While it would be possible to enjoy James without knowing the original, its power derives from its engagement with Twain's book. For British readers, it also helps to know something about the centrality of Huckleberry Finn in American literature - and African American discomfort with that centrality.
As an American growing up in the UK, I had an early taste of the first. It was a proud day in 1983 when we got our author copies of the new Puffin edition of Huckleberry Finn, with its introduction by my dad, Paul Theroux. I still have mine: ared paperback illustrated by Quentin Blake.
My dad's breezy foreword was aimed at young British readers who were unfamiliar with the book - an unimaginable category in the US, where it was a staple on the school curriculum. And yet as early as the 1950s there was growing debate about how and whether the book should be taught. There are more than 200 occurrences of the N-slur in the text. How would that go down in America's newly desegregated classrooms?
This story is from the April 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the April 19, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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