I've read and reviewed the two books collected here separately, so this is basically for my own records. Notable to this edition is the very interesting introduction, which places the writing of the two books in a period where Twain's own ethical development was coming to more fully understand the influence of slavery on American life. When I read Tom Sawyer, a little while back, I commented that the whole book had a predominant flavour of nostalgia. Given that much of it is drawn from Twain's own childhood experiences in Missouri, that's understandable - but that preoccupation with childish things led to a book that glossed over the reality of slavery at the time, and how it existed in Tom's life (and by extension, child-Twain's). Ten years later, and married to a woman from a family of abolitionists, Twain, so the introduction argues, regretted that glossing over as a product of his own ignorance, and actively tried to create a novel in which slavery was more thoroughly interrogated. It was a clear, well-argued introduction, and I'm glad I read it - it's provided a lot of context to the books that I didn't have before.

The rating for the collection is, as always, the average of the individual ratings.