Tom Sawyer abroad ; Tom Sawyer, detective

Summary: These unjustly neglected works are among the most enjoyable of Mark Twain's novels. Tom Sawyer Abroad sets the three characters so popular in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn--Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Jim--and sends them on a balloon trip to Africa. The balloon has wings and fans which can propel it a hundred miles an hour in still air and three hundred miles an hour with a stiff tail wind. Tom is again the manager, the one with information and imagination. Huck is still the one with a literal mind and common sense, and Jim, though the oldest, is once more the most limited in experience and the most burdened by superstition. Tom Sawyer, Detective is not only a detective story but also a burlesque of detective stories. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn perform throughout as a youthful imitation of the immensely popular Sherlock Holmes, with Huck as a counterpart of Dr. Watson. To everyone's wonderment Tom deduces who the murderer is, and Huck catches the spirit of the whole when he says "Well, sir, if there'd been a brass band to bust out some music, then, it would 'a' been just the perfectest thing I ever see, and Tom Sawyer he said the same."