by Mark Twain

Here we have Twain’s most enduring book, no matter how you skin it: whether you’re approaching it in childhood as an adventure story, later in life as one of satire, or perhaps as a tale of the emergence of conscience in defiance of a nation’s political realities. It’s frequently paired with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but it’s telling that contemporary writers who have revisited Twain’s characters tend to cast Sawyer in a less glowing role. And nearly any novel where, more than a century after its release, still prompts heated arguments over its meaning is likely doing something right.