Few works of fiction are more known and beloved for keenly documenting the triumphs, trials, exultations, and despairs of boyhood than The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Set in 1840s Missouri, Mark Twain's picaresque novel follows a rambunctious, rebellious rascal whose exploits are the delight of the town boys and the bane of the adults trying to “civilize” them at home, in school, and at church. Tom and his friends, including Huck Finn (the son of the town drunk and star of Twain’s subsequent masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), skip school and run away, play pirates and robbers, go hunting in caves, fake their own deaths, poke around haunted houses, frolic along the river banks, and triumphantly interrupt their own funeral sermons. They believe in magic and superstitions, witness body snatchers and murder, and search for—and find—buried treasure. Twain's mastery of satire and droll humor, his unparalleled narrative skill in capturing the incomparable fierce joys of childhood