The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
EXPLANATORY
IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.
I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.
THE AUTHOR.
Scene: The Mississippi Valley
Time: Forty to fifty years ago
[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being written in 1884, this would make the setting of this story in the 1830's or 1840's.]
The Classical Library, This HTML edition copyright 2000.
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