The classic boyhood adventure tale, updated with a new introduction by noted Mark Twain scholar R. Kent Rasmussen.  Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read A consummate prankster with a quick wit, Tom Sawyer dreams of a bigger fate than simply being a “rich boy.” Yet through the novel’s humorous escapades—from the famous episode of the whitewashed fence to the trial of Injun Joe—Mark Twain explores the deeper themes of the adult world, one of dishonesty and superstition, murder and revenge, starvation and slavery. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. "Twain had a greater effect than any other writer on the evolution of American prose." Mark Twain  (1835–1910) was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri. Starting out as typesetter, he went on to work as a steamboat pilot, prospector, and journalist before publishing his first major book,  The Innocents Abroad. R. Kent Rasmussen  is the author or editor of nine books on Mark Twain, including the award-winning  Mark Twain A to Z , as well as more than a dozen other books. He lives in Southern California. PENGUIN CLASSICS THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER MARK TWAIN was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, about forty miles southwest of Hannibal, the Mississippi River town he was to celebrate in his writing. In 1853, he left home, earning a living as an itinerant typesetter, and four years later became an apprentice pilot on the Mississippi, a career cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War. For five years, as a prospector and a journalist, Clemens lived in Nevada and California. In February 1863 he first signed the pseudonym “Mark Twain” to a newspaper article; and a trip to Europe and the Holy Land in 1867 became the basis of his first major book, The Innocents Abroad (1869). Roughing It (1872), his account of experiences in the West, was followed by a coauthored satirical novel, The Gilded Age (1873); Sketches: New and Old (1875); The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876); A Tramp Abroad (1880); The Prince and the Pauper (1881); Life on the Mississippi (1883); and his masterpiece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885); A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889); and Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894). Compelled by debts, Mark Twain moved his family abroad during the 1890s and went on a round-the-world lecture tour in 1895–1896. His fortunes mended, he returned to America in 1900. He was as celebrated for his white suit and his mane of white hair as he was for his uncompromising stands against injustice and imperialism, as well as for his invariably quoted comments on any subject under the sun. Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910. R. KENT RASMUSSEN is the author or editor of nine books on Mark Twain and more than a dozen other books. He is best known for his award-winning Mark Twain A to Z (revised as the two-volume Critical Companion to Mark Twain) and The Quotable Mark Twain. For Penguin Classics, he wrote the notes and introductions to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and edited Mark Twain’s Autobiographical Writings. PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) LLC 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 USA
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China penguin.com A Penguin Random House Company First published in the United States of America by American Publishing Co. 1876 This edition with an introduction and notes by R. Kent Rasmussen published in Penguin Books 2014 Introduction and notes copyright © 2014 by R. Kent Rasmussen Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. ISBN 978-1-101-62828-7 Introduction by R. KENT RASMUSSEN Suggestions for Further Reading Chronology A Note on the Text THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER Notes by R. KENT RASMUSSEN Mark Twain famously defined a “classic” as “a book which people praise but don’t read.” Had he been thinking about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, he might have turned that definition around and called his novel a book that people read but do not necessarily praise. And read it, people certainly have. Never out of print since it was fir