Quote of the Week

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows anybody.
--Mark Twain, Following the Equator

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Mark Twain!

AKA Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

Born November 30, 1835. Died April 21, 1910.

He was a famous American writer best known for such novels as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huck Finn. He also wrote such nonfiction books like Roughing It and The Innocents Abroad. Mark Twain is also credited with not only inventing the Great American Novel but being one of the first American writers to give voice to a new American literary style that owed almost nothing to European influence, a trait which was most obvious in The Innocents Abroad.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Mark Twain!

AKA Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

Born November 30, 1835. Died April 21, 1910.

He was a famous American writer best known for such novels as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huck Finn. He also wrote such nonfiction books like Roughing It and The Innocents Abroad. Mark Twain is also credited with not only inventing the Great American Novel but being one of the first American writers to give voice to a new American literary style that owed almost nothing to European influence, a trait which was most obvious in The Innocents Abroad.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

From 1968, it's yet another TV show inspired by a classic Mark Twain novel, only this one seems to be more inspired by Twain's fantasy novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court than by the more realistic effort, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There was actually a scene in one of Mark Twain's earlier novels -- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -- in which Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn get chased into a cave by the murderous fugitive Injun Joe. However, apart from that, any connection between this American show and the Mark Twain novels in which Huck Finn originally appeared seems to be purely coincidential.

And let's not get started on the whole idea of Addams Family's star Ted Cassidy appearing in brownface. Suffice it to say that any affection I feel for this series is despite that, not because of it -- and no doubt inspired by the fact that I was very, very young when I first saw this. Too young, in fact, to have any idea who Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were supposed to be until long after this show was off the air. I will admit, however, to having been old enough to have been more intrigued by Ms. Becky Thatcher than by any of the other characters.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Huckleberry Finn and His Friends

Apparently this was a Canadian-German production from the late 1970s which was broadcast in almost every country except my own. Okay, it might have aired in the US, but if so, it wasn't in a part of the country that I remember being in.

Given the contrast between that bright and breezy introduction and the many dark elements in the original Mark Twain novel, I can't help but wonder whether or not that was a good thing.