'Huckleberry Finn' is a picaresque tale, told in Huck's own voice, of his adventures on a raft on the Mississippi River. It begins with Huck's escape from his drunken, brutal father to the river, where he meets up with Jim, a runaway slave. The story of their journey downstream, with occasional forays into the society along the banks, is an American classic that captures the smells, rhythms, and sounds, the variety of dialects and the human activity of life on the great river.