady,” two grown daughters and three sons: Bob, Tom, Buck. Before there were three more sons - but they were killed. The very talented daughter Emmeline died. She drew and wrote poems - and all about sad things, about death... One incident shows Huck that not everything is so happy in the house of an old rich aristocrat. There is a blood feud between his family and the Shepherdson family. Nobody knows why it started, but every now and then one of the members of both families falls victim to it. A black man assigned to serve Huck one day calls him into the forest to show him water snakes. Surprised, Huck follows him - and sees Jim in the clearing! Tom managed to get to the forest and save the old raft of reluctant travelers. Huck doesn’t even want to talk about further events: they shocked his soul too much. The Colonel's daughter Sophia ran away with young Harry Shepherdson. The lovers managed to move across the river, and their relatives entered a new round of war. As a result, Baca's father and two brothers were killed. There were also victims on the Shepherdson side. Sitting in a tree, Huck watched as the wounded Buck and his cousin, floating along the river, were pursued by enemies shouting: “Death to them! Death!" He remembered this terrible scene for a long time and even dreamed about it... Huck and Jim on their raft get away from the place of blood feud. “... There is no better home than a raft. Everywhere it seems stuffy and cramped, but not on the raft. On the raft you feel free, light, and comfortable.” True, it turns out that the travelers somehow missed the city of freedom Kairo - and are now sailing to the South, where Jim could be captured at any moment. Therefore, the raft moves at night, and during the day you have to sleep.

Chapters 19-24

Jim and Huck are floating along the wide river - quietly and calmly. However, this calm does not last long: two people jump onto the raft: one is an old man of about seventy, bald, with gray sideburns, the other is a man of about thirty. Both are dressed like tramps. The people they deceived are chasing after them - these are scammers who earn whatever they can. But all their earnings are based on deception.

On the raft, the young swindler calls himself a duke, and the old one calls himself a king. Jim and Huck begin to serve the “distinguished persons,” although they soon realize that all this is a deception. The raft lands near a small town. The Duke portrays a traveling preacher. Naive residents gather for the sermon. They repent and cry. The king repents and weeps loudest of all. He declares himself a pirate who, thanks to his sermon, returned to the fold of the church. Now, if only we could raise money to call other pirates to repentance. The touched public throws money into the old swindler's hat. The swindlers have many tricks in store for gullible people. So, for example, they declare themselves the owners of a printing house and fill orders for advertisements. Naturally, not for free. Yes, these gentlemen are good at lying! The idea was to pass off Jim as a captured runaway black man who was being taken back to his owners. Now you can sail during the day... When Jim complains that too often he has to swim tied up, he is smeared with blue paint and passed off as a “mad Arab.” In one town, scammers staged a theatrical performance: a naked king, painted with multi-colored stripes, jumped onto the stage and began to make faces. All this did not last very long. The public was very angry. But, not wanting to be left in the cold, I recommended this performance to my friends. The insolent artists announced the third performance! They could not have escaped a good thrashing, but the scammers collected the money and quietly sailed away on the raft. There was a whole pile of money: four hundred and sixty dollars for three evenings! Jim and Huck conclude that “all kings are crap.” Moreover, they always reek of alcohol...

Chapters 25-30

One young man told the king that a certain Peter Wilkes had died in a small town near the river. His brothers Harvey and the deaf-mute William were going to come from England, but were too late - Peter said goodbye to this world. Three orphan girls remained: nineteen-year-old Mary Jane, fifteen-year-old Suzanne and thirteen-year-old Joanna with a cleft lip (she devoted herself to good deeds). The young man dumps a whole pile of information on the king, surnames, first names... Having learned that the rich dead man left an inheritance, the king carefully remembers everything. The king and duke come to the town under the guise of English relatives. Saying goodbye to the deceased, they shed rivers of tears. It turns out that the house and three thousand dollars go to the girls, and the tannery and the other three thousand dollars go to the brothers. The money is buried in the cellar.

Trusting Mary Jane also gives her money to “good uncles” - let them put it in her name in some bank or invest it in a business. The local doctor warns that the two are liars and scammers, but no one believes him. Huck, who is considered the brothers' servant, sympathizes with the deceived girls - after all, they treat him very kindly. And such cute creatures will be robbed by a couple of scammers? Huck decides to steal the money from the king and duke, hide it in another place and sail away quietly, leaving Mary Jane a note indicating the location and telling her that the “brothers” are deceivers. The boy steals the money and hides it in a coffin under a lid. The king and duke are selling black slaves, and separating mothers from their children. The girls cry, but cannot go against the will of their elders. Greedy scoundrels are going to sell both the house and the factory. Huck breaks down and tells the truth to Mary Jane. He asks the girl to go and stay with someone, because she is so sincere and truthful that you can read all her thoughts and feelings from her face. The real Wilkes brothers appear in town. Scandals and disputes flare up: the king and the duke brazenly do not give up their positions. Stormy night. As evidence, the real Wilkes says that the late Peter had letters tattooed on his chest. Fake Wilkes claims the tattoo is different. Almost the entire male population rushes to the cemetery to dig up a grave. A bag of gold is found on the dead man's chest! During the general unrest, Huck manages to escape. Unfortunately, scammers also manage to escape. The king and the duke climb onto the raft again and immediately begin to quarrel: one accuses the other of stealing and hiding the money. However, after a while they got tipsy, made peace and began snoring, hugging each other.

Chapters 31-42

Things are going from bad to worse for scammers. It is not possible to make money either by theater, or by fortune-telling, or by preaching. Then the king sells Jim as a runaway black man to the farmer Mr. Phelps. Huck goes to the planter's house to figure out how to save his friend. Unexpectedly, both the hostess and the owner greet him as a long-awaited guest and relative. In the end, it turns out that Huck is mistaken for Tom Sawyer, who was just invited to stay. Soon Tom himself arrives, but he is called by the name of his brother - Sid. Tom promises Huck to help kidnap Jim. Huck admits that he has “less respect for Tom Sawyer.” Huck considers himself lost, but for a boy from a decent family to agree to participate in the liberation of a runaway black man! The king and the duke come to the city with their performance “The Royal Giraffe”. Residents dump them in tar and feathers and carry them around the city on poles. Huck is scared to look at this. He forgets all the evil that these dishonest people have done and feels sorry for them.

“If I had a dog as annoying as my conscience, I would poison it. It takes up more space than all the other insides, but it’s of no use,” thinks Huck. From Jim's release, Tom, with his penchant for secrets, oaths and playing robbers, organizes himself a multi-day entertainment. To let Jim out of the barn where he is being kept, all one has to do is unlock or knock down the lock and open the door. But Tom forces the unfortunate black man to dig a tunnel, scratch mysterious letters on tin plates, write on a millstone specially brought by the boys “Here the prisoner’s heart broke,” and train rats—it’s impossible to be in solitary confinement without a trained rat: it’s written in the books. Tom scares the household with mysterious notes containing bones and skulls and bakes a rope ladder into a pie for Jim. Jim eventually runs away, changing into a calico dress at Tom's insistence. There is a commotion in the house, and surrounding farmers come running with guns. In a shootout (in the forest), Tom Sawyer is wounded. After examining the barn, the residents come to the conclusion that the escaped black man is definitely crazy. Why these inscriptions? Where did the millstone come from? Why was the ladder needed? Jim is found in the forest and brought back tied up. The wounded Tom is carried on a stretcher. They are going to lynch the black man, but they refuse this idea - what if the owner shows up and demands compensation for the damage? The old doctor stands up for Jim: when the black man saw that Tom was wounded, the fugitive himself came out of hiding to care for the wounded boy. Aunt Polly arrives. It turns out that "Sid" is Tom, and "Tom" is Huck Finn. Tom, waking up from oblivion, tells how he had a “great idea” to free Jim. It turns out that old Miss Watson died, and in her will she ordered to give Jim his freedom. - Why did you start all this mess? - What about adventures?

Chapter last

Jim is released. Tom gives him forty dollars because the black man played along with the mischievous man in his game. Jim feels rich. Huck didn’t lose his money either: Jim admitted to him that the dead man they saw on the houseboat at the beginning of the trip was his father. The drunkard and bandit was shot by someone - and Huck has no one to fear anymore, and his money is safe in the bank. Aunt Sally (the farmer's wife) is going to adopt him and raise him. So Huck is thinking: should he run away again?

Chapter XXIV—XXIX

In one of the towns, the king is again going to introduce himself as a preacher. He wants to pretend that he has arrived from a large city, for which he must get on a ship. Getting to the ship by shuttle, the king picks up a fellow traveler, from whom he learns that a rich man, Peter Wilkes, has died in the town. He left all the gold to his English brothers - William and the deaf-mute Harvey - whom he had not seen since childhood. The king decides to impersonate Reverend William, and the Duke as Harvey.

The deception succeeds. The deceivers arrive in the town just before the funeral, and everyone sympathizes with them. Only the local doctor is not convinced by the scammers' game.

The doctor did not let up and said that a person who pretends to be an Englishman, but himself does not know how to speak like an Englishman, is simply a liar and a swindler.

Wilkes's three daughters do not want to listen to him and, as a sign of trust, give the deceivers a bag with six thousand dollars in gold. This is not enough for scammers. They promise to take their “nieces” to England and persuade them to sell their house and slaves.

Chapter XXX-XXXIII

Having recovered a little, the scammers return to their old ways, but they have no luck. Then they conspire, distract Huck's attention from the raft and hand over Jim as a runaway slave for a reward. Huck learns that Jim is on Silas Phelps' plantation. The boy again begins to be tormented by remorse, because he “stole a black man from a poor old woman.” He even writes a letter to the widow Douglas, but then tears it up: he cannot betray Jim either.

Huck decides to kidnap Jim from slavery, but unfortunately meets the Duke again. He reports that the king sold Jim and ran away without sharing the money. The swindler again begins to push Huck around, but he no longer wants to have anything to do with the Duke and goes to the Phelps plantation.

Phelps' cotton plantation was one of those small, run-down plantations that all look the same.

Before Huck can enter the yard, he is surrounded by dogs, and the owner of the plantation, Aunt Sally, mistakes the boy for her nephew, who is about to arrive. Huck finds himself in a difficult situation again, but suddenly finds out that the Phelps nephew's name is Tom Sawyer.

Huck is saved, because he knows everything about his best friend’s family. He manages to sneak out of the house, as if to get things, meets with Tom himself and negotiates everything with him. Arriving at the plantation, Tom pretends to be his older brother Sid, since Aunt Sally has never seen any of them.

That same evening, Tom and Huck run away to the city. On the way, they meet an angry crowd that is dragging the king and the duke astride a pole - they were trying to give their crowning performance in the nearest town.

It was unpleasant for me to look at this and I even felt sorry for the unfortunate swindlers; I thought: I will never remember them with evil again. It was scary to look at directly. People can be very cruel to each other.

Mark Twain "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

A wonderful continuation of a wonderful story, the sequel of which even surpassed the first original story. The focus this time is on Tom Sawir's main comrade - Huckelberry (or more precisely Huckellberry in the original) Finn, nicknamed the Bloody Hand, and the story is told on his behalf.

The beginning of the story is very positive - the homeless boy Huck Finn was adopted by a noble woman - the widow of the former judge Douglas. The boy gets used to civilized life, goes to school and learns to read and write. At the same time, children's games like playing robbers have continuations. This part is the most fun - especially Huck's attempts to summon the genies using the lamp on Tom's advice. But soon everything changes - the boy’s father returns from oblivion, and a sad story begins. Here you can walk through some of the images in the novel.

Father Gekka - his name is never named during two novels, but this is in no way a drawback. The father is in many ways a “model” parent. Having learned that his son became the owner of a fortune, the father immediately remembered that he was, first of all, a father and quickly decided to lay claim to his son (who turned out to be an extremely ungrateful child) and his money. The situation was aggravated by the fact that bad people like the widow Douglas and lawyer Thatcher, who brazenly took advantage of the absence of a legal parent, illegally kept the child (and money). The apotheosis of the whole situation is a drunken tirade in a shack where Gekka’s father scolds everyone he remembers - the widow, the lawyers, the government, the black man who didn’t please in some way, blaming them for all his troubles, while drinking at the same time. The result was very sad - as a result, his own son greeted the news of the death of such a “father” without any sadness.

The widow Douglas's sister, Miss Watson, is a very interesting person, a model of virtue. Particularly striking is the phrase that Tom Sawyer will not go to heaven under any circumstances (of course, Miss Watson knows better than that). She became a “hostage” in case Gekk betrayed the band of robbers. Her act - an attempt to sell the slave Jimma - is one of the plot-forming ones. Nevertheless, there is one truly good deed she can count on - giving free rein to a runaway slave.

Jimm is Miss Watson's black slave. All his stories, performances, mannerisms make the book funnier. Particularly noteworthy are the dialogues between Jimm and Huck about the French language (where one did not know that there were different languages in the world, and the second knew, but could not explain this fact), and about kings (King Robert drowned his father, Earl of Wellington, in a barrel of wine ).

Buck Gregerford, who became Huck's short-term friend. He does not know at what point his family began to quarrel with the Shepherdson family and does not know for what reason, but this does not stop him from trying to kill Harry Shepherdson in an ambush. One cannot help but pass by the images of Harry and Sophia, the local Romeo and Juliet, who, realizing the enormity of the situation and falling in love with each other, ran away and decided to live their own lives. and the price of this decision was dear for their families, who once again (last?) met in a senseless massacre.

Old Boysen is “the first fool in all of Arkansas,” and the colonel carried out his threats.

The King and the Duke - their names remained unknown, only their “wonderful origin” is known. The scam involving posing as relatives of a respected family was ingenious, as was the moment when the real relatives appeared and the residents of the town had a question - who is real and who should be lynched (some suggested both couples).

This time society is being castigated by the author to the fullest. No matter how many shortcomings there are in the hometown of Tom and Huck, there are a hundred times more of them in the places where Huck has been. There was an opinion that no one was following the rule of law. In broad daylight, a colonel freely kills a person, no one pays attention to the blood feud that has lasted thirty years, people often resolve any issues by lynching, and fraud flourishes with all its might. The cities also look miserable (like the one where the King and Duke staged the production of “The Royal Giraffe”), and in the temples large pigs sleep in the shadows. A separate point is the lack of rights of blacks, and their lack of positioning as people, which is even ingrained in people’s phrases.

Chapter XXXIV-XLII

Having settled in his aunt's house, Tom zealously sets about freeing Jim, who is locked in the barn. Huck proposes a simple and effective plan, but Tom is not satisfied with it. The boy wants everything to be “by the rules.” Jim must escape through a tunnel, having first sawed through the shackles, received a rope ladder baked in a pie, scratched a pitiful inscription on the wall with a spoon and left a diary written on his shirt in the prison. Huck approves of Tom's plan, but cannot understand why a boy from a good family is helping a runaway black man.

To implement such a complex plan, many things are needed. Strange and mysterious events begin to occur in the house - Uncle Silas's new shirt, sheets, and spoons disappear. This frightens Aunt Sally and throws her off balance. Along the way, Tom comes up with new ideas, for example, releasing spiders, snakes and rats into Jim's prison so that he will tame them. Jim is very afraid of these creatures and hardly sleeps.

He said that being a prisoner was hard labor, worse than anything he had ever done, and he also had to be responsible for everything.

The snakes caught by the boys crawl around the house, scaring Aunt Sally to death.

Just before escaping, Tom drops off several threatening letters. Everyone believes that the terrible gang wants to free their accomplice Jim, and neighbors with guns come to the aid of the Phelps. The escape is successful. With bullets whistling, the fugitives reach the raft, and only there does Huck discover that Tom is wounded.

Huck brings a doctor to Tom, who takes him and Jim home. Tom suffers from a high fever for several days. Having come to his senses, the boy thinks that Jim is safe and tells Aunt Sally all about his tricks. Having learned that Jim is still locked up, Tom demands to let him go. The boy reports that Miss Watson died, bequeathing freedom to her slave. And Tom freed the black man only for the sake of adventure.

At this time, Aunt Polly arrives, concerned about her sister’s strange letter, and explains to Aunt Sally who is who.

Chapter last

Jim is freed from his chains, he helps Aunt Sally look after Tom, and the boy gives him forty dollars for his patience. Huck believes that dad Finn drank his money away long ago, but Jim reports the death of the old drunkard - it was his body that a black man saw in a house floating past Jackson Island during a flood.

Tom gets better and plans new adventures. Huck is going to run away to Indian Territory because Aunt Sally wants to adopt him and raise him, and Huck certainly can’t stand that, he tried.