Coming-of-age · Adventure
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Reading level: we suggest CEFR B1–B2 for reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Length: about 70,000 words.
- Suggested levelB1–B2
- Lengthabout 70,000 words
- Original languageEnglish
The story
Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly in St. Petersburg, a small town on the Mississippi. He tricks his friends into painting a fence for him, runs away to be a pirate on an island, and attends his own funeral.
But one night in the graveyard, Tom and his friend Huckleberry Finn witness a murder — and the truth will take them deep into McDougal's Cave.
Themes: childhood, freedom and rules, friendship, the Mississippi River.
Why it's a good book for language learners
Twain's narration is warm and funny, and the episodes are short and full of action. The dialogue is written in dialect, which is challenging at first; once you get used to it, it is a great window into spoken American English. Some language reflects the 1870s and is offensive today.
How hard is the English in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?
- Flesch Reading Ease80.9
- Flesch–Kincaid grade5.6
- Words per sentence14.5
Measured by PageWalker on the full English text of the book. Flesch Reading Ease runs from 0 to 100 (higher is easier; 60–70 is plain English) and the Flesch–Kincaid grade is a US school grade. These formulas only count sentence and word length, so they miss old-fashioned vocabulary, wordplay and style. That is why our CEFR level, which takes those into account, can be higher than the formula suggests.
What you'll practise
- American dialect and informal speech
- Childhood, school and village life
- Humour and irony
- Phrasal verbs
Reading tip
If the dialect slows you down, read the dialogue aloud — the sounds often make the meaning clear.
Did you know?
The famous fence-painting scene is one of the most quoted passages about persuasion in American literature.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: a part-by-part guide
Contains spoilers. Read one part of the book, then come back to check you followed it.
Chapters 1–5: Tom, the fence and Sunday school
Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly, his half-brother Sid and his cousin Mary in the small river town of St. Petersburg. As punishment, Tom must whitewash a long fence on a Saturday. He pretends the job is fun, and the other boys give him their treasures for a turn with the brush. He falls in love with a new girl, Becky Thatcher. At Sunday school he trades for tickets to win a Bible, but he cannot answer an easy question. In church, a beetle and a dog cause laughter.
Chapters 6–10: Huck, Becky and the graveyard
Tom meets Huckleberry Finn, a free and ragged boy, who carries a dead cat to cure warts. At school Tom sits next to Becky, and they become secretly engaged, but she is hurt when she learns about his old girlfriend, Amy Lawrence. At midnight Tom and Huck go to the graveyard. They see Doctor Robinson, Muff Potter and Injun Joe. A fight starts, and Injun Joe kills the doctor. He then makes the drunk Potter believe that Potter did it. The terrified boys swear in writing never to tell.
Chapters 11–17: Pirates on Jackson's Island
Muff Potter is arrested for the murder, and Tom's guilty secret keeps him awake at night. Becky is ill and stays away from school, so Tom becomes sad, and Aunt Polly tries many cures on him. Tom, Huck and Joe Harper run away to Jackson's Island to live as pirates. The town thinks the boys have drowned. One night Tom secretly visits home and hears his family crying. Later the three boys walk into church in the middle of their own funeral.
Chapters 18–22: School troubles and a noble act
Tom tells Aunt Polly about a dream, but she later learns he really heard everything that night at home. Tom and Becky argue, and Tom feels jealous of Alfred Temple. Becky accidentally tears a page in the schoolmaster's private book. When Mr. Dobbins asks who did it, Tom shouts that he did and takes her punishment. On examination day the boys get revenge on the master with a cat and his wig. A dull summer follows, and Tom catches the measles.
Chapters 23–24: The trial of Muff Potter
Muff Potter goes on trial for the murder of Doctor Robinson, and everyone expects him to be hanged. Tom and Huck have visited him in jail and feel terribly guilty. At the trial, Tom is called as a surprise witness. He tells the court what really happened in the graveyard. Before he finishes, Injun Joe jumps through a window and escapes. Potter is freed and Tom becomes a hero, but at night he is afraid that Injun Joe will come back for him.
Chapters 25–28: Hunting for treasure
Tom and Huck decide to dig for buried treasure. In an old haunted house they hide upstairs and see Injun Joe, now dressed as a deaf and dumb Spaniard, with a partner. The men dig up a box of gold coins. Injun Joe plans to hide it at Number Two, under the cross, and talks about revenge. The boys search the town's taverns. In Room Number Two, Tom finds Injun Joe drunk and asleep, but there is no sign of the box.
Chapters 29–32: The picnic and the cave
Becky has a picnic, and the children explore McDougal's cave. Meanwhile Huck follows Injun Joe and his partner to the house of the Widow Douglas, where Joe plans a cruel revenge. Huck runs for help to an old Welshman, who chases the men away. Tom and Becky are lost deep in the cave. Their candles burn out and they grow weak with hunger. Tom sees Injun Joe in the dark. Finally, using a kite-line, Tom finds a small hole and they escape.
Chapters 33–Conclusion: Rich at last
Tom learns that Judge Thatcher has locked the cave door with iron, and he says that Injun Joe is inside. The men find him dead near the door. Tom guesses that the treasure is hidden in the cave, and he and Huck find it under a cross. It is a little over twelve thousand dollars. The Widow Douglas takes Huck into her home, but he hates clean clothes and rules and runs away. Tom persuades him to return so he can join Tom's robber gang.
Main characters
- Tom Sawyer: A clever, playful boy who loves adventure and often gets into trouble, but who is brave when it matters.
- Huckleberry Finn: A homeless boy with no rules or school, who becomes Tom's loyal partner in adventure.
- Aunt Polly: Tom's kind old aunt, who raises him and tries to punish him but loves him too much to be strict.
- Becky Thatcher: The judge's daughter, a new girl in town whom Tom loves and who gets lost with him in the cave.
- Injun Joe: A dangerous, revengeful man who murders Doctor Robinson and later finds and hides a box of gold.
- Muff Potter: A weak, drunken man who is wrongly blamed for the murder in the graveyard.
- Sid: Tom's quiet younger half-brother, who behaves well and likes to get Tom into trouble.
- Joe Harper: Tom's close friend, who runs away with him and Huck to be a pirate on Jackson's Island.
Words to learn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Each example sentence is copied from the book, so you will meet these words in exactly this form.
| Word | Meaning | In the book |
|---|---|---|
| whitewash | a white liquid paint made from lime, used on fences and walls | Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. |
| melancholy | a deep, quiet sadness | He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. |
| reluctance | the feeling of not wanting to do something | Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. |
| covet | to want something very much, especially something another person has | in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. |
| obliged | forced or required to do something | Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. |
| mischief | bad but usually not serious behaviour, especially by children | You been into some other audacious mischief when I wasn’t around, like enough. |
| conscience | the inner feeling that tells you whether you are doing right or wrong | Tom’s fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep for as much as a week after this |
| envy | the feeling of wanting what someone else has | The boys were all eaten up with envy |
| revenge | hurting someone because they hurt you before | there was resentment in his heart, too, and a craving for revenge. |
| superstition | a belief in magic or luck that is not based on reason | The truth was, that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible. |
| labyrinth | a confusing system of paths where it is easy to get lost | McDougal’s cave was but a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and out again and led nowhere. |
| gratitude | the feeling of being thankful | the surprise, the gratitude, the adoration that shone upon him out of poor Becky’s eyes seemed pay enough for a hundred floggings. |
Famous lines
Spare the rod and spile the child, as the Good Book says.
Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
Tom, Tom, we’re lost! we’re lost! We never can get out of this awful place! Oh, why did we ever leave the others!
Because I had its big door sheathed with boiler iron two weeks ago, and triple-locked—and I’ve got the keys.
Looky-here, Tom, being rich ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. It’s just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead all the time.
Questions for discussion
Good for a book club, a class, or writing practice: answer one question in five sentences.
- How does Tom get the other boys to whitewash the fence, and what does this tell us about people?
- Tom and Huck promise never to tell what they saw in the graveyard. Was Tom right to break that promise at the trial? Why?
- Why do you think Tom takes Becky's punishment for the torn book? What does this show about his character?
- Aunt Polly punishes Tom but also loves him very much. How does the book show both of these feelings?
- Huck says that being rich is not as good as people think. Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
- Which of Tom's adventures would you most like to have, and which would scare you the most?
The PageWalker adventure
In the adventure you are Tom — and in McDougal's Cave every turn matters. You can try the first page in your browser, and the adventure is available in 13 languages with click-to-translate.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in other languages
- EnglishThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- العربيةمغامرات توم سوير
- DeutschDie Abenteuer des Tom Sawyer
- EspañolLas Aventuras de Tom Sawyer
- FrançaisLes Aventures de Tom Sawyer
- हिन्दीटॉम सौयर के कारनामे
- ItalianoLe avventure di Tom Sawyer
- 日本語トム・ソーヤーの冒険
- 한국어톰 소여의 모험
- PortuguêsAs Aventuras de Tom Sawyer
- РусскийПриключения Тома Сойера
- TürkçeTom Sawyer'ın Maceraları
- 简体中文汤姆·索亚历险记
Questions about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
What reading level is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?
We suggest CEFR B1–B2 for reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain's narration is warm and funny, and the episodes are short and full of action. On readability formulas the English text scores a Flesch Reading Ease of 80.9 and a Flesch–Kincaid grade of 5.6, with an average of 14.5 words per sentence.
How long is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876) is about 70,000 words.
Can I play The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as an interactive adventure?
Yes. In the adventure you are Tom — and in McDougal's Cave every turn matters. You can try the first page in your browser, in 13 languages.
Updated 16 October 2026
