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Pudd'nhead Wilson and Other Tales
Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) was Mark Twain's last serious work of fiction, and perhaps the only real novel that he ever produced. Written in a more sombre vein than his other Mississippi writings, the novel reveals the sinister forces that Mark Twain felt to be threatening the American dream. In spite of a plot which includes child swapping, palmistry, and a pair of Italian twins, this astringent work also raises the serious issue of racial differences.
This volume also includes two other late works Those Extraordinary Twins and The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.
This volume also includes two other late works Those Extraordinary Twins and The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 26, 2009
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About the author
Mark Twain
9,013 books18.8k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 9, 2021
Twain at his best is possibly my favourite 19th Century writer.
Pudd'nhead Wilson is a novel with an ingenious plot that is full of bitter ironies. Good intentions often lead to disaster and the ostensible hero, the lawyer of the title, ends up creating an accidental injustice when he succeeds against the odds at securing justice in a courtroom. There are subplots that feed into the main plot and the velocity and complexity of the story is remarkable. It is also a satire against racial prejudice and although many of the terms used here are uncomfortable, there is never a shadow of a doubt about Twain's committed opposition to racism.
The two novellas also included in this volume are wonderful satires, cynical and misanthropic, often grotesque and absurd, and very entertaining.
Pudd'nhead Wilson is a novel with an ingenious plot that is full of bitter ironies. Good intentions often lead to disaster and the ostensible hero, the lawyer of the title, ends up creating an accidental injustice when he succeeds against the odds at securing justice in a courtroom. There are subplots that feed into the main plot and the velocity and complexity of the story is remarkable. It is also a satire against racial prejudice and although many of the terms used here are uncomfortable, there is never a shadow of a doubt about Twain's committed opposition to racism.
The two novellas also included in this volume are wonderful satires, cynical and misanthropic, often grotesque and absurd, and very entertaining.
January 2, 2019
As much as I'd love to love this - and there's enough of vintage Twain here to enjoy - two of the three stories chronicled here are a bit too flawed for blind fanboy praise to persevere.
Included in the collection is a short note of Twain himself in which he explains that Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins used to be one big story that got out of control and therefore had to be split up into two separate pieces, which also helps to explain exactly why they seem to lack something. The two pieces feel rushed, under-developed, and especially in Pudd'nhead Wilson there are still some editing errors and strange narrative jumps that seem to be the result of this separation. Most strikingly, the origin story of the titular character's nickname of "Pudd'nhead" (for remarking that he wished he owned half of an annoyingly barking dog so that he could kill his own half, which people found so foolish when they considered the fate of the other half that they granted him said nickname) actually seems to foreshadow the eventual fate of the twins in the markedly different other short story.
Add to that the unbelievably cardboard-villainous evil of the novel’s main voice (that of Tom Driscoll), the somewhat suspect racial second reading of nature vs. nurture (although dismissed in the introductory essay as pure speculation and probably not really meant to be understood in that manner, it still doesn’t really sit well), and – something I can’t fault Twain for – a major plot resolution twist that anyone born in the modern age of police work and crime series can guess within the span of the first few pages, and you’re left with a somewhat sub-par short story by Twain.
The other half of this cut up story (half a dog, hyuk huyk), Those Extraordinary Twins, starts off alright but turns out to be somewhat of a one trick pony and simply peters out by the end, with Twain even intervening to state that he took out part of the romantic side-plot because it was "long and sufficiently idiotic".
The real gem here is The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg. Even though it’s the stortest one of the bunch, I found it be a sharp and hugely enjoyable moral fable.
Included in the collection is a short note of Twain himself in which he explains that Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins used to be one big story that got out of control and therefore had to be split up into two separate pieces, which also helps to explain exactly why they seem to lack something. The two pieces feel rushed, under-developed, and especially in Pudd'nhead Wilson there are still some editing errors and strange narrative jumps that seem to be the result of this separation. Most strikingly, the origin story of the titular character's nickname of "Pudd'nhead" (for remarking that he wished he owned half of an annoyingly barking dog so that he could kill his own half, which people found so foolish when they considered the fate of the other half that they granted him said nickname) actually seems to foreshadow the eventual fate of the twins in the markedly different other short story.
Add to that the unbelievably cardboard-villainous evil of the novel’s main voice (that of Tom Driscoll), the somewhat suspect racial second reading of nature vs. nurture (although dismissed in the introductory essay as pure speculation and probably not really meant to be understood in that manner, it still doesn’t really sit well), and – something I can’t fault Twain for – a major plot resolution twist that anyone born in the modern age of police work and crime series can guess within the span of the first few pages, and you’re left with a somewhat sub-par short story by Twain.
The other half of this cut up story (half a dog, hyuk huyk), Those Extraordinary Twins, starts off alright but turns out to be somewhat of a one trick pony and simply peters out by the end, with Twain even intervening to state that he took out part of the romantic side-plot because it was "long and sufficiently idiotic".
The real gem here is The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg. Even though it’s the stortest one of the bunch, I found it be a sharp and hugely enjoyable moral fable.
February 14, 2016
I don't know why I was surprised at how clever, radical and funny this book was-that is what Mark Twain is famous for! I loved Puddin'head Wilson! What a story.
November 5, 2010
I'm a big Mark Twain fan and I enjoyed this book no less and probably more than some of his others! I love Twain's humor and sarcasm and how it frames racial and moral disputes of his time. This particular work is about a slave woman who is mostly white, but the fraction of Negro blood in her keeps her enslaved. She is a mother to a baby who is even less "colored" and cares for the Master's baby who is about the same age. She decides to give her own son a chance for a better life, and swaps the two babies so that the Master's son is raised as a slave and her own son is given every opportunity riches and whiteness can give him. The story follows her true son into adulthood where we see the result of her actions.
August 21, 2014
The language is a bit hard to get into at fast, but then becomes easier once you get into the grove of reading it.
It contains tons of thought-provoking themes on society, especially nature vs. nurture.
For me, "Those Extraordinary Twins" is probably the most hilarious part of the Pudd'nhead Wilson' storyline. That farce is worth a read because it seems quite outrageous and unbelievable. Still, it's stories like those that make me fall in love with Twain's writing.
It contains tons of thought-provoking themes on society, especially nature vs. nurture.
For me, "Those Extraordinary Twins" is probably the most hilarious part of the Pudd'nhead Wilson' storyline. That farce is worth a read because it seems quite outrageous and unbelievable. Still, it's stories like those that make me fall in love with Twain's writing.
February 22, 2008
Fingerprinting Merit Badge ruined the end of this book for me.
But it's a good book. Twain's irony and sarcasm at it's best.
But it's a good book. Twain's irony and sarcasm at it's best.
April 27, 2010
I was bored with the book and its author, in his defece he had some good prose.
Read
November 23, 2010great little read
May 30, 2011
Puddnhead is, hands down, my favorite Twain tale. It's his funniest, most convoluted story, dealing with an impossibly fascinating topic.
May 16, 2012
I really didn't think I would enjoy this book....why did I ever think that?! AMAZING!!!! loved it.
November 3, 2013
19th century humor that is still very entertaining in 2013! This is a keeper to have our kids read one day.
July 30, 2014
Classic work complicating questions of slavery and racial identity.
June 11, 2020
Part gothic American tragedy, part detective story, part satire. This is an interesting Twain book to pick up in light of our current American racial climate.
November 19, 2022
Den svenska titeln blev "En droppe negerblod" och här lyser författarens rasism igenom.
Det kan man tycka mycket om. Men även Mark Twain var ett barn av sin tid.
Och visst lyser medkänslan med de svarta igenom. Ibland. Fast skrivningen "negrer och andra djur" låter....inte bra.
Jag läste den först som Illustrerad klassiker (serietidning!) och boken lägger faktiskt inte till mycket. Förutom Pudd'nheads aforismer i början av varje kapitel. Ex "Han var så omtyckt, att t o m begravningsentreprenören sörjde hans död".
Annars är intrigen mycket välgjord och spännande. Fingeravtryck spelar en viktig roll. Översättningen till svenska (1924) är sådär. Roxy sitter på en ljuslåda - vad är det? Och ostron i singularis skrives "ett ostra"(?).
Det kan man tycka mycket om. Men även Mark Twain var ett barn av sin tid.
Och visst lyser medkänslan med de svarta igenom. Ibland. Fast skrivningen "negrer och andra djur" låter....inte bra.
Jag läste den först som Illustrerad klassiker (serietidning!) och boken lägger faktiskt inte till mycket. Förutom Pudd'nheads aforismer i början av varje kapitel. Ex "Han var så omtyckt, att t o m begravningsentreprenören sörjde hans död".
Annars är intrigen mycket välgjord och spännande. Fingeravtryck spelar en viktig roll. Översättningen till svenska (1924) är sådär. Roxy sitter på en ljuslåda - vad är det? Och ostron i singularis skrives "ett ostra"(?).
January 1, 2022
These were pretty interesting stories about rural, old-fashioned America. I liked the interesting stories involving the conjoined twins. I liked Twain's understanding of what makes people fallible, morally.
April 22, 2024
Pudd'nhead Wilson - 3.5/5, still contains some racist tropes of its time, and quite ambiguous in terms of messaging, but raises some interesting questions about 'nature vs nurture' and differences
Those Extraordinary Twins & The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg -- 2.5/5
Those Extraordinary Twins & The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg -- 2.5/5
May 11, 2023
Definitely a weird one.
October 3, 2023
Many delightful Twainisms.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews