Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer A 3 page essay that discusses Twain's Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain's most famous book is Huckleberry Finn and critics agree that it is a greater literary achievement than its predecessor The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). However, this work, which Twain referred to as a "hymn" to boyhood, has always been more widely read than Huck (Rasmussen 216). A factor in Tom Sawyer's perennial popularity is undoubtedly due to the fact that this novel demonstrates the social, physical and emotional struggles of the human maturation process, as the reader follows Tom's growth throughout the narrative. Bibliography lists 5 sources.