# The Most American Novel of All Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 7, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809 "2015-10-07T14:08:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/1 "2015-10-07T14:08:15Z")
> **[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Slosh](https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3883)** > > Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Slosh According to this webcomic’s final panel, the most American novel of all time (as in, the one that best exemplifies the United States, not necessarily the greatest) is **Moby Dick**. I’m torn between Robert Heinlein’s **Have Spacesuit, Will Travel** (Its moral is that by your own efforts, you can save the world and go to the stars!) and **Blue Willow** , by Doris Gates. Its moral is to always get a receipt. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/2 "2015-10-07T14:11:52Z")
_ **Look Homeward, Angel.** _ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/3 "2015-10-07T14:24:10Z")
Huckleberry Finn. Thread over. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/4 "2015-10-07T14:35:30Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Huckleberry Finn. > > Thread over. Yep ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/5 "2015-10-07T14:36:50Z")
I gotta go Blood Meridian. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/6 "2015-10-07T14:39:10Z")
Another **Huckleberry Finn**. **Last of the Mohicans** in 2nd place. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/7 "2015-10-07T14:42:02Z")
> [@Doyle](#): > > Another **Huckleberry Finn**. > > **Last of the Mohicans** in 2nd place. Considering Twain’s utter loathing for the works James Fenimore Cooper, this is a funny answer. [http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html](http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html) ---
**Author:** ![CGav8r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@CGav8r](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CGav8r)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/8 "2015-10-07T14:42:43Z")
\*To Kill a Mockingbird \*or \*The Great Gatsby \*come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/9 "2015-10-07T14:53:21Z")
I’ll put in another vote for **Huckleberry Finn**. I just re-read it in the form of _The Annotated Huckleberry Finn_ a couple of years ago. It combines American characters, American settings, American dialect, a slew of American customs and beliefs, and at its heart is the conflict between human conscience and dealing with the rights and wrongs of slavery. It’s by turns comic and tragic. It’s hard to imagine its being written in any other country - it would have to be so completely changed that it would be a different novel. As a added bonus, it’s been banned multiple times, in different places in the US, and for different reasons. Louisa May Alcott hated it, and saw to it that it was banned from the Concord, MA public library (they have copies there today). She saw it as low and vulgar, celebrating atypical characters with poor grammar. Today it still gets banned simply for using the word “nigger”. But there’s a reason the book uses the word, and it goes far beyond the customs and language of the time, and is rooted in the conflict at the heart of the story. Pretty clearly, Huck Finn is still relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/10 "2015-10-07T14:54:37Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Considering Twain’s utter loathing for the works James Fenimore Cooper, this is a funny answer. > > [Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses](http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html) I can understand. I didn’t care for many books written in the 1700s and early 1800s. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/11 "2015-10-07T14:55:51Z")
Huckleberry Finn is not just the most American novel of all time, it is the archetype for all modern novels. There is just no argument in this category. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/12 "2015-10-07T15:01:21Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Huckleberry Finn. > > Thread over. The first thing that popped into my mind was “Tom Sawyer,” but you’re right, Huck beats him out. Although Tom Sawyer was first, Huck has more to it, how can you beat a travelog along the Mississippi? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/13 "2015-10-07T15:02:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ll put in another vote for **Huckleberry Finn**. I just re-read it in the form of _The Annotated Huckleberry Finn_ a couple of years ago. It combines American characters, American settings, American dialect, a slew of American customs and beliefs, and at its heart is the conflict between human conscience and dealing with the rights and wrongs of slavery. It’s by turns comic and tragic. It’s hard to imagine its being written in any other country - it would have to be so completely changed that it would be a different novel. > > As a added bonus, it’s been banned multiple times, in different places in the US, and for different reasons. Louisa May Alcott hated it, and saw to it that it was banned from the Concord, MA public library (they have copies there today). She saw it as low and vulgar, celebrating atypical characters with poor grammar. Today it still gets banned simply for using the word “nigger”. But there’s a reason the book uses the word, and it goes far beyond the customs and language of the time, and is rooted in the conflict at the heart of the story. Pretty clearly, Huck Finn is still relevant. The cause of most of the bans in the 19th century was the chapter, “You Can’t Pray a Lie,” where Huck decides he’d rather go to hell than turn in Jim. Lots or religious types of the time thought that blasphemous; nowadays, few would even see anything to object to. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/14 "2015-10-07T16:25:45Z")
Just as tough as picking “the” quintessential American movie. In the running for me: _The Killer Angels To Kill A Mockingbird The Great Gatsby On the Night Plain The Great Santini Await Your Reply In Cold Blood Coal Black Horse In the Lake of the Woods_ ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/15 "2015-10-07T16:35:52Z")
What, no love for _The Grapes of Wrath?_. But yes, I’d agree with _Huckleberry Finn_, with _Grapes_ a close second. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/16 "2015-10-07T16:41:15Z")
Most American movie will prompt a discussion. Most American Novel will be a runaway: **Huckleberry Finn**. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/17 "2015-10-07T17:06:05Z")
On the topic of Steinbeck, I actually prefer _ **East of Eden** _. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/18 "2015-10-07T19:37:16Z")
East of Eden All the King’s Men ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/19 "2015-10-07T19:40:34Z")
Catch-22. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809/20 "2015-10-07T19:55:28Z")
_The World According to Garp_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-american-novel-of-all-time/733809.md?page=2)