The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Mark Twain

19th CenturyFiction
69,747 words35 chapters~279 min read
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Mark Twain's beloved 19th-century fiction follows young Tom Sawyer as he navigates childhood in a Mississippi River town, getting into mischief with friends like Huckleberry Finn. The novel captures Tom's adventures from whitewashing fences to witnessing crimes, painting a vivid portrait of American boyhood and small-town life before the Civil War.

Opening lines

“What’s gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!” The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked _through_ them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for “style,” not service—she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear: She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
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About Mark Twain

Born Samuel Clemens in 1835, this Missouri riverboat pilot transformed American literature with his vivid portrayals of life along the Mississippi River. His masterpieces The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn captured authentic American voices and tackled serious social issues through humor and satire until his death in 1910. All works by Mark Twain

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19th Century Fiction

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