The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is widely regarded as one of the Great American Novels gracing bookstore shelves today, but because of its coarse language, it's often the subject of controversy and has been removed from required reading lists in various schools throughout the United States. NewSouth Books' attempt to minimize the book's controversy might have inadvertently created more of a scandal, as they've announced that the upcoming version of Huckleberry Finn will replace the word "nigger" with "slave" and also tone down usage of the word "Injun." 

Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben defends the substitution, saying "This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind. Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century." Is our overly-conservative political correctness neutering an American classic? The word "nigger" is used 219 times in the original book, but it reflects the time in which the story takes place, when slaves were considered property instead of people. It's ironic that a book rich with themes of freedom, segregation, and racial prejudice can be regarded as racist because of its setting-appropriate usage of a racial slur.

Where do the edits stop? Child abuse is taken extremely seriously nowadays, so should we remove Huck Finn's abusive, alcoholic father from the book entirely? Or what about the scene where Huck dresses as a girl to eavesdrop on the latest news in town? Clearly it's a controversial moment where Huck Finn is experiencing gender disorder issues -- should that part be edited out so both conservatives and transvestites aren't offended?

What are your thoughts, are these edits necessary in an overly politically-correct 21st century so that new generations of readers can enjoy the book without being offended or uncomfortable about one little word, or is this version of Huckleberry Finn censoring the novel and ruining Twain's rich and colorful descriptions of the world the protagonist grew up in?

The latest edition of Huckleberry Finn editing out "nigger" and "Injun" is...