The American classic is accompanied by critical studies by such scholars as Van Wyck Brooks, Lionel Trilling, and T.S. Eliot.

Preface to the second edition -- The text of adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Note on the text -- The Raftsmen's passage: Should it remain? -- Backgrounds and sources -- Criticism: -- The first American review / Thomas Sergeant Perry -- Huckleberry Finn: a review / Brander Matthews -- From "The Ordeal of Mark Twain" / Van Wyck Brooks -- Mark Twain: the artist as American / Bernard DeVoto -- Huck Finn aborning / Delancey Ferguson -- The greatness of Huckleberry Finn / Lionel Trilling -- An introduction to Huckleberry Finn / T.S. Eliot -- Mr. Eliot, Mr. Trilling and Huckleberry Finn / Leo Marx -- The uncomfortable ending of Huckleberry Finn / James M. Cox -- "The End. Yours truly, Huck Finn": postscript / Roy harvey Pearce -- A sound heart and deformed conscience /Henry Nash Smith -- Huckleberry Finn by Common Day / Edwin H. Cady -- You can't go home again / Kenneth S. Lynn -- Come back to the raft ag'inHuck honey! / Leslie Fiedler -- Change the joke and slip the yoke / Ralph Ellison -- Black magic--and whie--in Huckleberry Finn / Daniel G. Hoffman -- Tom and Huck / Walter blair -- Disenchantment: Tom Sawyer in Huckleberry Finn / Judith Fetterley -- Selected bibliography.