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 Town of "St. Petersburg", inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain lived.

Plot

In the 1840s an imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. Later, he realizes that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. He trades the treasures he got by tricking his friends for whitewashing for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses, which can be used to claim a Bible as a prize. He received enough tickets to be given the Bible. However, he loses much of his glory when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two disciples were David and Goliath.

Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get "engaged" by kissing him. Becky kisses Tom, but their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been "engaged" previously — 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 with a dead cat. 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 and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe frames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom's anxiety and guilt begin to grow.

Tom, Huck, and Tom's friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While frolicking around and 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 the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of all their friends.

Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky's favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that she has ripped. Soon, Muff Potter's trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window.

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 enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard. He and his companion, an unkempt man, 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. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his partner find a buried box of gold themselves. When they see Tom and Huck's tools, they become suspicious that someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying it.

Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal's Cave with Becky and their classmates. 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, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero.

Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when Tom, looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky's father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death.

A week later, 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 promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom's robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees.^[2][3] The book leads off where Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins.

Adaptations and influences

Film and Television

• Tom Sawyer (1930), directed by John Cromwell, starring Jackie Coogan as Tom
• Tom Sawyer (1936), a Soviet Union version directed by Lazar Frenkel and Gleb Zatvornitsky
• In 1938, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was filmed in Technicolor by the Selznick Studio. It starred Tommy Kelly as Tom and was directed by Norman Taurog. Most notable was the cave sequence designed by William Cameron Menzies.
• A 1968 French/German made-for-television miniseries, directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, starring Roland Demongeot as Tom and Marc Di Napoli as Huck
• A 1968 Romanian movie Aventurile lui Tom Sawyer directed by Mircea Albulescu
• The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968) was a half-hour live-action/animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions
• A 1969 Mexican film called Las Aventuras de Juliancito
• Tom Sawyer (1973), A 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.
• A TV movie version sponsored by Dr Pepper was released that same year. It starred Buddy Ebsen as Muff Potter and was filmed in Upper Canada Village.
• Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979 TV series)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (anime) (1980), a 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), a 1981 Soviet Union version directed by Stanislav Govorukhin.
• 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
• A 1995 episode for the PBS television series Wishbone, entitled "A Tail in Twain".
• A Tom Sawyer (2000), an animated adaptation, featuring the characters as anthropomorphic animals with an all-star voice cast, including country singers Rhett Akins (as Tom), Mark Wills (as Huck Finn), Lee Ann Womack, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. as well as Betty White as Aunt Polly
• Tom Sawyer appears as a United States Secret Service agent in the 2003 movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• Tom Sawyer also appeared in the The Fairly OddParents episode "Shelf Life" on September 10, 2004. He was the main antagonist of this episode.
• Tom Sawyer (2011), German Film directed by Hermine Huntgeburth

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, 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.Tom Boyd's musical of TOM SAWYER was produced again in April and June 2010 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Another musical adaptation is Mississippi Melody, a musical by Jack Hylton.

In April 2010, The Hartford Stage presented a theatrical adaptation entitled Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as part of a centennial observation of Mark Twain's passing.

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.^[4]

Literature

Don Borchert's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Undead is a retelling of the story set in an alternate universe with a zombie outbreak.

Internet

On November 30, 2011 to celebrate Twain’s 176th birthday, the Google doodle was a scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Music

A song called Tom Sawyer is featured on the Canadian rock band Rush's eighth studio album Moving Pictures.

See also

• The Story of a Bad Boy

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Facsimile of the original 1st edition.
2. ^ "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Plot Overview". SparkNotes. 2011-09-29. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tomsawyer/summary.html. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
3. ^ "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,"Mark Twain. 1900's. Classic
4. ^ Macaulay, Alastair.Review New York Times, October 24, 2011

External links

• 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.
• Project Gutenberg ebook in various formats
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer guide for students and teachers
• First edition illustrations by True Williams