ruchidas's review
4.0
For a little while, hope made a show of reviving-not for any reason to back it but only because it is its nature to revive when the spring has not been taken out of it with age and familiarity with failure.
My memories of Mark Twain date back to my school years. I distinctly remember reading chapter two of the book in my English curriculum. I certainly don't remember being as fascinated by it at 13 as I am at nearly 30.
Tom Sawyer, a 12-year-old boy, can and will do anything to fill his life in his sleepy little town of St. Petersberg with an ounce of entertainment. Given that he envisions himself as a pirate and a robber, his adventures aren't bereft of troubles. Tom often loses track of days on his expeditions and, on two occasions, nearly gets himself killed.
I've lost count of the number of times I raised my eyebrows at the sheer frivolity of his ostentatious plans. Imagine my jaw-dropping on learning that every time he made an audacious claim, he actually fulfilled it. Whether it be stealing from notorious robbers or getting Becky Thatcher, his classmate, to agree to getting "engaged" to him with a piece of paper that read "I love you," Tom's exploits had me marveling at his frivolity!
Street smart, naughty, yet charming and witty, this boy reflects his creator's personality. It is said that Twain's satirical prose was way ahead of his time, but reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer proved it to me. The author conveniently breaks flows in traditional writing by addressing the reader directly many times from the text and slipping in a joke or two of his own. Here's an excerpt from the book's conclusion:
When an author writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop-that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop when he best can.
Ernest Hemmingway once remarked, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn," and having read a lot of both classic and modern American Literature, I have to agree. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic well done.
This is one of those O.G. American novels that make it to the "must-read-once-in-a-lifetime" books, so if you haven't already picked up this nugget of entertainment, what are you'll even doing with your life? While you think of an answer, I'm going to go and create a petition to have Tom Sawyer approved as my exclusive spirit animal before anyone else claims him. I could do with some of his devil-may-care attitude in my life.
My memories of Mark Twain date back to my school years. I distinctly remember reading chapter two of the book in my English curriculum. I certainly don't remember being as fascinated by it at 13 as I am at nearly 30.
Tom Sawyer, a 12-year-old boy, can and will do anything to fill his life in his sleepy little town of St. Petersberg with an ounce of entertainment. Given that he envisions himself as a pirate and a robber, his adventures aren't bereft of troubles. Tom often loses track of days on his expeditions and, on two occasions, nearly gets himself killed.
I've lost count of the number of times I raised my eyebrows at the sheer frivolity of his ostentatious plans. Imagine my jaw-dropping on learning that every time he made an audacious claim, he actually fulfilled it. Whether it be stealing from notorious robbers or getting Becky Thatcher, his classmate, to agree to getting "engaged" to him with a piece of paper that read "I love you," Tom's exploits had me marveling at his frivolity!
Street smart, naughty, yet charming and witty, this boy reflects his creator's personality. It is said that Twain's satirical prose was way ahead of his time, but reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer proved it to me. The author conveniently breaks flows in traditional writing by addressing the reader directly many times from the text and slipping in a joke or two of his own. Here's an excerpt from the book's conclusion:
When an author writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop-that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop when he best can.
Ernest Hemmingway once remarked, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn," and having read a lot of both classic and modern American Literature, I have to agree. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic well done.
This is one of those O.G. American novels that make it to the "must-read-once-in-a-lifetime" books, so if you haven't already picked up this nugget of entertainment, what are you'll even doing with your life? While you think of an answer, I'm going to go and create a petition to have Tom Sawyer approved as my exclusive spirit animal before anyone else claims him. I could do with some of his devil-may-care attitude in my life.
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