The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Twain wrote the great American boys' adventure — whitewashed fences, caves, treasure, and a kid who fakes his own funeral.
“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”
Why It Matters
Twain wrote the great American boys' adventure — whitewashed fences, caves, treasure, and a kid who fakes his own funeral. The novel invented the American childhood as a literary subject and established the Mississippi River setting that Twain would use to even greater effect in Huckleberry Finn. It remains one of the most widely read American novels ever written.
Notable Quotes
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.”
“He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it — namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.”