Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is one of the first unabridged classics I read. It is truly a masterpiece and I am surprised to find that this book has not been reviewed in MouthShut.
I read both this book and the sequel to this one Tom Sawyer Abroad and both are extremely enjoyable books.
What can I say about Tom Sawyer... Well, in his aunt Polly’s words, ’’Hang the boy, can’t I never learn anything? Ain’t
he played me tricks enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old fools is the biggest fools there is. Can’t learn an old dog new tricks, as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days, and how is a body to know what’s coming? He ’pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it’s all down again and I can’t hit him a lick. I ain’t doing my duty by that boy, and that’s the Lord’s truth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile the
child, as the Good Book says. I’m a laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He’s full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he’s my own dead sister’s boy, poor thing, and I ain’t got the heart to lash him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so, and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as the Scripture says, and I reckon it’s so. He’ll play hookey this evening, * and [* Southwestern for ’’afternoon’’] I’ll just be obleeged to make him work, to-morrow, to punish him. It’s mighty hard to make him work Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more than he hates anything else, and I’ve GOT to do some of my duty by him, or I’ll be the ruination of the child.’’
And there is Jim and the infamous Huckleberry Finn. Tom is the bright one of the lot and usually gets piqued by the idiotic twosome of Jim and Huck. The story describes all the adventures or rather, misadventures of this trio. It is one hilarious book and the reader is destined to laugh out loud for a long time, while reading the book or while in retrospection.
For those unfortunate folks who have not read this classic, it is available as a free e-text at gutenberg.net.