The sun shines on Tom Sawyer. The idealized childhood of this fictional hero, based on Mark Twain's own early life along the banks of the Mississippi, is filled with robust good humor and high-spirited adventures. Yet there is also an in-depth experience of the central South and of the 1840's--its dialects, superstitions, and social values. While romping through fun-filled fantasy, Tom Sawyer shows how morally complicated life can be.