Description

Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are back for another rip-roaring adventure on the mighty Mississippi River. Feeling the call of life outside of his comfortable but ordinary home, Huck boldly fakes his own death to run away to the River. There, he meets up with the escaped slave Jim, and the two band together to seek their liberation. Their journey will test them at every turn. In addition to the dastardly con men and thieves who travel the River, there are more sinister dangers that lie in wait for Huck and Jim. While Huck is seeking to return to the more freewheeling life he knew before being adopted by a kindly widow, Jim's quest is for a personal freedom that he has never known. As Tom Sawyer enters the story, Huck is faced with a difficult choice between returning home and risking his life to grant Jim his freedom. A controversial book for many years, Twain's novel contrasts indulgent childhood dreams with stark and cruel realities, bringing out essential American historical themes of human rights, equality, and justice.

About the Author

Born Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain (1835-1910) was and is an American legend. A prolific journalist, essayist, and writer of short stories and novels, Twain had a unique gift for capturing and often laughing at the young American nation he knew. Growing up in Missouri, Twain spent his early years on the Mississippi River, which would figure prominently in the world of his later fiction. Twain worked as a riverboat pilot as a young man, but headed west when the Civil War broke out. His trip across the country and eventual years in Nevada and California became fodder for some of Twain's best works. Settling eventually in Connecticut, Twain enjoyed many fruitful years of writing, travel, and family life until he left the world, as he had vowed, with the return of Halley's Comet in 1910. Perhaps best known for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huck Finn, Twain is the author of many other works, including Life on the Mississippi, Letters From the Earth, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Innocents Abroad.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

CHAPTER I.
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. I never ...