ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN is Mark Twain's greatest work. Indeed, it has been described as the quintessential American novel. Yet over the years distinguished literary voices such as Lionel Trilling, T. S. Eliot, and Ernest Hemingway have criticized the novel's "falling off" in its concluding sections, the pages in which Tom Sawyer appears. Now, through careful study of its flaws and years of meticulous research, Charles Neider—one of today's foremost authorities on Twain and his writings— has put together an extraordinary new edition of this timeless classic, one that promises to become a landmark addition to the American literary scene.

In this bold and brilliant undertaking, Neider skillfully pares down the much-disputed final Tom Sawyer passages, cutting back Tom's voice to allow Huck's to emerge as it was originally meant to. And in yet another inspired change, Neider restores to its proper place a lengthy and stunning raft chapter that Mark Twain had pulled when HUCK FINN was still a work-in-progress and inserted (with references to the novel) in his Life on the Mississippi.

With 1985 a year of Twain mile- stones—the 150th anniversary of his birth, the 75th of his death, and the 100th of the initial publication of ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN —this new volume stands as a major publishing event, bringing back to American literature, at last, a masterful novel truer to its spirit and vision than ever before.

Twain authority Charles Neider is also a novelist, critic, and biographer. His works include The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, The Complete Essays of Mark Twain, and The Complete Humorous Sketches and Tales of Mark Twain.
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