Unfortunately,

is not one of Mark Twain’s best efforts. Perhaps this impression is due to the reason it was conceived in the first place: the story was written at a time when Twain desperately needed money; in fact, the work was published as a book on the date that his publishing firm Webster and Country filed for bankruptcy. The project was initiated by a request from Mary Mapes Dodge, editor of the

, a publication for children. She had offered Twain five thousand dollars for a story of 50,000 word which he considered to be a rather modest offer. He took the offer, but the manuscript is much shorter than 50,000 words.

Twain may have taken the idea for his story from a notebook notation he had made in 1868 about a balloon adventure that had

1316 words

Citation: Loges, Max Lester. "Tom Sawyer Abroad". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 August 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8395, accessed 25 November 2024.]