Carlotta King wrote:I don't know if it's any help, Sarah, but it's available for free at the Project Gutenberg site, where you can download ebooks for free. If you have a Kindle you can get it for that, or read it online or download it as a txt file to read in Word or something. Not the same as a proper book but if you have a craving to read it, it's better than nothing.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76?msg=welcome_stranger" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Ooh, thanks very much indeed, Cathy - I've bookmarked the link.
Anita Bensoussane wrote:Has anyone else read Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, about a prince (the young Edward VI) and a peasant boy who resemble one another? One day they swap clothes and end up living each other's lives. Enid Blyton wrote several similar (though short) stories, such as 'The Princess and the Cottage-Girl' in which a princess and a poor girl who resemble one another swap places. As I once said in another post, stories like that may perhaps have been inspired by Mark Twain's classic - though not necessarily. The idea of royalty living as commoners is a traditional theme and there are a number of old fairy-tales in which kings disguise as peasants so they can mingle with their subjects and learn about the concerns of their people.
I haven't read it, but there must have been a film/TV adaptation as I've just realised from your description that I've watched some of it!! I had no idea it was a Mark Twain novel and have just added it to my to-read list. (I also had no idea that
Tom Sawyer, Detective and
Tom Sawyer Abroad existed; I've never seen the books or heard of them before.)
The plots of and ideas behind fairy tales and allegories/fables do indeed reproduce themselves again and again over the years by different writers. I haven't got 'The Princess and the Cottage Girl', but I have got 'In the King's Shoes' which is based on the same sort of idea. Enid was great at making each story seem fresh even if she was re-working old ideas, and as her short stories usually contain a moral they stand up to a great deal of re-telling - it's just like seeing loads of short extracts of other people's lives!! I particularly like her use of animals and plants/flowers/trees in these short stories, which extend the rules of right and wrong and common-sense to the natural world - very appealing to children. It would be really interesting to know if Enid had ever read
The Prince and the Pauper (or perhaps both she and Mark Twain were influenced by the same source - we'll never know!!)
Francis wrote:I still remember 'Tom Sawyer' with its' great scenes - the whitewashing of the fence, the murder in the cemetery during a body snatching, having a knife thrown at Tom by 'Indian Joe', getting lost in the caves and coming across Indian Joe and seeing his own commemoration service as his aunt things he's dead.
Despite the seriousness of some of the things that Tom gets mixed up in, the book is just a great lark from beginning to end as he tumbles straight from one scrape to another - I do love this book!
I like Mark Twain's strong, humorous and distinctive narrative voice too. Addressing the reader directly is considered an old-fashioned device now (the 'Dear Reader' thing is considered patronising, and in how-to-write books that I have it is even sneered at), but it really works in a story like
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer where the reader can sense the author's enjoyment of his creations, and has the benefit of the author's commentary - for example, when he remarks to the reader that the 'compositions' he uses (in chapter twenty-two) are taken from life and are therefore 'much happier than any imitations could be'. The same 'how-to-write books' insist that it is better to
'show' readers the story rather than
'tell' them, but while I agree in general, it ignores the pure enjoyment that a skilled, strong narrative voice can provide. Twain gives us both
showing and
telling... and when such a talented writer frames the action and dialogue with their own narrative, it's like having the icing
and the cherry on the cake!!
Katharine wrote:Ah, I always had an image of a white fence, and wasn't sure why. I remember the name Indian Joe, and the bit about the commemoration service also rings a bell. Thankfully I don't recall a murder or body snatching. Definitely don't think I'll be revisiting the book.
It's not too gruesome, really - mostly just boyish pranks and adventures, and nothing unpleasant is described in any detail - the unpleasant things that the boys witness are only parts of what is, overall, a light-hearted series of adventures. There is also a moral tone to the events. Injun Joe gets his comeuppance in quite a horrible way, but it is dealt with in a grave manner - and the reader only learns about it after it's over. The details given are sparse - though vivid, I found. There's also a strong sense of community throughout the book, and it's a fascinating insight into American society at that time... though I gather from what Anita says that
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains much more social observation and commentary than
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It seems that the two books are completely different. (Not that I'm trying to persuade you to read either of them, Katharine!
)
Soenke Rahn wrote:My favorite chapter of the book is the chapter with the teacher, the angling rod and the cat.
Yes, that's hilarious... not sure what mine would be. I like the church service, with the dog and tick as visiting members of the congregation, the oh-so-innocent love-affair between Tom and Becky, and the part where Huck follows the men and then subsequently works up courage to get help for Widow Douglas... but my favourite part is in Chapter Twenty, when Aunt Polly learns that Tom kissed her while she was sleeping.