Tom Sawyer, Detective, Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer, Detective, Mark Twain
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Tom Sawyer, Detective

Author: Mark Twain

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Unabridged: 2 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/09/2009

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

A return trip down the Mississippi River to Uncle Silass farm is just the beginning of a yarn that includes twins, a diamond heist, a confidence man, a murder, and enough twists and turns to satisfy an avid mystery fan. Tom Sawyer attempts to solve a mysterious murder, and along the way, Mark Twain examines the social customs, legal system, and family expectations of the time as only Twain could. A sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer Abroad, this is Mark Twain's satirical take on the immensely popular detective novels of the time. Like the two preceding novels, the story is told using the firstperson narrative voice of Huck Finn. Once a staple of juvenile fiction, then banned as politically incorrect, Twain's welltold story brings to life its time and place.

About Mark Twain

Mark Twain is the pseudonym of American writer and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), whose best work is characterized by broad, often irreverent humor or biting social satire. Twain's writing is also known for realism of place and language, memorable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy and oppression.

Born in Florida, Missouri, Clemens moved with his family to Hannibal, Missouri, a port on the Mississippi River, when he was four years old. There he received a public school education. After the death of his father in 1847, Clemens was apprenticed to two Hannibal printers, and in 1851 he began setting type for and contributing sketches to his brother Orion's Hannibal Journal. Subsequently he worked as a printer in Keokuk, Iowa; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and other cities. Later, Clemens was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River until the American Civil War brought an end to travel on the river. In 1862 he became a reporter on the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada, and in 1863 he began signing his articles with the pseudonym Mark Twain, a Mississippi River phrase meaning "two fathoms deep."

In 1867 Twain lectured in New York City, and in the same year he visited Europe and Palestine. He wrote of these travels in The Innocents Abroad, a book exaggerating those aspects of European culture that impress American tourists. Much of Twain's best work was written in the 1870s and 1880s, when he was living in Hartford, Connecticut, or during the summers at Quarry Farm, near Elmira, New York. Roughing It recounts his early adventures as a miner and journalist; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer celebrates boyhood in a town on the Mississippi River; A Tramp Abroad describes a walking trip through the Black Forest of Germany and the Swiss Alps; Life on the Mississippi combines an autobiographical account of his experiences as a river pilot with a visit to the Mississippi nearly two decades after he left it; and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court satirizes oppression in feudal England. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the sequel to Tom Sawyer, is considered Twain's masterpiece.

Twain's work during the 1890s and the 1900s is marked by growing pessimism and bitterness. Significant works of this period are Pudd'nhead Wilson, a novel set in the South before the Civil War that criticizes racism by focusing on mistaken racial identities, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, a sentimental biography.

In Twain's later years he wrote less, but he became a celebrity, frequently speaking out on public issues. He also came to be known for the white linen suit he always wore when making public appearances. Twain received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1907. When he died he left an uncompleted autobiography, which was eventually edited by his secretary, Albert Bigelow Paine, and published in 1924.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Prabhjot on April 29, 2021

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are back again and there is a murder mystery. I love this duo but I like Tom Sawyer a bit more though. The mystery isn't anything spectacular but it is entertaining enough. I didn't much like Huck's POV but the writing is pretty good. It is not as good as the first two......more

Goodreads review by Joe on June 17, 2011

Tom Sawyer Detective. Wow. Ever seen the Bad News Bears? Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal? Pretty good movie. Then they came out with Bad News Bears, Breaking Training and then Bad News Bears Go To Japan. Tom Sawyer Detective serves as the "Bad News Bears Go to Japan" installment of the Tom/Huck fran......more

Goodreads review by Kailey (Luminous Libro) on June 14, 2017

Gotta love Tom and Huck!......more

Goodreads review by Brian on May 24, 2021

I imagine that most people of today aren't aware of this book. When Twain wrote it in 1896, he was taking advantage of the phase American readers were going through with detective novels. I think with hindsight we can say that wasn't just a fad. Tom Sawyer is pining for excitement: "... it was gettin......more

Goodreads review by Jim on December 31, 2019

This is a novella featuring Tom Sawyer at his best. The events are related by Huck Finn. The boys have to go back to Arkansas & help their Uncle Silas & Aunt Sally who are in quite a pickle. By sheer coincidence, they run into the man that helps them unlock the mystery & Tom Sawyer has his day in co......more