The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Painting the fence, the cave and Injun Joe.
6 hr 52 min · read by Michael Lyons
0:00
4:28
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Author
Mark Twain
The American humorist who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
1835–1910 LiteraryChildren's StorySatire
About
Who was Mark Twain?
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens, the great American humorist and the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
His life
Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, around the time of Halley's Comet, and grew up in Hannibal on the Mississippi River. He was a printer, a riverboat pilot, a silver miner and a newspaper reporter in the West. His pen name comes from the river: 'mark twain' meant two fathoms, safe water.
His books
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865) made him known. Roughing It tells of his years in the Wild West. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) drew on his boyhood, and Ernest Hemingway said all modern American literature comes from Huck Finn. He toured the world as a speaker, and died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910, as Halley's Comet returned, just as he had predicted.
All right, then, I'll go to hell.
New to Mark Twain?
Start here
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Painting the fence, the cave and Injun Joe.
6 hr 52 min · read by Michael Lyons 
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck and Jim on the raft. Our most-played Twain.
9 hr 24 min · read by Michael Lyons
0:00
4:38
The Jumping Frog
The short story that made him famous.
17 min · read by Mike Polischuk
0:00
4:14
Audiobooks
Listen to Mark Twain
Is Shakespeare Dead?
Narrated by Tony J Martin
Mark Twain does not think Shakespeare wrote the plays, and he says so in this long essay. He looks at the little that is known about the man from Stratford and asks how s...
0:00
4:55
Roughing It
Narrated by Jim Foster
Stagecoaches, silver strikes, and tall tales: Mark Twain’s riotous chronicle of the American West, brought to life by Jim Foster’s warm narration. A classic blend of trav...
0:00
4:11
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Narrated by Michael Lyons
A runaway boy and a man seeking freedom drift down the Mississippi in Twain’s hilarious, subversive classic. Michael Lyons’s narration brings its wit, adventure, and mora...
0:00
4:38
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Narrated by Michael Lyons
Tom Sawyer lives in St. Petersburg, a sleepy town on the Mississippi, with his Aunt Polly. He skips school, plays hooky, gets punished with whitewashing a fence and talks...
0:00
4:28
The Jumping Frog
Narrated by Mike Polischuk
A stranger asks old Simon Wheeler about a man named Jim Smiley. Wheeler launches into a long, slow story of Smiley, who would bet on anything, including his frog Dan'l We...
0:00
4:14
The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories
Narrated by Mike Polischuk
In an Austrian village in 1590, three boys meet a young stranger who calls himself Satan. He shows them wonders and tells them what he thinks of the human race. It is amo...
0:00
4:32
The Prince and the Pauper
Narrated by Joe Reeder
In sixteenth-century London, two boys of the same age and the same face are born on the same day. One, Edward, is the Prince of Wales. The other, Tom Canty, is a beggar....
0:00
1:40
Life in dates
Mark Twain's life
- 1835
Samuel Clemens is born in Florida, Missouri.
- 1859
Becomes a licensed Mississippi riverboat pilot.
- 1865
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
- 1872
Roughing It.
- 1876
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
- 1884
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
- 1910
Dies in Redding, Connecticut.
Questions
Questions about Mark Twain
Where does the name Mark Twain come from?
It's a riverboat call meaning two fathoms deep, the line of safe water. Clemens had been a Mississippi pilot.
Should I read Tom Sawyer before Huckleberry Finn?
It helps. Huck Finn picks up where Tom Sawyer ends, but each stands on its own.
Which Mark Twain audiobook is best for kids?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, or the short Jumping Frog story.
Where can I listen to Mark Twain audiobooks narrated by real people?
Academy Voices has 8 Mark Twain audiobooks, each performed by a real narrator, with a free sample on every one. Every recording is Certified Human Voice.
Reviewed October 2026 by the Academy Voices team. Sources: Wikipedia, Wikidata .
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