Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) (The ^AOxford Mark Twain) - Hardcover

Twain, Mark; Fishkin, Shelley Fisher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195101480 ISBN 13: 9780195101485

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

This rollicking adventure novel brings back Twain's best-loved characters--Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and the freed slave Jim--for a balloon trip around the world. Escaping civilization and Aunt Polly once again, this lively tale of far-off exploits is, as Twain wrote, "a story that will not only interest boys but any man who has ever been a boy, which immensely enlarges the audience." The book's comic tall tales and bold escapades are punctuated by a series of animated conversations among the three friends on topics that include the Crusades, religious toleration, racial discrimination, the limitations of maps, and the fine art of cursing. Tom and Jim rescue a child from brigands. Jim finds himself alone atop the Sphinx with an American flag. Adventure, burlesque, and serious commentary on society and its failings make Tom Sawyer Abroad an engaging and memorable book.

About this title

From the Publisher

This edition is printed in specially-designed large type for easier reading, and is printed on non-glare paper.

About the Author

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel." When Tom Sawyer Abroad was published in 1894, it marked the first time in a nearly a decade that fans of Mark Twain’s now-classic tales of boyhood got a further glimpse of their heroes in action. Its similarities to Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days and other popular adventure tales of the time—tales which have inspired today’s Steampunk subculture—were entirely intentional. Twain, ever the satirist, could not pass up the opportunity to poke fun at literature’s adventure genre. Twain was also very much aware of the public’s interest in exotic lands, cultures and peoples—stimulated by events such as Sir Richard Burton’s exploration of the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Sir David Livingstone’s travels in Africa, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1871, and his own successful travelogue, The Innocents Abroad (1869), an account of his travels in Europe and the Holy Land.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195101480
• ISBN 13: 9780195101485
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304