Tom Sawyer (novel by Mark Twain)

Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer is all-time favorite work of fiction.

Thomas Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).

Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom Among the Indians, Schoolhouse Hill and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters.

Tom Sawyer is a boy of about 12 years of age, who resides in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, in about the year 1845. Tom Sawyer's best friends include Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom's infatuation with classmate Becky Thatcher is apparent as he tries to intrigue her with his strength, boldness, and handsome looks. He first sees her after he confessed his feelings for Amy Lawrence, one of his classmates. He lives with his half-brother Sid, his cousin Mary, and his stern Aunt Polly. There is no mention of Tom's father, as Tom's mother and father are dead. Tom has another aunt, Sally Phelps, who lives very much farther down the Mississippi.