Like most boys, Tom Sawyer would rather play hooky than go to school.

But Tom's lively imagination and thirst for adventure lead him into the most extraordinary situations, from a search for buried treasure to the accidental witness of a murder in a graveyard.

All of his exploits - tricking his pals into whitewashing a fence, sharing his medicine with the family cat, disrupting a church service with a pinching insect - are flavored with the humor for which his creator, Mark Twain, is justly famed. In writing this great American classic, Twain drew upon his own memories of life in a small Missouri town before the Civil War.

Since the book's 1876 publication, generations of readers of all ages have laughed at Tom's hijinks and taken him into their hearts, along with Huckleberry Finn, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly, and other memorable characters.

This new Dover Evergreen Classics edition offers a fresh introduction to the lovable scamp and the enduring joys of his escapades.