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Title: Tom Sawyer Abroad ; Tom Sawyer Detective by Mark Twain, John C. Gerber, Terry Firkins, Mark Tom Sawyer Detective Twain ISBN: 0-520-04561-0 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1983 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Juvenile Argonauts over the Sahara
Comment: This book picks up right after the hallaballo has died down from Tom and Huck's triumphal return. Tom kinda craves notoriety as he competes for the unofficial title of Hannibal's First Traveler. Kidnapped by a mad inventor Tom, Huck and Jim
find themselves sailing in a hot-air balloon. They eventually realize that they are alone over the Atlantic, but when they sight land, it is not Europe! This first-person story is narrated with youthful zest and slangy vocabulary by an admiring Huck, so that he can praise Tom's leadership skills and power of argument.
The three unprepared argonauts finally understand that they are floating over the vast Sahara Desert, where they experience a variety of adventures--interspersed with juvenile deductions and lively debate. Their challenges are right out of the Arabian Nights: no magic lamp or genies, but Twain serves up caravans, lions, mirages, warring Bedouin tribes, and a devastating sand storm. All this action is spiced with his wry humor, as he slips in snide remarks about more serious social issues (spoken through the mouths of babes). Although this tale is Plot Lite, there's plenty of lively dialogue, as the boys argue using kid logic, while indulging in youthful dreams of sudden fortune. A fun read with sly social criticism. But really, Mark Twain--tigers--in Africa?
Rating: 4
Summary: Good, but not classics
Comment: I was surprised to discover the existance of these two books: Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer Detective. Apparently, they were both very popular back when they were first published, in the late 1890s, but have become mostly forgotten. They're more novellas than anything; Detective isn't even 100 pages long. The illustrations are really good, and I plan on buying the other volumes in the Mark Twain Library, each of which include the original illustrations that were present in the first editions. Both Abroad and Detective are entertaining, but they're not in the mold of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You know how in Huckleberry Finn, Huck goes through all these little misadventures, all the while growing up and gaining all kinds of wisdom, and then in the end, the book takes a harsh turn and goes back to the juvenile exploits of Tom Sawyer, when he and Huck try to free Jim? It's like the end of the book really doesn't have much to do with the rest of it, it's just Huck and Tom doing dumb, yet funny, kid stuff. Well, both Abroad and Detective are like that; only very occasionally do you get any of Huck's unique flashes of insight. Jim himself only appears in Abroad, which is a fantasy tale in which he, Tom, and Huck happen to be kidnapped onto a high-tech balloon (!) and go across the Atlantic to Africa. There's really not much of a plot or resolution, they just float along over the desert, Tom tells them about the Arabian Nights, and Jim gets stranded on the head of the Sphinx for a little while. Abroad picks up not long after the events in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and apparently Detective picks up not long after Abroad, though the events that transpired in Abroad are never mentioned in Tom Sawyer, Detective. Maybe Twain considered Abroad more of a whimsical tale, something that never really happened. Who knows...but I think Detective was the better of the two, even though Jim doesn't even appear in the book, and it's more of a mystery novel than anything. Huck basically plays the role of the reporter in Detective, just relating all of the incidents he witnessed in an unusual murder/crime, and describing Tom Sawyer's scene-stealing exploits in the trial that follows. Many of the characters that appeared in the last half of Adv. of Huck Finn make a return appearance in Detective. But anyway, both books are enjoyable to read, especially considering that both are written in the 1st person, from Huck's perspective, yet don't read them expecting the depth and emotion that are found in the Adv. of Huck Finn. I think these books were written for a younger audience, and that's how they read. But, for a frustrating, yet very interesting look into what might have been, had Twain finished his other two planned sequels to Huckleberry Finn, you should check out the book "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians," which contains two unfinished sequels that are both heads and tails better than Abroad and Detective: Among the Indians and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. But that's all I have to say about that.
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Title: Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians: And Other Unfinished Stories (Mark Twain Library) by Mark Twain ISBN: 0520238958 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 02 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer Among the Indians by Mark Twain, Lee Nelson ISBN: 1555176801 Publisher: Council Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain ISBN: 0553211439 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Puddnhead Wilson : And, Those Extraordinary Twins (The Penguin English Library) by Mark Twain, Malcolm Bradbury ISBN: 0140430407 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1969 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Mark Twain's Book For Bad Boys and Girls by Mark Twain, R. Kent Rasmussen ISBN: 0809233983 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies Pub. Date: 01 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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