The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer <span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Adventures+of+Tom+Sawyer&rft.author=Mark+Twain&rft.date=1876[1]&rft.pub=American+Publishing+Company&rft.pages=275pp+%27%27%281st+ed.%29%27%27[1]&rft_id=info:oclcnum/47052486">
Front piece of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Author	Mark Twain
Cover artist	created by Mark Twain
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Bildungsroman, Picaresque, Satire, Folk, Children's Novel
Publisher	American Publishing Company
Publication date	1876[1]
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	275pp (1st ed.)[1]
ISBN	NA
OCLC	47052486
Dewey Decimal	Fic. 22
LC Class	PZ7.T88 Ad 2001
Preceded by	The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
Followed by	A Tramp Abroad

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived.^[2]

Summary

Tom Sawyer lived with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid. Tom dirties his clothes in a fight and is made to whitewash the fence the next day, as a punishment. He cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades the treasures for Sunday School tickets which one normally receives for memorizing scriptures, redeeming them for a bible, much to the surprise and bewilderment of the superintendent who thought "it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises—a dozen would strain his capacity, without a doubt."

Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get "engaged" by kissing him. But their romance collapses when she learns Tom has been "engaged" previously, to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night, where they witness the murder of Dr. Robinson.

Tom, Huck, and Joe Harper run away to an island. While enjoying their new-found freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at his loved ones' suffering, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his own funeral.

Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky's favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a book she has ripped. Soon, Muff Potter's trial begins, in which Tom testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window. Tom then begins to fear for his life as Injun Joe is at large and can easily find him.

Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After venturing upstairs they hear a noise below. Peering through holes in the floor, they see Injun Joe disguised as a deaf-mute Spaniard; Injun Joe and his companion plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own. From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle with delight at the prospect of digging it up. Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe nightly, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal's Cave with Becky and their classmates. In his overconfidence, Tom strays off the marked paths with Becky and they get hopelessly lost. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas. By running to fetch help, Huck prevents the crime and becomes an anonymous hero.

As Tom and Becky wander the extensive cave complex for the next few days, Tom one day accidentally encounters Injun Joe, although the boy is not seen by his nemesis. Eventually, he finds a way out, and the two children are joyfully welcomed back by their community. As a preventive measure, Judge Thatcher has McDougal's Cave sealed off, but this traps Injun Joe inside. When Tom hears of the sealing several days later and directs a posse to the cave, they find the corpse of Joe just inside the sealed entrance, starved to death.

A week later, having deduced on Injun Joe's presence at McDougal's Cave that the villain must have hidden the stolen gold inside, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape civilized life, Tom tricks him into thinking if Huck returns to the widow, he can join Tom's robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees and goes back to the Widow Douglas.

Sequels and other works featuring Tom Sawyer

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
• Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894)
• Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896)

Tom Sawyer, the story's title character, also appears in two other uncompleted sequels: Huck and Tom Among the Indians and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. He is also a character in Twain's unfinished Schoolhouse Hill.

Adaptations and influences

Film and Television

• Tom Sawyer (1917), directed by William Desmond Taylor, starring Jack Pickford as Tom^[3]
• Tom Sawyer (1930), directed by John Cromwell, starring Jackie Coogan as Tom^[4]
• Tom Sawyer (1936), Soviet Union version directed by Lazar Frenkel and Gleb Zatvornitsky^[5]
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Technicolor film by the Selznick Studio, starring Tommy Kelly as Tom and directed by Norman Taurog; most notable is the cave sequence designed by William Cameron Menzies^[6]
• "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1960), BBC television series in 6 episodes starring Fred Smith as Tom and Janina Faye as Becky. The series' theme song was "John Gilbert is the Boat", sung by Peggy Seeger^[7]
• Les aventur Sawyer (1968), French/German made-for-television miniseries directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, starring Roland Demongeot as Tom and Marc Di Napoli as Huck^[8]
• Aventurile lui Tom Sawyer (1968), Romanian movie directed by Mircea Albulescu.
• The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968), a half-hour live-action/animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions^[9]
• Las Aventuras de Juliancito (1969), Mexican film^[10]
• Tom Sawyer (1973), musical adaptation by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, with Johnny Whitaker in the title role, Jeff East as Huck Finn, Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher, and Celeste Holm as Aunt Polly.^[11]
• Tom Sawyer (1973), TV movie version sponsored by Dr Pepper, starring Buddy Ebsen as Muff Potter and filmed in Upper Canada Village^[12]
• Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979), TV series^[13]
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980), Japanese anime TV series by Nippon Animation, part of the World Masterpiece Theater, aired in the United States on HBO
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (Приключения Тома Сойера и Гекльберри Финна), 1981 Soviet Union version directed by Stanislav Govorukhin^[14]
• Tom Sawyer (1984), Canadian claymation version produced by Hal Roach studios
• Tom and Huck (1995), starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Tom and Brad Renfro as Huck Finn^[15]
• A Tail in Twain (1995), episode of the PBS television series Wishbone^[16]
• Tom Sawyer (2000), animated adaptation featuring the characters as anthropomorphic animals with an all-star voice cast, including country singers Rhett Akins, Mark Wills, Lee Ann Womack, Waylon Jennings, and Hank Williams Jr. as well as Betty White^[17]
• Tom Sawyer appears as a United States Secret Service agent in the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)^[18]
• Tom Sawyer also appears as the main antagonist in the The Fairly OddParents episode "Shelf Life" (September 10, 2004)
• Tom Sawyer (2011), German film directed by Hermine Huntgeburth^[19]

Theatrical

In 1956, We're From Missouri, a musical adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with book, music and lyrics by Tom Boyd, was presented by the students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

• In 1960, Tom Boyd's musical version (re-titled Tom Sawyer) was presented professionally at Theatre Royal Stratford East in London, England, and in 1961 toured provincial theatres in England.^{[citation needed]}

• In 2001, the musical The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Ken Ludwig and Don Schlitz, debuted on Broadway.

• Mississippi Melody is another musical adaptation, by Jack Hylton.^{[citation needed]}

• In April 2010, The Hartford Stage presented a theatrical adaptation titled Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as part of a centennial observation of Mark Twain's death.^{[citation needed]}

• In 2007, B Street Theatre presented a theatrical adaptation titled,Tom Sawyer, written by David Pierini.^{[citation needed]}

• In April and June 2010, Tom Boyd's musical version titled The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was produced again, in Cirencester, Gloucester, England.^{[citation needed]}

Ballet

"Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts" premiered on October 14, 2011 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. The score was by composer Maury Yeston, with choreography by William Whitener, artistic director of the Kansas City Ballet.^[20][21] A review in The New York Times observed: "It’s quite likely that this is the first all-new, entirely American three-act ballet: it is based on an American literary classic, has an original score by an American composer and was given its premiere by an American choreographer and company. ... Both the score and the choreography are energetic, robust, warm, deliberately naïve (both ornery and innocent), in ways right for Twain."^[22]

Internet

On November 30, 2011, to celebrate Twain’s 176th birthday, the Google doodle was a scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.^{[citation needed]}

Music

• A song called "Tom Sawyer" is featured on Canadian rock band Rush's eighth studio album Moving Pictures.
• The German punk rock band Muff Potter took their name from the character in the book.^{[citation needed]}

Inspiration

According to an October 2012 article published in Smithsonian magazine, Twain named his fictional character after a San Francisco fireman whom he met in June 1863. The real Tom Sawyer was a local hero, famous for rescuing 90 passengers after a shipwreck. The two remained friendly during Twain's three-year stay in San Francisco, often drinking and gambling together.^[23]

See also

• Mark Twain bibliography
• The Story of a Bad Boy

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at Project Gutenberg
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 135th Anniversary Edition, University of California Press, 2010.
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with embedded audio (PDF available)
• Free audio book at LibriVox
• Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Free eBook in HTML format at the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library.
• First edition illustrations by True Williams