Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Page 3

  EXPLANATORY

  IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: ?the Missouri negrodialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; theordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of thislast. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or byguesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance andsupport of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.

  I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readerswould suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike andnot succeeding.

  THE AUTHOR.

  HUCKLEBERRY FINN

  Scene: ?The Mississippi Valley Time: ?Forty to fifty years ago