Mark Twain's Fiction

Mark Twain’s fiction uses humour, vernacular speech, and adventure to question pretension and inherited assumptions. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer depicts childhood within a Mississippi River town, while Adventures of Huckleberry Finn sets a journey down the river against the injustice of slavery and the demands of friendship. The Prince and the Pauper tests judgments founded on clothing and rank; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court combines historical fantasy with satire. Shorter works such as The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg examine public reputations for virtue. The comedy frequently depends on a narrator revealing more than he intends.