Mark Twain 
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:



    New introductions commissioned from today’s top writers and scholars

    Biographies of the authors

    Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events

    Footnotes and endnotes

    Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work

    Comments by other famous authors

    Study questions to challenge the reader’s viewpoints and expectations

    Bibliographies for further reading

    Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate



All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader’s understanding of these enduring works.



Perhaps the best-loved nineteenth-century American novel, Mark Twain’s tale of boyhood adventure overflows with comedy, warmth, and slapstick energy. It brings to life and array of irresistible characters—the awesomely self-confident Tom, his best buddy Huck Finn, indulgent Aunt Polly, and the lovely, beguiling Becky—as well as such unforgettable incidents as whitewashing a fence, swearing an oath in blood, and getting lost in a dark and labyrinthine cave. Below Tom Sawyer’s sunny surface lurk hints of a darker reality, of youthful innocence and naïveté confronting the cruelty, hypocrisy, and foolishness of the adult world—a theme that would become more pronounced in Twain’s
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Despite such suggestions, Tom Sawyer remains Twain’s joyful ode to the endless possibilities of childhood.



H. Daniel Peck is John Guy Vassar Professor of English at Vassar College and is the author of
Thoreau’s Morning Work and
A World by Itself: The Pastoral Moment in Cooper’s Fiction.