I am actually rather surprised that Mark Twain, in the preface to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," wrote that "my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls" although "I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account," since they too may have had similar mishaps in their own childhoods. On the one hand, Tom's daring spirit and great fun is indeed appealing to young readers as he gets himself in and out of various scrapes, some of them quite dangerous. The overall tone, however, is a strikingly sophisticated blend of bucolic nostalgia and hard reality that will likely go over a child's head while offering more subtle interpretations to the adult.

"Tom Sawyer" is best described as deliberately idyllic while at the same time offering glimpses of the dark side of antebellum Missouri. The famous whitewashing incident (in which Tom convinces his friends that whitewashing his aunt's fence is a privilege worth paying for) is certainly a great take on the old assertion that "there is a sucker born every minute," but then there's the appearance of a young black boy who is concerned about his "ole missis" who has threatened to "tar de head off'n me." It definitely gives the modern reader pause. Now I am not trying to argue that "Tom Sawyer" is first and foremost a work of social commentary. What it is instead is a portrait of a culture as seen through the eyes of a boy, so the implications of some aspects of that culture are necessarily lost on the youthful protagonist. Huck Finn, for example, is a pretty sad story despite his bravado, but to Tom and his peers, his life is the paragon of freedom: he does not have to go to church or school and he can do just about anything he wants. Where do you sleep? Tom asks him at one point. Huck replies:

"In Ben Roger's hayloft. He let's me, and so does his pap's n***** man, Uncle Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to, and any time I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can spare it. That's a mighty good n*****, Tom. He likes me, becuz I don't ever act as if I was above him. Sometimes I've set right down and eat *with* him. But you needn't tell that. A body's got to do things when he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing."

Twain's dexterity with dialect aside, that paragraph speaks volumes. And we later learn that it is Tom who is embarrassed to be seen with Huck when members of "polite society" are present. Of course, there is also "Injun Joe," a singularly psychopathic villain who nevertheless engenders *some* sympathy, at least today, as those of us reading this in the twenty-first century cannot help but wonder if his mistreatment as a "half-breed" is largely responsible for his life of theft and murder. (Injun Joe himself speaks frequently of "vengeance" for being "horsewhipped in front of the jail, like a n*****!")

All that aside, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is great book for parents and children to read together for both its sheer entertainment value (Tom's escapades) and its weight as an historical document. There is always more to Twain than meets the eye, and I can imagine many men and women who enjoyed this book as children have returned to it as adults, and been surprised at how much more was written into a fun and exciting tale of antebellum boyhood.

More of a young teenager's book really - but I never read it as a teen. Tom and his mate Huck Finn get up to all sorts of mischief and there are some genuinely funny moments (like when Tom attends his own funeral). Mark Twain has a knack for taking you back to the days when you were a child - and wishing you were still there (I'd love to spend my days fishing, playing pirates, goofing-off and making mischief). There are a few adult themes that get touched on (slavery and racism) and the church comes in for some mild satire. The follow up book - "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" - is also a teenager's book but has much more to offer in terms of adult themes and is a little bit darker.

A timeless classic for all ages. Deserves to be read, re-read and read out loud to kids.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a novel by Mark Twain, originally published in 1876. In this review, I will not attempt to analyze it from any pretentious literary perspective, but rather as just another novel.

In this novel, Tom Sawyer, a boy who lives with his aunt on the Mississippi River in Missouri, has all kinds of adventures, most of which involve misbehaving in some way. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer does not seem to be a coming-of-age story, as it initially may appear to be. Certainly Tom has many experiences that theoretically lend themselves to the maturation process, but at the end, he lapses back into his more childlike behavior. He is a "bad boy" when the book starts, and he is a "bad boy" when it ends (albeit a wealthy and popular one).

Twain's wit is what carries this book. He can write a clever sentence like nobody's business, and his dialogue, characters and story developments are all highly entertaining. Even though there's not a lot going on here plot-wise, the story grips the reader.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an enormously entertaining book, and if taken purely for entertainment value, will not disappoint any discerning reader.

I can't remember when I first read the adventures of Tom Sawyer. I also initially couldn't recall any details about the book. So I re-read the book. As I learned, Mark Twain grew up in a southern slave state. He also traveled to lots of places that helped him form the background of his novel.

After I read this book, something came to my mind, because I didn't have a similar kind of experience with a slave system. You can not have any idea how to handle this situation. As for me coming from the small and free island of Taiwan, it is shocking to me. From my point of view, America has the most equal society. How could it really happen is disconcerting. All men are created equal upon birth. Can anyone tell me why one is destined to be slave when they are born?

No matter how, it did happen the fact that we couldn't do anything about the slave system in that age. Anyway, the book was very interesting it is just like you were there with Tom Sawyer and joined his life in a small town of Mississippi. This book also made me realize what it would be like to live in the 1850's. One more thing, about this book, it is not easy to understand because of the dialect of the writing.

tom sawyer is a young boy who always causes trouble. when he teams up with huckleberry finn the trouble doubles.tom is lazy and doesent like to work so he tricks every boy in town to make it sound like its a privlage. tom and huck decide that they are going to run away and be pirates. the town seaches the river and find their boat whih floated domn the river. after a week the town decided the boys were dead and held a funeral and tow snuk into to his house and the boys walked into the funeral. after the funeral the boys decided to be tresure hunters and find a treasure. they decided to search a hunted house before they find a treasure injuan joe finds it first. injuan joe runs away. tom and a girl named Becky get lost in a cave and find injuan joe in the cave. tom and becky get out of the cave and the town locked the cave shut. when he told them that injuan joe was in the cave the town opened it and injuan joe layed dead on the floor by the door. om and huck snaek in the cave and find the treasure and that basically ends the story.