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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain

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May 15, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it liked it

Shelves: 60-before-60, read-in-2019, american-lit, classics, childrens, read-in-2022, adventure

Although I have been familiar with the storyline of this classic I have never read it. Two years ago I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the first time and was enchanted. This one I enjoyed, but not nearly as much as Huck Finn.

Tom Sawyer was published in 1876 and set in the 1840s. The era is vividly seen as the language is so different than the English we speak today. The games the children play, the chores they do, the way the adults speak to - and about - the children, are all so dis Although I have been familiar with the storyline of this classic I have never read it. Two years ago I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the first time and was enchanted. This one I enjoyed, but not nearly as much as Huck Finn.

Tom Sawyer was published in 1876 and set in the 1840s. The era is vividly seen as the language is so different than the English we speak today. The games the children play, the chores they do, the way the adults speak to - and about - the children, are all so distinctive. And yet the kids are silly, precocious, and sassy in the same ways of today's children. The book is accessible and fun to read. I love the way he described Huck in one quick, beautiful sentence. The reader immediately knows that this friendship will lead to trouble.

"Huckleberry was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle, and lawless, and vulgar, and bad - and because all their children admired him so, and delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like him."

Mark Twain shows his wit throughout both books, and in this one I most enjoyed the little snippets where the narrator breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience. In those moments I picture Twain's face and see him speaking directly to me with a knowing grin. The last two lines are a perfect example as he tells me that there is more to the story, but he will probably write that later so he cannot tell me now! This made me smile and think that I may need to read Huck Finn again.

"When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop – that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can..."

One of the things I liked best in any book is when an author writes about a setting in a way that transports me to the time and place. In this book Twain did just that. I found myself in a beautiful, hot, summer on the Mississippi river. For example:

“Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young, the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom, and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above, it was green with vegetation, and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.”

The book can be read in a day. The chapters are short and this would be a great book to read to children -- but please go with the unabridged!

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