Twain’s first extended fictional narrative, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, begins with its hero already in trouble, or at least on the verge of it, under the watchful eye of his suspicious aunt Polly. “Well, I lay if I get hold of you I’ll—” she exclaims as she searches for him under the bed and around the house, until at last he appears, asserting his innocence but no doubt hiding something, as readers as well as Aunt Polly can surely tell. The battle lines between youthful high spirits and the sober strictures of adult society are quickly drawn, and we know immediately whose side we’re on. The book is based on the author’s recollections of his own youth in Hannibal, Missouri, although these are embellished, naturally, with imaginative flair. All in all, Twain’s debut novel is a delightful evocation of the spirit that drives precocious youngsters to set themselves against the stultifying routines of the grown-up world, wrapped up in a plot that is filled with humor and suspense in equal measure.
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