The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in English

Mark Twain

originalC2American English · Gilded Age · 1876genreAdventurevibeFunnyChildhoodFriendshipaudioUSUK

A mischievous boy in a Mississippi town gets into every kind of trouble, from school to pirate games. One night he and his friend Huck see something in a graveyard that is far too real to be a game.

The book is made of short, lively episodes that grow into one story. The first half is mostly a comic picture of boyhood: school, a fence, a first love, a dare and Tom's escape from punishment. The second half is darker, and the adventure moves into a murder, a trial and a cave. Twain's narrator is educated and ironic, often using big, grand words for small boyish events and talking to the reader directly. Around a third of the text is dialogue in the speech of Missouri village boys and townspeople, and the book also contains Bible quotations, hymns and a little verse.

What kind of book“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is

Versions of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in English: B1

Same book, adapted to a level you can read without stopping

levelA1–A2B1–B2C1–C2pagesaudiobook

Vocabulary by level

A1 61%
A2 16%
B1 8%
B2 6%
not in dictionary 5%

A sample from “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in English

One passage, the way each version writes it.

Tap any word — we will show the translation

C1.1205 words

Tom went on whitewashing and paid no attention to the boat. Ben stared for a moment and then said: “Hi-Yi! You’re in trouble, ain’t you!”

There was no answer. Tom looked at his last brush stroke with the eye of an artist, then gave his brush another gentle sweep and looked at the result, as before. Ben came up alongside him, and Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:

“Hello, old boy, you got to work, hey?”

Tom turned around suddenly and said:

“Why, it’s you, Ben! I wasn’t noticing.”

“Say—I’m going swimming, I am. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work—wouldn’t you? Course you would!”

Tom looked at the boy for a moment and said:

“What do you call work?”

“Why, ain’t that work?”

Tom went back to his whitewashing and answered carelessly:

“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to tell me you like it?”

The brush went on moving.

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

B2.4193 words

Tom went on whitewashing and paid no attention to the boat. Ben stared for a moment and then said: “Hi-Yi! You’re in trouble, ain’t you!”

There was no answer. Tom looked at his last touch like an artist. Then he moved the brush gently once more and looked at the result again. Ben came up beside him. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working. Ben said:

“Hello, old fellow, you got to work, hey?”

Tom turned suddenly and said:

“Why, it’s you, Ben! I wasn’t noticing.”

“Say—I’m going swimming, I am. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work—wouldn’t you? Course you would!”

Tom looked at the boy for a moment and said:

“What do you call work?”

“Why, ain’t that work?”

Tom started whitewashing again and answered carelessly:

“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to say you like it?”

The brush kept moving.

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

The same passage at different levelsContinue in the reader

The original language of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and what it gives you

How hard the language is C2

This is the lighter side of Twain, but the English is not simple. The book has about 71,000 words and 7,200 different word forms, and 61% of the words are A1 plus 16% A2. The average sentence is only 13.9 words, which is short, but 5% of the words are beyond the 5,000 most frequent and 5% are not in the dictionary (slang, respellings and dialect). Our measurement puts the original at C2 on our scale, so we also offer adaptations at B2, B1 and A2. The challenge comes less from sentence length than from the dialect in the dialogue and the author's grand, ironic vocabulary.

What this means in practice: Funny and fast, but the Missouri speech and the grand narrator make it harder than the short sentences suggest.

What to be ready for

Missouri speech. Huck's dialect is the strongest, with non-standard grammar, and Tom, Jim, Aunt Polly, Muff Potter and the others speak in lighter or moderate rural Missouri forms.

Respelt words. Forms such as ain't, warn't, I reckon and respellings like ha'nted and spile show how people really talked.

Grand narration. The narrator uses big, mock-heroic words for small events, and often speaks directly to the reader.

Bible and verse. There are Bible quotations, hymns and schoolgirl verse, and the boys' Robin Hood play uses thou and art.

How to read it and not quit

Do not copy ain't, warn't or double negatives in your own writing; read them as Missouri speech and translate them in your head into standard forms.
Read the dialogue aloud when a spelling looks strange: ha'nted becomes haunted and spile becomes spoil, so the sound usually tells you the word.
Watch for the narrator's irony: a long, formal word used for something small is almost always a joke.
Learn the common phrasal verbs as they appear (run away, give up, sneak out, turn up); the boys use them constantly.

Contents of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” · 37 chapters

Prefacepage 1
Ipage 1
IIpage 8
IIIpage 12
IVpage 15
Vpage 24

All 37 chapters

VIpage 27
VIIpage 35
VIIIpage 40
IXpage 43
Xpage 48
XIpage 53
XIIpage 57
XIIIpage 60
XIVpage 65
XVpage 69
XVIpage 72
XVIIpage 81
XVIIIpage 83
XIXpage 90
XXpage 91
XXIpage 94
XXIIpage 99
XXIIIpage 101
XXIVpage 106
XXVpage 108
XXVIpage 113
XXVIIpage 121
XXVIIIpage 123
XXIXpage 127
XXXpage 131
XXXIpage 139
XXXIIpage 147
XXXIIIpage 149
XXXIVpage 158
XXXVpage 160
Conclusionpage 164

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The story of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”

1876
Published in England and America
Chatto & Windus issued it in England in June 1876 and the American Publishing Company in the United States late that year, with illustrations by True Williams.
1884
Sequel: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Twain returned to Huck as narrator in the book that came to overshadow Tom Sawyer.
1905
Removed from a library
The Brooklyn Public Library took Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn off the children's shelves, one of the first of many challenges.
2011
Edition replacing offensive words
A NewSouth Books edition replaced a racial slur with "slave", provoking a public debate.
Written over several summers
Twain worked on the book in the first half of the 1870s, drawing on his boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri, which became the town of St. Petersburg.

In culture “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”

8 adaptations and mentions, 1876–1981

1876
In the language "Whitewashing the fence"
Tom's trick of making a chore look like a privilege so friends pay him for it is now shorthand for getting others to do your work.
1876
In the language "A Tom Sawyer"
A mischievous, imaginative boy who gets into and out of trouble.
1876
In the language "Attending your own funeral"
Tom and his friends turning up at their own funeral is the origin of a familiar story device.
1936
Art Norman Rockwell's illustrations
Rockwell illustrated an edition for the Heritage Club in 1936.
1938
Film The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Selznick)
A Technicolor film produced by David O. Selznick.
1956
Art Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland
The theme park built a play island named after the book, which has been a feature of Disney parks since.
1980
Series Tom Sawyer no Bouken
A Japanese animated series from Nippon Animation.
1981
Music "Tom Sawyer" (Rush)
Rush's song, from Moving Pictures, borrows the name for a modern free spirit.

Questions and answers about “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in English

What is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer about?

It is about a mischievous boy in a Missouri town on the Mississippi who gets into every kind of trouble. After he sees something terrible in a graveyard with his friend Huck Finn, the story becomes a mystery.

Is Tom Sawyer based on a true story?

The story is fiction, but Twain drew heavily on his boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri. St. Petersburg is based on that town, and a real cave near it gave him the cave in the book.

Is Tom Sawyer a children's book?

It was written partly for boys, but Twain said he wrote it for adults as well. Its humour and its darker parts, including a murder, work for any age.

What is the famous fence scene?

Tom has to whitewash a fence as a punishment and tricks other boys into doing the work for him, even getting them to pay for the privilege. It is one of the best-known scenes in American literature.

Do I need to read Tom Sawyer before Huckleberry Finn?

No, each book stands alone, but Tom Sawyer comes first and introduces Huck. Huckleberry Finn is a very different, more serious book.

Is Tom Sawyer easier than Huckleberry Finn?

Usually yes: the narration is in standard English, and the dialect is present but milder. Huckleberry Finn is narrated by Huck in dialect, which makes the whole book harder.

Is Tom Sawyer banned or controversial?

It has been challenged in some schools because of its racial language and its attitudes to race and to Native Americans. The book reflects the world of the 1840s as Twain remembered it, and many readers discuss this with care.

Which film is closest to the book?

No film follows it exactly, but most versions keep the famous episodes: the fence, the graveyard, the trial and the cave. They usually cut a lot of the narrator's irony.

Why does Tom put up with Huck Finn?

Huck is the free boy that Tom would like to be: he has no school, no aunt and no rules. Tom is attracted by that freedom, and their friendship makes the adventure plot possible.

Is the English hard to read?

It is harder than the short sentences suggest: the dialogue is in dialect, with spellings like warn't and ha'nted. The narration itself is formal and ironic, and once you get used to the speech it reads quickly.

In brief about “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”

17 fields of imprint data and measured text characteristics. All of it checkable.

Original title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Author: Mark Twain
First published: 1876
Original language: English
Genre: Adventure · Classics · Humor
Mood: Funny
Themes: Childhood · Friendship · Freedom
Setting: St. Petersburg, a small town on the Mississippi River in Missouri, based on Mark Twain's boyhood home of Hannibal · the 1840s
Distinct words: 7,188

Words per sentence: 14 words
Level of the original: C2
Versions: C2, C1.1, B2.4, B1.4
Length of the original: 37 ch. · 70,853 words
Reading time: ~6 h 30 min
Source text: Standard Ebooks
Rights: CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)
Download: EPUB