Customer Reviews

Tom Sawyer Abroad

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If you really want to sink your teeth into three of Mark Twain's greatest characters, read this book. I actually prefer it over Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Twain went much deeper in defining the characters; Tom thinks he knows everything and loves to argue, Huck takes everything literally and loves to argue back, and Jim is well. . . Jim! I will say this: If anyone has ever found the portrayal of Jim offensive, it's no different here, but I'm assuming that if you're considering reading this, you must have enjoyed the other two books. So, what are you waiting for, read it!

This book picks up right after the hullaballo 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. Then Tom, Huck and Jim are accidentally kidnapped by a mad inventor and go sailing off in a hot-air balloon. They eventually find themselves adrift over the Atlantic Ocean but when they sight land, it is not Europe! This book is told with youthful zest and slangy vocabulary by an admiring Huck in the first person, so that he can praise Tom's leadership skills and powers of argument!

The three unintentional argonauts finally realize that they are sailing over the Sahara Desert, where they have a variety of adventures, interspersed with juvenile deductions and debates. Their adventures are right out of Arabian Nights: no magic lamp or genies, but caravans, lions, mirages, warring Bedouin tribes, devastating sand storms! All interspersed with Tawin's wry humor as he slips in some snide remarks about more serious social issues (spoken through the mouths of babes). Not much of a plot, but plenty of lively dialogue as the boys try to argue using logic and indulge in youthful dreams of sudden fortune. A fun read with sly social criticism. But really, Mark Twain, Tigers--in Africa???

This is the Tom Sawyer book people have not heard of. With good reason!

Tom Sawyer is a wonderful story of life in the 19th Century deep south of America, with an engaging protaganist.

Huck Finn is a classic of American literature, taking the setting of Tom Sawyer, adding a raft trip and plenty of issues over slavery, justice and other such wieghty matter in an engaging story.

Tom Sawyer abroad takes those characters, sticks them in a balloon with Jim, the freed slave, sends them on an unbelievable journey across the world, and for me breaks the spell. Books create a kind of contract with the reader. Huck Finn says "believe in me - this is how it was". Tom Sawyer abroad breaks that contract.

On the other hand, if it were a standalone book with different characters it would be a good "boy's own adventure" I think.

There were some good points though. Mark Twain has a trademark humour, which still shines through in this work. Poor Huck Finn keeps complaining about the map being a liar because states are not the colour they are shown on the map, and lines of longitude cannot actually be found on the earth!

And there is more of the philosophy wrapped in an engagingly young understanding of the world in, for instance, the discussion of the Holy Land.

Whether the book is worth reading or not is hard to say. It is still a book with merit - it just messes up the Tom Sawyer canon a little, sadly

Though this book is hardly of the calibur of Huckleberry Finn, it returns to the more lighthearted line in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. For the very sensitive reader, there is still a good dose of social commentary regarding slavery, just as there was in Tom Sawyer. There are references to Moses and the Exodus from Egypt while Tom, Jim, and Huck travel over the pyramids, and quite a gaping pause for thought left by the approach towards the continent from whence Jim's ancestors came. There is plenty of random and timeless Mark Twain humor expressed expertly through 3 very distinct characters, which is so much better than just a monologue. Certainly this book is not nearly as down to earth as a trip down the Mississippi River or being trapped in a cave, but the improbability of an Around the World in 80 Days concept makes the book really fly. As a reader I loved that Tom, as a kind of juvenile delinquent style of Mary Poppins, always takes me off on a complete and magical departure from reality, regardless of the gravity or non-gravity of the subject matter.

An enjoyable read with the typical humor and depth of Tom, Huck, and Jim, as Huck and Jim get tangled up in another adventure lead by Tom that took them to the other side of the Earth!

If you haven't already read Tom Sawyer (could there possibly be anyone who hasn't?) - nonetheless, if you have not, read it first and then, by all means, give a listen to TOM SAWYER ABROAD as narrated by the estimable Grover Gardner. This voice performer's mantel must be groaning under all the awards he has received - AudioFile named him one of the "best Voices of the Century" and a "Golden Voice"; he's won an Audie Award, and was chosen Narrator of the Year by Publishers Weekly. His performance loses none of the folksiness that is so much part and parcel of the Twain stories, and adds frissons of excitement to what is most surely an amazing adventure.

Now, once you've become familiar with Tom Sawyer, you know that Tom and Huck thrive on derring-do and are always ready for a challenge. There are quite a few of those in TOM SAWYER ABROAD. They go off to witness the unveiling of an airship only to be held captive by a kooky inventor, Then as luck and Twain would have it the inventor falls overboard leaving the boys trying to control a wayward airship.

Soon they're hurtling over the ocean carrying them where and to meet what?

This is one more of Twain's masterpieces masterfully read by Grover Gardner.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its 1884 follow-up The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are two of American literature's most famous works and the latter one of its most acclaimed. It may thus seem strange that this 1894 sequel is now almost obscure. The truth is that this is not entirely undeserved. Huck Finn is a masterpiece of world literature, and anyone expecting this to be anywhere near its level will be sorely disappointed. It lacks the more famous work's seriousness and ambitiousness, making it inevitably minor. However, it is quite in line with Tom Sawyer, i.e., it is openly light, not least in being light-hearted; it is not a great work of literature or even pretending to be. However, like nearly everything else Twain wrote, it is eminently readable, very entertaining, and often funny. Fans of Twain's lighter work, especially Tom Sawyer, will love it, and there is something for all to appreciate it. The book is notable for taking the series and its characters in surprising new directions, leaving the rural South for distant Egypt and adding character development. Though not a great literary work in other respects, it performs surprisingly well in the latter area. Those eager for more adventures from Tom, Huck, and Jim will certainly warm to it. Like the book that bears his name, this is narrated by Huck with all his delightfully provincial grammar and spelling.

Like most of Twain, it can be read and enjoyed on several levels. Most simply and obviously, it is a rollicking, picaresque adventure of the sort later classed as Young Adult or Juvenile. It is notably entertaining and quite humorous even in this limited sense, particularly the dialogue. While far from politically correct by current standards, can easily be enjoyed by the very young as well as those of all ages who will take it on its own terms.

The discerning can see significantly more, even if no one can see greatness. Though less savagely biting than later work, this is vintage Twain satire in many ways. Huck Finn's infamous closing section satirizes Romanticism in its various forms, including medieval ideals of chivalry, and this works similarly. The new target is a type of book then immensely popular - travel adventures like Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Twain mocks such works' implausibility and superficiality but only gently, arguably even good-naturedly, especially compared to his later works' vicious satire. We get the feeling that Twain appreciates such books even as he mocks - not least because this book itself can legitimately be taken in such a way, and not without enjoyment. He also throws in a few shots at more serious issues. Those familiar with his life and thought will recognize several - his ongoing feud with Sir Walter Scott's work, his near-fatal run-in with patents, etc. - and laugh appreciatively. He treats these subjects more seriously and bitterly elsewhere, but it is notable that he was able to write of them relatively lightly, if effectively, here.

It is indeed remarkable how subtle yet piercing Twain's satire can be even in a minor work like this. An example will suffice. In one scene, Tom sends a letter that says it comes from the "welkin." Huck and Jim have never heard the word and are mystified. Tom initially acts as if they are ignorant fools but, when pushed, admits he does not know what it means but that every description of a great noise says that the hubbub was so loud it "made the welkin ring." Anyone familiar with the word - or who bothers to look it up - will realize that, while ostensibly only poking fun at the ignorance of rural Southern boys, Twain also mocks writers who use conventional phrases without thought. Those who appreciate such points will see they are well-made.

No one should put this with Twain's great work. It is quite short - about one hundred pages - and can be read quickly and easily. The book is at least as episodic as Tom Sawyer, and the little plot that exists is highly implausible. Yet even within this we can easily sense repetition and strain, as dialogue starts to seem canned and jokes become overly familiar. It almost seems at times that Twain had a simple template and stretched a little too far. Finally, the ending is very abrupt and a sort of deus ex machina. One may at first feel that Twain could have stretched the adventure out rather longer, even that he ends just as he seems to really get started; the characters after all visit but one country. However, he was right to stop when he did; anything more would have stretched the thinness past the proverbial breaking point. It is no great loss, as what we have is quite good for what it is - and, more importantly, Twain's satirical purpose is accomplished.

In the end, only hard-core Twain fans, especially those who treasure the associated works, should read this. He hardly wrote anything not worth reading, but this should be one of the last stops. It is a pleasant read even if the fact that it has survived more than a century has more to do with Twain's name and his better works than inherent quality. This is surprisingly enjoyable proof that he was ever-readable even when far from this best.

I read this book when I was 10 and have never forgotten it after 36 years. Tom, Huck and Jim accidentally take off in a hot air balloon in Hannibal and end up in North Africa in Egypt and have all sorts of adventures like in "The Innocents Abroad". I remember it was funny that Tom doesnt believe they have crossed from Illinois to Indiana because the land is still green and on the map Indiana is pink. One of the funniest moments is on the last page when Tom, still in Egypt, gets a message from home. Read it!

When Tom returns W/ Huck & Jim from thier crazy escapeds in HUCKLEBERRY FINN, he's the center of fame. But when it wears off Tom begins to hanker for a new adventure. He found it, all right. Trapped in a runaway balloon w/ a mad sceintist who wants to commit a glorious suicide isn't MY idea of a leisurely summer vacation, but it gets pretty funny.