The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

This is the story of the imaginative and mischievous young red-headed orphan called Tom Sawyer. Tom lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi river town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. He gets into trouble often for different reasons, this time for cutting school and getting his clothes dirty in a fight. Forced to whitewash a fence as punishment on a Saturday, he quickly learns to make the best out of it, in that clever way only Tom can master.

Tom and his friend Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, decide to go to the graveyard one night in search of a wart cure. While they are there, they happen to witness the murder of Dr. Robinson by Injun Joe. Terrified by what they saw, Tom and Huck swear never to tell anyone what they happened. But when Injun Joe blames his friend Muff Potter for the murder, sending him to jail, Tom's guilt begins to grow.

Soon the two boys, in addition to their friend Joe, run away to become pirates on an island, leaving their families to believe that they drowned. When Tom becomes aware of this, he has the brilliant idea to appear at his own funeral. After persuading Joe and Huck to do the same, the return of the three boys is celebrated happily. Their adventures continue throughout the novel, as they never cease to find excitement, trouble, and danger that seem to follow them anywhere they go.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1876 to what were initially less than fantastic reviews. By the time of Mark Twain's death, however, it was already a bestseller and considered the quintessential American classic. Tom Sawyer has been adapted into film and stage versions multiple times, but they never matched the same response given to the book. There simply is no substitution for this American original.