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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)

The novel follows a boy as he moves from one adventurous episode to another while living in frontier rural Missouri along the Mississipi River in the 1840s, as did the author himself. On a deeper level, the novel is concerned with Tom Sawyer’s personal growth and quest for identity.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

This 1884 novel condemning the institutionalized racism of the pre-Civil War South is among the most celebrated works of American fiction. Twain’s story of a runaway boy and an escaped slave’s travels on the Mississippi plumbs the essential meaning of freedom.  

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)

This complex novel is a combination of satire, science fiction, and fantasy. It concerns a Connecticut engineer who is transported back in time to the King Arthur's England. While it met with some mixed reactions when published, it is now considered a remarkable achievement, full of genuine insight and sensitivity to social injustices throughout the ages. Its dark and cynical ending has been cited as evidence of Twain's disenchantment with the promises of technology and progress.

Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)

Set in the pre-Civil War South and written during Twain’s so-called pessimistic period, Pudd’nhead Wilson is a darkly comic work that exposes the wounds of racism in America and the absurdity of judging character based upon class or skin color. At times humorous and at times appalling, the novel is ultimately a condemnation of a racially prejudiced society that was predicated upon the institution of slavery.

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