The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) features one of the best-loved characters in American fiction. The novel is redolent of life in the Mississippi River towns in the 19th century, in which Mark Twain spent his own youth. A sombre undercurrent flows through the high humour and unabashed nostalgia of the novel, however, for beneath the innocence of childhood lie the inequities of adult reality - base emotions and superstitions, murder and revenge, starvation and slavery.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) is the direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy's adventures in the Mississippi Valley, the book matured under Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. The child's ingenuous gaze on the flaws of civilized people feeds the virulent satire of an hypocritical society.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) was first trained as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi river - 'Mark Twain', phrase used on riverboats to indicate that the water is two fathoms deep and therefore safe, became the pen name by which he acquired worldwide fame.
Among the most significant works Mark Twains: The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The American Claimant, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, A Horse's Tale, The Mysterious Stranger, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer, Detective, "Schoolhouse Hill", The Mysterious Stranger, "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians", "Huck Finn", "Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy", "Tom Sawyer’s Gang Plans a Naval Battle".
