The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Mark Twain

1946 Illustrated Junior Library.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1992

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[TwoTonYoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid 5/5

Nick Offerman.

Coming of age.

Mark Twain.

Enough said

[Chandan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to re-visit a childhood classic.

[Maggie Wiegand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh to be a child trading junk for junk, pretending you’re dead and finding treasure. Had an itch to read because of the heat.

[Emil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a fun classic lit story, but it's very much a product of its time, and it needs to be approached with the realization that there is a lot of intrinsic racism -- especially towards the indigenous character(s).

That said, Tom is a fun, likeable, and energetic main lead. He gets up to amusing antics and is a trickster figure. This story (and books of similar age) are also just interesting as a means of looking in to the past to gain an understanding how people from previous generations thought and what their world and culture was like.

[Kim Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

By: Mark Twain
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had never read this book before and I really want to read “James,” so I thought it would be a good idea to read this book first. There were some interesting parts, but also parts where I was so bored. Essentially, this book follows Huckleberry Finn, after he gives up his riches, runs away from his abusive father and fakes his death. On his adventures he meets up with Jim, a slave he knows, who is on the run because he didn’t want to be sold. The two travel down the River on a raft and run into adventures along the way.

[Natasha Cottrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read inside the mind of a racist little boy in a racist world. I didn’t take much from this book other than that except just like Tom Sawyer the narrator is entertaining how serious every part is despite the varying degrees of actual significance of the events in the kids life and the things he does or ponders on.

[Shawna Mcgregor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was cute as someone who is going and reading classics due to my grandmother, it was kinda a hard read in the beginning but as they went farther into the story the friendship of Huck and Tom turned out to be just so wholesome. I highly recommend for someone who likes these types of old stories!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to read this since I never had. I can see why it's beloved and it's a little boy's dream. But I didn't love it and found it actually quite scattered or maybe that was my inattention since I wasn't enthralled by it.

[Missy Barnhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had forgotten much of the plot of this book. It is a lovely caricature of boyhood and feels more dear to me reading it after The Anxious Generation. That being said, the portrayals of people of other races, and the language used to talk about them, mar the beauty of the book.

[Kathryn Brenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably would’ve liked this more as a kid reading it but as an adult/parent I was just really annoyed at this kids’ disobedience and constant running away lol. I’m in a rough parenting stage so maybe this wasn’t a good time for me to read this!

[Dawn Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, coming-of-age story set in Missouri in the 1840s. Full of "Boy's Own" adventures and very much of its time (ie racist and misogynist when looked at through modern eyes) but thoroughly enjoyable when taken in context.

[Jackson Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book which makes you nostalgic for childhood, and simpler times. The story of the mischievous Tom Sawyer and his adventures reminds you of the importance of a wild spirit and good friends. Great book highly recommend.

[Dave Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a book written in a different era. I have tried reading this book multiple times over the past few years, and always put it down because I generally found Tom an unlikeable boy. The writing is obviously good, but the general self-centeredness of Tom makes it hard to enjoy.

[Amber Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book of my childhood!

[Sophia Sine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for class, so not one of my favorites. I thought Tom and Huck were interesting characters, but overall I was just really bored with the book. 3 stars

[Vanessa Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn’t bad I just had to read it for school and I wasn’t interested so I wasn’t really paying attention to it…

[Annie Flint · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is great for picking up a classic but when you’re forced to read it in high school it gets very dull.

[Screaming Crying]

I sparknoted half of this because i read it for school. Therefor i won't review becuse i find it unfare for the book.

[Coralie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faites des gosses…

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it as a child. These were the gem books for me.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read concurrently with the 2024 book James by Percival Everett. It was interesting to read both stories and see how they overlap and how they differ (but confusing sometimes since I'm reading at the same time). BTW, the original Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published in 1884. This edition was published in 1992 for book of the Month Club. It's remarkable how the word nigger is used on virtually every page. It is so offensive today but at the time, was the term used.

In the end, Tom Sawyer pays Jim $40 ($3,263 today according to an online inflation calculator...somehow in the Tom Sawyer prequel he and Huck come into a shit load of money) for the injustice of having tricked him and everyone else for two months in order to carry out an epic "adventure" of helping him run away, when in fact he was a free man all along according to his owner, old Miss Watson's will. (Not sure why 13-year old Tom would be privy to that information.)

The doctor who mended Tom from his gunshot wound (acquired in the final "escape" scene with Jim) says, "he ain't no bad nigger, gentlemen, that's what I think of him" which Tom hopes is enough to have the men take the chains off Jim and perhaps allow him to have some meat and vegetables in addition to bread and water (and not hang him as an example to the other niggers, as they threatened). At the end Tom tells Jim, "I know you're white inside" which I guess is his highest form of praise. Perhaps that's what finally convinces "rapscallion" Tom to come clean and admit that he staged the whole adventure for fun. I wonder what Huckleberry thinks about his supposed best friend's deception; he and Jim actually formed a bond at the beginning when they both were on the run. His voice is not included much in the final chapters of the book. No wonder Percival Everett felt compelled to write another version of the "adventure" from James' perspective.

[Carolina Sánchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book because was easy for reading and listening. In his audible version, Available in YouTube for PolandNews, the speaker makes all voices and it’s very funny.