This Norton Critical Edition includes:

The American first edition text, plus the reinstated raft passage from Life on the Mississippi (1883), complete with all original illustrations by Edward Windsor Kemble and, for the raft passage, John Harley.

Editorial matter by Thomas Cooley.

A rich selection of contextual and source documents centered on the novel’s historical background, language, composition, and reception, four of them new to the Fourth Edition.

Seventeen carefully chosen critical assessments of Mark Twain’s greatest work, ten of them new to the Fourth Edition.

A chronology and a selected bibliography.

About the Series

Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format-annotated text, contexts, and criticism-helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

The materials and notations were excellent and useful. They often lead the students to further inquiry. It is a valuable text.

-Michael W. Carter, University of Kentucky

I have generally found the editorial annotations excellent. Overall I still find this the best critical edition of Huck Finn for my students.

-Shelly Jarenski, University of Michigan-Dearborn