Mark Twain's publication in 1876 of his popular novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer reversed a brief downturn in his success following the publication of his previous novel, The Gilded Age. Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer while he and his family were living in Hartford, Connecticut, and while Twain was enjoying his fame. The novel, which tells of the escapades of a young boy and his friends in St. Petersburg, Missouri, a village near the Mississippi River, recalls Twain's own childhood in a small Missouri town. The friendship of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn is one of the most celebrated in American literature, built on imaginative adventures, shared superstitions, and loyalty that rises above social convention. Twain's American reading audience loved this novel and its young hero, and the novel remains one of the most popular and famous works of American literature. The novel and its characters have achieved folk hero status in the American popular imagination.

Scenes such as Tom Sawyer tricking his friends into whitewashing Aunt Polly's fence for him, Injun Joe leaping through the window of the courthouse after Tom names him as Dr. Robinson's murderer, and Tom and Becky lost in the cave have become so familiar to American readers that one almost doesn't have to read the book to know about them. But the pleasure of reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has kept readers coming back to the novel for over a century.

Beyond the fact that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is fun to read, there is another reason for the novel's contemporary popularity: It introduces the character of Huckleberry Finn, who, with the publication of Twain's 1884 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, would become one of the greatest characters in American literature.
 

　故事发生在19世纪上半叶密西西比河畔的一个普通小镇上。汤姆·索亚是个调皮的孩子，他和同父异母的弟弟一起接受姨妈波莉的监护。他总是能想出各种各样的恶作剧，让波莉姨妈无可奈何，而他也总能想尽办法来躲避惩罚。一天，汤姆见到了可爱的姑娘贝基·撒切尔，她是撒切尔法官的女儿。汤姆一见到她就对她展开了攻势。而他的爱似乎也得到了回应。镇上有一个孩子叫哈克贝利·费恩。他的父亲总是酗酒，父母一直打架，因此他跑出来自己生活。他看起来和文明社会格格不入，大人们都不喜欢他，可汤姆和他却是好朋友。有一天他们约好晚上一起去墓地，却看到了意想不到的一幕。他们看到鲁滨逊医生、恶棍英乔·琼和喝得醉醺醺的莫夫·波特。在他们混乱的厮打中，英乔·琼把医生杀死了，然后又嫁祸于被打昏的波特身上。汤姆和哈克被吓坏了，立了血誓决不泄密。波特被捕以后，汤姆十分内疚，经常去看望他。此时的汤姆事事不顺，贝基生了他的气，不再理睬他，波莉姨妈也总是呵斥他，他觉得没有人关心他。于是，汤姆、哈克和村上的另一个孩子一起乘小船去了一个海岛。可没过多久，他们便发现村里的人们以为他们淹死了，正在搜寻他们的尸体。汤姆晚上悄悄回到了姨妈家，发现波莉姨妈正在为他的“死”悲痛欲绝。汤姆觉得十分惭愧。最终，他们三个人在村民们为他们举行葬礼的时候回来了。夏天来临时，汤姆便感到更加不安，因为法官将对波特的罪行作出判决。汤姆终于战胜了恐惧与自私，指出了英乔·琼就是杀人凶手。可凶手还是逃走了。后来，汤姆又想出了一个主意：寻找宝藏。汤姆和哈克偶然发现了印第安·乔和他的一大笔不义之财。但他们却不知道他把钱藏在哪里了。在贝基和同学们外出野餐时，哈克得知印第安·乔要去加害道格拉斯寡妇，因为她的丈夫曾经送他进过监狱。幸亏哈克及时报信才避免了一场悲剧的发生，可印第安·乔再一次逃之夭夭。此时，汤姆和贝基在野餐时走进了一个山洞，因为洞太深而找不到回来的路，被困在里面。他们在山洞里再一次遇见了印第安·乔。村民费尽周折救出汤姆和贝基之后封死了山洞。后来汤姆告知村民英乔·琼还在里面。当他们找到他时，他已经死在山洞里了。恶人得到了应有的报应。汤姆和哈克再次回到山洞里，找到了那笔宝藏。