The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written by
Mark Twain in 1876, is about twelve-year-old Tom Sawyer living the small-town life – and getting into a lot of trouble with his friends – in
antebellum (pre-Civil War) Missouri. The book, loosely based on Twain's childhood exploits, has become a classic portrait of mischievous youth – well, in America anyway. As is the case with many now-classic books,
Tom Sawyer was not well-acclaimed upon its initial release; and even now Twain's thicker, weightier sequel-of-sorts,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which borrows its setting and characters from
Tom Sawyer, is considered his masterpiece.
Still, Huck himself would be the first to tell you what a great book
Tom Sawyer is. Huck Finn opens
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by making a plug for
Tom Sawyer:
"
YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing." (
Huckleberry Finn 1.1)
Twain attempted to write a bunch of Tom Sawyer adventures, including
Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and
Tom Sawyer, Detective (1894), along with the unfinished
Huck and Tom Among the Indians,
Schoolhouse Hill, and
Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. There have been tons of film adaptations, TV specials, and spin-offs. And the Canadian progressive-rock band Rush has a song called "
Tom Sawyer." (An excerpt: "Though his mind is not for rent / don't put him down as arrogant. / His reserve, a quiet defense, / Riding out the days events.")
Sure, a lot of the particulars of Tom's life – whitewashing, marble-playing, spelunking – may not be familiar to the average American anymore, but there's something about Tom, something about his
spirit and the way Mark Twain renders it in prose, that's remained relevant for all these years. Heck, you don't see rock bands writing about
The Portrait of a Lady, now do you?