Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain · Adventure · 43 chapters · 8h 12m · 13 voices

Huck Finn escapes his brutal father by faking his own death and joins the runaway slave Jim on a raft journey down the Mississippi — confronting the moral rot at the heart of antebellum America.

Twain wrote this book in voices and said so: the preface lists the dialects he used and warns that readers would otherwise assume he had failed at one of them. That makes it the clearest case in the catalogue for casting, and the most delicate. Huck narrates, and the novel's moral centre is his slow realisation that Jim is a person — which lands differently when Jim has his own voice rather than being performed by Huck's narrator. The con men, the feuding families, Aunt Sally and the river towns all have their own speech, exactly as written.

The voices that carry it

Jim is the most important casting decision here and is played straight: dignified, careful, and the most morally serious person in the book. The King and the Duke, by contrast, are cast as the cheap performers they are.

Chapter one plays without an account. Start listening to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Voice cast

12 characters plus the narrator, each with their own voice. All the voices of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Jim — Miss Watson's enslaved man; warm, deeply wise, a loving father figure to Huck. Brave and loyal despite the injustice of his situation.
Tom Sawyer — Huck's best friend; imaginative, dramatic, and book-addled. Loves romantic adventure schemes and always follows 'the books'.
Pap Finn — Huck's abusive, alcoholic father; a degraded, violent man consumed by drink and resentment.
The King — A fraud con man who claims to be the rightful Dauphin of France. Pompous, theatrical, greedy, and ruthless.
The Duke — A fraud con man who claims to be the rightful Duke of Bridgewater. Slippery, theatrical, and quicker-witted than the King.
Widow Douglas — Huck's kind-hearted guardian; a respectable widow who genuinely cares for Huck and tries to civilize him.
Miss Watson — The Widow's prim, religious sister; stern with Huck but not entirely heartless — ultimately frees Jim in her will.
Judge Thatcher — The respectable local judge who holds Huck's money in trust and acts as a fatherly legal authority.
Mary Jane Wilks — The eldest Wilks niece; honest, trusting, and brave. She inspires genuine loyalty in Huck.
Aunt Sally — Tom Sawyer's aunt; warm, flustered, and easily confused. She mistakes Huck for Tom and takes him in with open arms.

Chapters

Front Matter 1m
Chapter I 5m
Chapter II 10m
Chapter III 7m
Chapter IV 6m
Chapter V 7m
Chapter VI 12m
Chapter VII 11m
Chapter VIII 20m
Chapter IX 7m
Chapter X 6m
Chapter XI 12m
Chapter XII 12m
Chapter XIII 9m
Chapter XIV 6m
Chapter XV 11m
Chapter XVI 15m
Chapter XVII 15m
Chapter XVIII 21m
Chapter XIX 15m
Chapter XX 16m
Chapter XXI 17m
Chapter XXII 9m
Chapter XXIII 10m
Chapter XXIV 11m
Chapter XXV 13m
Chapter XXVI 13m
Chapter XXVII 11m
Chapter XXVIII 16m
Chapter XXIX 16m
Chapter XXX 5m
Chapter XXXI 16m
Chapter XXXII 10m
Chapter XXXIII 13m
Chapter XXXIV 10m
Chapter XXXV 13m
Chapter XXXVI 9m
Chapter XXXVII 12m
Chapter XXXVIII 12m
Chapter XXXIX 9m
Chapter XL 10m
Chapter XLI 13m
Chapter XLII 18m

About this recording

Does this recording use the original text?

Yes, unabridged and unaltered, which means it contains the racial language of 1884 that the novel uses deliberately and repeatedly. It is not softened here, and some listeners will want to know that first.

Should I listen to Tom Sawyer first?

Not necessarily. Huckleberry Finn follows on from it and Tom appears at both ends, but Huck explains what you need in the first paragraph and the book stands on its own.