The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn began life as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but is now seen in its own right as one of the most important of all American novels. Rather than be `sivilized` by the Widow Douglas, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, an escaped slave, set off to find freedom on the Mississippi. Their adventures teach them much about the society in which they live, and the book combines an exuberant sense of nostalgia with subtle undertones of adult melancholy.