The author addresses widespread criticism of the novel's ending, employing a structuralist approach to argue that the seemingly discordant ending of 'Huckleberry Finn' is in fact Mark Twain's deliberate gesture of tragic recognition of an American and a human predicament.

Twenty-five essays written by a group of scholars which reassesses the status of Twain's Huckleberry Finn in American literature and in contemporary American culture, reevaluating past scholarship and exploring new directions. A biography of the book's first hundred years (in 1985).