Huck and James (In-person)
Spring (9 - 13 hours) | FULL (Membership Required)
Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) is considered by many to be the Great American Novel. Adults who have not read the book since their school days are astounded by the relevance of Huck Finn to modern America. Now, almost 140 years after its publication, comes the bold and audacious new novel James by Percival Everett (2024), retelling Twain’s story from the point of view of Jim, Huck’s enslaved companion in their mutual flight for freedom. This will be a discussion course, conducted in-person, and we will spend three weeks on each book.
David Grant
David Grant is a former teacher and foundation president who currently lives in Strafford. His thesis, “Mark Twain, Tom & Huck,” won the Willard Thorpe Thesis Prize at Princeton University in 1972. David developed his teaching interest in Mark Twain into a one-man show which he took around the world in 1982. As a life-long student of Mark Twain, he was bowled over when James was published earlier this year, and he is eager to discuss it, along with the novel that inspired it, with fellow readers at Osher.