The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain Paperback (236 pages) 19.7cm x 13.2cm

£15.95

The friendship of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn is one of the most celebrated in American literature, built on entertaining adventures and pranks, shared superstitions, and loyalty like none other. Put yourself and your best friend along with four other leading characters into a personalised edition of this timeless classic. The pleasure of reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has kept readers coming back for over a century, and now here’s a new way to enjoy the most popular and famous works of American literature.

Synopsis

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is Mark Twain's classic that follows the boyhood adventures of the great Tom Sawyer. An imaginative and mischievous boy, he lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. The novel is the story of Tom and his best friend Huck Finn, whose playfulness and sense of mischief lead them to all sorts of adventure—some of which is far from the stuff of childhood. Scenes such as Tom Sawyer tricking his friends into whitewashing Aunt Polly's fence for him through to attending his own funeral, Tom's imagination and scheming lead him into mischief and peril over and over again.

Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been “engaged” before—to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native-American “half-breed” Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away to an island to become pirates. While frolicking around and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the community is combing the river for their bodies. Guilt over their worried families forces the two boys to return home. But the murderer remains at large, and an innocent man stands accused of the crime. The worlds of carefree childhood and adult consequences collide as Tom must decide whether to reveal the truth, potentially costing him his own safety, or allow an innocent man to suffer.

Characters to Personalise

The novel’s protagonist. Tom is a clever, mischievous, 12 year old boy with an active imagination who spends most of the novel getting himself, and often his friends, into and out of trouble. He sneaks out his window at night to go on adventures with his friend Huck Finn, believes in superstitions, and yearns to lead what he sees as the exciting life of a pirate or robber. He can't sit still in church or in school and always finds some diversion, such as watching a bug, to make the time pass more quickly. Tom is happiest when he is off having thrilling adventures with his friends: searching for buried treasure, running away for a few days to a sandbar in the Mississippi River in a game of pirates, or hiding in the cemetery at midnight.

Huckleberry Finn is Tom’s best friend and is about 12 or 13 years old. Their friendship is partially rooted in Sawyer's emulation of Huck's freedom and ability to do what he wants, when he wants. The son of the town drunkard, who is usually absent from the village and thus from his parental responsibilities, Huck sleeps in hogshead barrels or on doorsteps, wears castoff men's clothing, swears, smokes, and lives by his own rules. Viewed by adults as being "idle and lawless and vulgar and bad," Huck actually possesses a conscience and a heart.

Tom's younger half-brother, Sid is "a quiet boy" with "no adventurous, troublesome ways," and so he and Tom do not get along with each other. Sid takes pleasure in tattling on Tom when Tom had gotten into mischief.

Tom's romantic interest in the novel, she is the daughter of Judge Thatcher. She has long yellow hair always worn in braids. She wins Tom's love from the first moment he sees her. When they first have an encounter, she gives him a pansy to show her love. Tom reveals himself to be a true romantic at heart when he lays himself under Becky's window and creates a wistful "death".

The sister of Tom & Sid’s dead mother, Aunt Polly has taken in both boys to live with her and her daughter Mary. Aunt Polly loves Tom but struggles to balance her love for her nephew with her duty to discipline him. She is always shaking her head and wringing her hands over his behavior, but her soft heart prevents her from punishing him very strictly. Above all, Aunt Polly wants to be appreciated and loved.

Injun Joe is a half Native American, half white man – ‘Injun” (a variant of “Indian’). He is the villain of the novel and a force of evil. He is an angry, vengeful, amoral man who thinks nothing of robbing Hoss Williams's grave, killing Dr. Robinson, stealing gold, or threatening old widows and young boys. Shady, violent character with no conscience.

About The Author

Born Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain (1835-1910) was and is an American legend. A prolific journalist, essayist, and writer of short stories and novels, Twain had a unique gift for capturing and often laughing at the young American nation he knew. Growing up in Missouri, Twain spent his early years on the Mississippi River, which would figure prominently in the world of his later fiction. Twain worked as a riverboat pilot as a young man, but headed west when the Civil War broke out. His trip across the country and eventual years in Nevada and California became fodder for some of Twain's best works. Settling eventually in Connecticut, Twain enjoyed many fruitful years of writing, travel, and family life until he left the world, as he had vowed, with the return of Halley's Comet in 1910. Perhaps best known for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huck Finn, Twain is the author of many other works, including Life on the Mississippi, Letters From the Earth, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Innocents Abroad.

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