The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer would rather do anything than what he is told, which is how he cons half the neighborhood boys into paying him for the privilege of whitewashing his aunt's fence. Twain's small Missouri town on the Mississippi is a paradise of pranks, superstitions, first love with Becky Thatcher, and pirate games on the river with Huckleberry Finn, the envy of every respectable boy because nobody makes him wash.

Then one midnight errand to a graveyard shows Tom and Huck something no game prepared them for, and the book tilts from comedy toward real danger, with a trial, a manhunt, a labyrinthine cave, and buried treasure. Twain narrates it all with the dry adult wink that has kept this book alive for 150 years; it may be the most purely pleasurable few hours in American literature.

At roughly 72,400 words, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer runs about 8 hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The edition linked here is available from Project Gutenberg under its US public-domain listing. Check the edition, translation, completeness and copyright rules where you live. LoudReader lets you browse and download Gutenberg books; they are not all stored on installation. To listen:

1. Install LoudReader on iPhone or iPad, or its iPad app on a compatible Apple Silicon Mac.
2. Search for “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

Speech is generated locally without uploading the book for narration. Download the book and check your chosen voice before travelling offline. Available voices depend on your device; check the in-app voice list. Try every available voice for your first 8 hours of listening. Afterwards, keep a free English voice selection and unlimited book listening. No LoudReader account or word quota.