diff --git a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpResponseHandler.java b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpResponseHandler.java
index b17353063..4ea36bf7d 100644
--- a/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpResponseHandler.java
+++ b/src/com/loopj/android/http/AsyncHttpResponseHandler.java
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
 import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
 import org.apache.http.StatusLine;
-import org.apache.http.client.HttpResponseException;
 import org.apache.http.entity.BufferedHttpEntity;
 import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;
 
@@ -193,20 +192,24 @@ protected Message obtainMessage(int responseMessage, Object response) {
     // Interface to AsyncHttpRequest
     void sendResponseMessage(HttpResponse response) {
         StatusLine status = response.getStatusLine();
+        String responseBody = null;
+        try {
+            HttpEntity entity = null;
+            HttpEntity temp = response.getEntity();
+            if(temp != null) {
+                entity = new BufferedHttpEntity(temp);
+            }
+            responseBody = EntityUtils.toString(entity);
+        } catch(IOException e) {
+            sendFailureMessage(e);
+        }
+
         if(status.getStatusCode() >= 300) {
-            sendFailureMessage(new HttpResponseException(status.getStatusCode(), status.getReasonPhrase()));
+            sendFailureMessage(new HttpResponseException(status.getStatusCode(),
+                                                         status.getReasonPhrase(),
+                                                         responseBody));
         } else {
-            try {
-                HttpEntity entity = null;
-                HttpEntity temp = response.getEntity();
-                if(temp != null) {
-                    entity = new BufferedHttpEntity(temp);
-                }
-
-                sendSuccessMessage(EntityUtils.toString(entity));
-            } catch(IOException e) {
-                sendFailureMessage(e);
-            }
+            sendSuccessMessage(responseBody);
         }
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/src/com/loopj/android/http/HttpResponseException.java b/src/com/loopj/android/http/HttpResponseException.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3f4806f4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/com/loopj/android/http/HttpResponseException.java
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+/*
+    Android Asynchronous Http Client
+    Copyright (c) 2011 James Smith <james@loopj.com>
+    http://loopj.com
+
+    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+    you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+    You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+        http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+    WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+    See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+    limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package com.loopj.android.http;
+
+/**
+ * Custom exception class, that inherits from
+ * org.apache.http.client.HttpResponseException, but includes HTTP response body.
+ */
+public class HttpResponseException extends org.apache.http.client.HttpResponseException {
+    private String responseBody = null;
+    public HttpResponseException(int statusCode, String s, String responseBody) {
+        super(statusCode, s);
+        this.responseBody = responseBody;
+    }
+
+    public String getResponseBody() {
+        return responseBody;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/com/loopj/android/http/JsonHttpResponseHandler.java b/src/com/loopj/android/http/JsonHttpResponseHandler.java
index 51c2093eb..bd1b227cc 100644
--- a/src/com/loopj/android/http/JsonHttpResponseHandler.java
+++ b/src/com/loopj/android/http/JsonHttpResponseHandler.java
@@ -57,6 +57,21 @@ public void onSuccess(JSONObject response) {}
      */
     public void onSuccess(JSONArray response) {}
 
+    /**
+     * Fired when a request fails to complete but valid JSON response body was
+     * returned by server, override to handle in your own code.
+     * @param error the underlying cause of the failure
+     * @param response response the parsed json object found in the server response (if any)
+     */
+    public void onFailure(Throwable error, JSONObject response) {}
+
+    /**
+     * Fired when a request fails to complete but valid JSON response body was
+     * returned by server, override to handle in your own code.
+     * @param error the underlying cause of the failure
+     * @param response response the parsed json array found in the server response (if any)
+     */
+    public void onFailure(Throwable error, JSONArray response) {}
 
     // Utility methods
     @Override
@@ -75,6 +90,25 @@ protected void handleSuccessMessage(String responseBody) {
         }
     }
 
+    // Utility methods
+    protected void handleFailureMessage(Throwable e) {
+        super.handleFailureMessage(e);
+
+        if (e.getClass() == com.loopj.android.http.HttpResponseException.class) {
+            try {
+                Object jsonResponse = parseResponse(((HttpResponseException) e).getResponseBody());
+                if(jsonResponse instanceof JSONObject) {
+                    onFailure(e, (JSONObject)jsonResponse);
+                } else if(jsonResponse instanceof JSONArray) {
+                    onFailure(e, (JSONArray)jsonResponse);
+                }
+            } catch(JSONException je) {
+                onFailure(je);
+            }
+        }
+        onFailure(e);
+    }
+
     protected Object parseResponse(String responseBody) throws JSONException {
         return new JSONTokener(responseBody).nextValue();
     }