Twain's Tom and Huck

A classic tale of the journeys and challenges faced by young boys unravels in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The energetic Tom - who lives with his aunt - is frequently made to do things that he simply does not want to do; namely, going to school and to church. His days off are Saturdays, but when he misbehaves, even those are taken away from him by Aunt Polly. Yet after Tom and his friends witness a murder, for whom the wrong person is blamed, his summer of adventures truly begins.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a humorous and nostalgic book depicting the carefree days of boyhood in a small Midwestern town. The characters are based on Twain's schoolmates and the town is Hannibal, Missouri, the setting where he grew up. So, what did boys do in a small town during the mid-1800's, a time when there were no televisions, no arcades, and no videos?

When Huck escapes kidnapping by his own drunken father, he decides to find a canoe to shove off down the river, leaving behind his life of confinement and civilization. Soon Huck comes across Jim, Miss Watson's slave. While traveling down the river, Huck and Jim have many adventures, but more importantly, during many long talks, they become the best of friends, both in search of freedom. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is regarded by many critics and scholars to be the first "Great American novel".

Well known as a "children's book," The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is rich in eloquent and sophisticated language, and filled with realistic characters who become locked in life and death struggles.There is a murder, stolen treasure, and death by starvation. Add to that a love story, a buddy story, and a family drama.

Twain called this story a "hymn to boyhood". Loved by all ages in countless renditions in all media. A classic piece of American literature.

 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel, Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn.  

This is the story of a boy's adventures growing up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi river over 100 years ago. The cheerful, adventurous hero plays truant to form a pirate band and, together with his best friend, Huckleberry Finn, finds fun, excitement, and buried treasure along the shores of the great river.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer depicts the life of an imaginative, troublesome boy in the American West of the 1840s. The novel is intensely dramatic in its construction, taking the form of a series of comic vignettes based on Tom's exploits. These vignettes are linked together by a darker story that grows in importance throughout the novel - Tom's life-threatening entanglement with the murderer Injun Joe.

Huckleberry Finn may be the greater book, but Tom Sawyer has always been more widely read. Moreover, it is a book that can be enjoyed equally by both children and adults. Twain, who called it a "hymn" to boyhood.

The idealized childhood of this fictional hero, based on Mark Twain's own early life along the banks of the Mississippi, is filled with robust good humor and high-spirited adventures. Yet there is also an in-depth experience of the central South of the 1840s—its dialects, superstitions, and social values. While romping through fun-filled fantasy, Tom Sawyer shows how morally complicated real life can be. In his unabridged reading of the American classic, actor Patrick Fraley crafts 36 authentic "voices" to represent the wide range of Twain's delightful characters. 

Perhaps the best-loved 19th-century American novel, Mark Twain's tale of boyhood adventure overflows with comedy, warmth, and slapstick energy. It brings to life an array of irresistible characters - the awesomely self-confident Tom, his best buddy Huck Finn, indulgent Aunt Polly, and the lovely, beguiling Becky - as well as such unforgettable incidents as whitewashing a fence, swearing an oath in blood, and getting lost in a dark and labyrinthine cave.

A pillar of American literature, Mark Twain's prototypical coming-of-age introduces the iconic Tom Sawyer and his best friend Huckleberry Finn. Tom's panache for mischief and unyielding desire for adventure commonly leads him into trouble, but quick wits and a smooth tongue always navigates him to safety. When Tom and Huck witness a murder and the culpable Injun Joe escapes justice, Tom, who testified against the bandit, is left to wonder how he will get out of yet another bind.

A Signature Performance: Elijah Wood becomes the first narrator to bring a youthful voice and energy to the story, perhaps making it the closest interpretation to Twain’s original intent.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is commonly accounted as one of the first Great American Novels. It was also one of the first novels ever written in the vernacular, or common speech, being told in the first person by the eponymous Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer.

Refusing to be civilized by Southern society or cowed by his drunken father's lashings, young Huckleberry Finn decides he has only one option left: fake his own death and hop a raft down the Mississippi River. Instead of carrying him far from trouble, though, Huck's raft delivers him to a place of moral uncertainty. Mark Twain unwinds Huck's harrowing journey to manhood with satirical wit, revealing the troubled history of the American South, where slavery held sway long after the Civil War ended.

This could very well be the definitive American novel. A great success since it was first published. Required reading. Great fun.

"Tom Sawyer, Detective" is an 1896 novel by Mark Twain. It is a sequel to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876), "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884), and "Tom Sawyer Abroad" (1894). Tom Sawyer attempts to solve a mysterious murder in this burlesque of the immensely popular detective novels of the time. Tom and Huck find themselves with Uncle Silas and his family again (see "Huck Finn"), and much of the drama ends up focusing on Uncle Silas.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain has been popular since it was first published in 1884. It is known for its colorful and often scathng look at the people and places along the Mississippi River at a time when racism was an entrenched attitude in Southern antebellum society. The strong point of view, masterful depiction of dialects, and confrontations of issues of prejudice and race have inspired crtics to dub it “the great American novel”.

When we first met "the pariah of the village... the son of the drunkard" in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom was "under strict orders not to play with him," so he played with him every time he got the chance. Twain took his most outrageous and outcast character (and perhaps the one he loved the most), Huckleberry Finn, from that timeless tale and wrote his own adventures.

Revered by all of the town's children and dreaded by all of its mothers, Huckleberry Finn is indisputably the most appealing child-hero in American literature. Unlike the tall-tale, idyllic world of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn is firmly grounded in early reality. From the abusive drunkard who serves as Huckleberry's father to Huck's first tentative grappling with issues of personal liberty and the unknown, Huckleberry Finn endeavors to delve quite a bit deeper into the complexities - both joyful and tragic of life.