马克.吐温 Mark Twain
By Mark Twain
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
这本小说里的冒险故事确曾发生过。其中，有一两件是我自己的亲身经历，另外一些都是我少年时的同学们的。汤姆和哈克·费恩这两个人物形象都取材于生活，所不同的是： 汤姆是我认识的三个孩子的化身，是多个人物的混合体。
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual--he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.
书中述及的一些迷信，稀奇古怪。三四十年前，在西部的孩子们和奴隶们当中，它们甚为流行。
The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story--that is to say, thirty or forty years ago.
我写这本小说主要是为了娱乐孩子们，但我也希望大人们不要因为这是本儿童读的书就将它束之高阁。 此外，我还试图想让那些成年人从书中想起当年的他们，那时的情感、思想、言谈以及一些令人不可思议的作法。
Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.
是为序。
THE AUTHOR.
１８７６年作者于哈特福德
HARTFORD, 1876.