diff --git a/pelican/readers.py b/pelican/readers.py
index 431e6937..954ea412 100644
--- a/pelican/readers.py
+++ b/pelican/readers.py
@@ -21,10 +21,7 @@ try:
     from html import escape
 except ImportError:
     from cgi import escape
-try:
-    from html.parser import HTMLParser
-except ImportError:
-    from HTMLParser import HTMLParser
+from six.moves.html_parser import HTMLParser
 
 from pelican import signals
 from pelican.contents import Page, Category, Tag, Author
@@ -43,7 +40,6 @@ METADATA_PROCESSORS = {
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-
 class BaseReader(object):
     """Base class to read files.
 
@@ -231,7 +227,11 @@ class HTMLReader(BaseReader):
 
     class _HTMLParser(HTMLParser):
         def __init__(self, settings, filename):
-            HTMLParser.__init__(self)
+            try:
+                # Python 3.4+
+                HTMLParser.__init__(self, convert_charrefs=False)
+            except TypeError:
+                HTMLParser.__init__(self)
             self.body = ''
             self.metadata = {}
             self.settings = settings
diff --git a/pelican/tools/pelican_import.py b/pelican/tools/pelican_import.py
index 7c8662c9..a50aa216 100755
--- a/pelican/tools/pelican_import.py
+++ b/pelican/tools/pelican_import.py
@@ -4,11 +4,10 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals, print_function
 import argparse
 try:
-    # py3k import
-    from html.parser import HTMLParser
+    from html import unescape  # py3.4+
 except ImportError:
-    # py2 import
-    from HTMLParser import HTMLParser  # NOQA
+    from six.moves.html_parser import HTMLParser
+    unescape = HTMLParser().unescape
 import os
 import re
 import subprocess
@@ -129,7 +128,7 @@ def wp2fields(xml, wp_custpost=False):
 
             try:
                 # Use HTMLParser due to issues with BeautifulSoup 3
-                title = HTMLParser().unescape(item.title.contents[0])
+                title = unescape(item.title.contents[0])
             except IndexError:
                 title = 'No title [%s]' % item.find('post_name').string
                 logger.warning('Post "%s" is lacking a proper title' % title)