Tom Sawyer, Detective
Encyclopedia
Tom Sawyer, Detective is an 1896
novel by Mark Twain
. It is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(1884), and Tom Sawyer Abroad
(1894). Tom Sawyer attempts to solve a mysterious murder in this burlesque of the immensely popular detective novels of the time. Like the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn.
. Blicher's work had been translated into German, but not into English, and Twain's secretary wrote Mr. Thoresen a letter, stating, "Mr. Clemens is not familiar with Danish and does not read German fluently, and has not read the book you mention, nor any translation or adaptation of it that he is aware of. The matter constituting 'Tom Sawyer, Detective,' is original with Mr. Clemens, who has never been consciously a plagiarist."
In fact, if the story were taken from any tale, it would actually be from a real one—in an introductory passage, Twain notes
1896 in literature
The year 1896 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* Final volume of Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West....
novel by Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
. It is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the Town of "St...
(1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written in the vernacular, characterized by...
(1884), and Tom Sawyer Abroad
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Tom Sawyer Abroad is a novel by Mark Twain published in 1894. It features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of Jules Verne-esque adventure stories.-Plot:...
(1894). Tom Sawyer attempts to solve a mysterious murder in this burlesque of the immensely popular detective novels of the time. Like the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn.
Film adaptations
- In 19381938 in filmThe year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
, the novel was made into a film directed by Louis KingLouis KingLouis King was an American actor and movie director of westerns and adventure movies in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. He was born on June 28, 1898 in Christiansburg, Virginia....
, starring Billy Cook as Tom and Donald O'ConnorDonald O'ConnorDonald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...
as Huckleberry FinnHuckleberry Finn (character)Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain, who first appeared in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He is 12 or 13 years old during the former and a year older at the time of the latter...
. - A similar incarnation of Tom Sawyer appeared in the film version of The League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a 2003 superhero film adaptation loosely based on characters from the comic book limited series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, who is also famous for Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell. It was released on July 11, 2003, in the...
, set three years after the publication of this novel with the character one year older than his age in this novel, which is 17. In the novelization of the filmThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (novel)The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a 2003 steampunk/adventure novel by Kevin J. Anderson. It is a novelization of the script of the movie of the same name, written by James Dale Robinson, which itself was based on the comic by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill.-Background:In late 2002, Anderson...
, Sawyer mentions that he once worked as a detective.
Controversy
In 1909, Danish schoolmaster Valdemar Thoresen claimed, in an article in the magazine Maaneds, that the plot of the book had been plagiarized from Steen Blicher's story The Vicar of WeilbyThe Rector of Veilbye
The Rector of Veilbye , is a crime mystery written in 1829 by Danish author Steen Steensen Blicher. The novella is based upon a true murder case from 1626 in Vejlby, Denmark which Blicher knew partly from Erik Pontoppidan's Danish Church History , and partly through oral tradition...
. Blicher's work had been translated into German, but not into English, and Twain's secretary wrote Mr. Thoresen a letter, stating, "Mr. Clemens is not familiar with Danish and does not read German fluently, and has not read the book you mention, nor any translation or adaptation of it that he is aware of. The matter constituting 'Tom Sawyer, Detective,' is original with Mr. Clemens, who has never been consciously a plagiarist."
In fact, if the story were taken from any tale, it would actually be from a real one—in an introductory passage, Twain notes
External links
- Tom Sawyer Abroad / Tom Sawyer, Detective, University of California Press, 2004.
- Full Text of "Tom Sawyer, Detective online at Mark Twain Classics
- Tom Sawyer, Detective, online at Ye Olde Library