Coming to Grips with "Huckleberry Finn": Essays on a Book, a Boy and a Man - Softcover

"Quirk is an accomplished critic, as the audience of this work will discover. However, he is also a reader who writes as a reader and for readers. In doing so he offers a nice swath of ground where critics, scholars, and readers can sit together as they contemplate once again the world of a novel that never seems settled."--The Twainian

"Quirk's essays are not of the ivory tower kind. That is, his provocative ideas are the kind meant to spark classroom discussion. I intend to use my well-marked copy of the text to do just that."--David Tomlinson, Mark Twain Forum

"I think that readers will find this a 'book' rather than a collection, a book that demonstrates prolonged, open-minded musing about Twain's novel rather than forcing some idea toward wordy originality. It is highly, highly intelligent, quietly urbane, thought-provoking, original, and totally independent of dogma and fashion."--Louis J. Budd

"Tom Quirk's richly speculative and lucid study confronts the reader with new lights and sidelights on those central artifacts of American culture: Huckleberry Finn, Huck, Jim, and the man who created them."--American Literature

"Coming to Grips with HUCKLEBERRY FINN provides an illuminating vision of both the character and the book--a vision telling in its unpretentiousness, its clarity, and its grace. Readers who believe they know Huckleberry Finn well will be surprised at how much they learn."--James M. Cox

"Coming to Grips with HUCKLEBERRY FINN provides an illuminating vision of both the character and the book--a vision telling in its unpretentiousness, its clarity, and its grace. Readers who believe they know Huckleberry Finn well will be surprised at how much they learn."--James M. Cox

"Quirk is an accomplished critic, as the audience of this work will discover. However, he is also a reader who writes as a reader and for readers. In doing so he offers a nice swath of ground where critics, scholars, and readers can sit together as they contemplate once again the world of a novel that never seems settled."--The Twainian

"I think that readers will find this a 'book' rather than a collection, a book that demonstrates prolonged, open-minded musing about Twain's novel rather than forcing some idea toward wordy originality. It is highly, highly intelligent, quietly urbane, thought-provoking, original, and totally independent of dogma and fashion."--Louis J. Budd

"Tom Quirk's richly speculative and lucid study confronts the reader with new lights and sidelights on those central artifacts of American culture: Huckleberry Finn, Huck, Jim, and the man who created them."--American Literature

"Quirk's essays are not of the ivory tower kind. That is, his provocative ideas are the kind meant to spark classroom discussion. I intend to use my well-marked copy of the text to do just that."--David Tomlinson, Mark Twain Forum