The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) is Mark Twain's novel about a mischievous boy growing up in St. Petersburg, a small town on the Mississippi modelled on Twain's own Hannibal, Missouri. Pranks, first love, a murder witnessed in a graveyard, a treasure hunt and a few days lost in a cave make it one of the classic American books of boyhood.
The story
Tom Sawyer, an orphan, lives with his Aunt Polly, his half-brother Sid and his cousin Mary. He skips school, plays tricks, falls in love with Becky Thatcher, the new girl in town, and admires the freedom of Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunkard.
One night in the graveyard, Tom and Huck witness a murder and swear to keep silent; an innocent man is accused. Tom runs away to an island with his friends to play pirates, attends his own funeral, finally testifies at the trial, gets lost with Becky in a cave and ends up finding a treasure with Huck.
Memories of Hannibal
Twain wrote in his preface that most of the adventures really happened, some to him and some to his schoolmates. Aunt Polly was based in part on his mother, Jane Clemens, and he said Huck Finn was modelled on Tom Blankenship, a poor boy of Hannibal.
He wrote the book mainly at Quarry Farm, near Elmira, New York, and in Hartford in 1874–75. He hesitated over whether it was a book for children or adults, and his friend William Dean Howells persuaded him to treat it as a boys' book.
Publication and sequels
Because the American edition was delayed, the novel appeared first in London, in June 1876, and only in December in the United States, where it was sold by subscription through door-to-door agents. Pirated editions printed in Canada hurt its sales.
Twain soon began a sequel told by Huck in his own voice, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884–85), now considered his masterpiece. Tom later returned in shorter books, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective.
Anecdotes
A real cave
The cave in which Tom and Becky get lost is based on a real cave south of Hannibal, which Twain explored as a boy. Now called the Mark Twain Cave, it is open to visitors, who can still see the signatures left on its walls by nineteenth-century explorers.
Fence Painting Day
Every year Hannibal holds National Tom Sawyer Days around the Fourth of July, including a fence-painting contest in which children compete to whitewash a fence fastest, in memory of one of the most famous episodes of the novel.
Frequently asked questions
When was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer published?
In June 1876 in London and in December 1876 in the United States.
Where is Tom Sawyer set?
In the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the Mississippi, modelled on Hannibal, where Mark Twain grew up.
What is the sequel to Tom Sawyer?
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1884 in Britain and 1885 in the United States.