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Pudd'nhead Wilson

Mark Twain

3.79 · Rating details · 21,387 ratings · 1,282 reviews

At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilson a young slave woman, fearing for her infant's son's life, exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's. From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels. On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery: reversed ...more

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Paperback, 160 pages

Published 1984 by Bantam Classics (first published May 10th 1893)

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Jun 01, 2016 Henry Avila rated it liked it

During the antebellum south on the western shore of the broad, mighty , muddy Mississippi River 2,350 miles long and miles wide, in the golden era of the steamboats ( numbering an astounding 1,200, vessels ) feed by more than a dozen tributaries, they continuously went up and down those waters and entered other streams too. A small , tranquil village named Dawson's Landing stood, half a days travel by boat below St.Louis in the state of Missouri not an important place mind you, yet when an intri During the antebellum south on the western shore of the broad, mighty , muddy Mississippi River 2,350 miles long and miles wide, in the golden era of the steamboats ( numbering an astounding 1,200, vessels ) feed by more than a dozen tributaries, they continuously went up and down those waters and entered other streams too. A small , tranquil village named Dawson's Landing stood, half a days travel by boat below St.Louis in the state of Missouri not an important place mind you, yet when an intriguing stranger, Mr.David Wilson arrives from a distant part of the country, seeking to practice law here things pick up, he hears loud barking from an unseen dog on his first day, annoyed greatly the new lawyer tells some curious leading citizens that if he owned half the animal he Wilson would kill it... Shortly afterwards the influential people in town gather and discuss those quite remarkable silly words by the newcomer, after a short conversation come to the unanimous conclusion this Mr.Wilson is a pudd'nhead (translation, an idiot) the unfortunate man quickly receives that nickname Pudd'nhead, his high hopes for being a successful lawyer collapses , no one will hire this obvious moron...At about the same time two look alike children are born both boys, one to Percy Driscoll, Thomas Driscoll, from a prominent family in old Virginia his poor wife soon expires in the effort, another from a black slave the beautiful Roxana ( no surnames given them) her son, she names Valet de Chambers. The interesting thing is Roxana is white in appearance, only one -sixteenth black which makes Chambers one -thirty -second he had a white father however one drop of blood , will change your life. Roxy who takes care of the children, is afraid she and her baby will he sold and sent down the river to a fearful fate , by her owner Percy Driscoll and switches children Thomas becomes Chambers and Chambers , Thomas, nobody notices the difference, still one has a fabulous life of wealth and privilege the fake Tom, ( doesn't known he's black) is a cruel vindictive, coward the real Tom a kind, generous, forgiving , brave man suffers misery , humiliation and beatings frequently by the impostor yes, treated like a slave.... Mr. Wilson has plenty of time for a hobby between doing odd jobs in accounting and surveying to survive, virtually unknown to the public fingerprinting, a system that can identify anyone by the patterns on the tips of your fingers, he takes the prints of all on a glass in the village, the amused citizens think just another eccentricity of the addle- brained man, then a mystery happens, local robberies occur in the quiet, peaceful town . More fascinating the enigmatic Italian twins , Luigi and Angelo Capello nobles they say, somehow find this tiny community through a newspaper ad and rent a room, the entire Dawson's Landing is thrilled some excitement finally here, later duels, a murder and an old woman who keeps being seen and vanishing at the site of further unexplained, petty robberies ...A fine story that starts as a comedy and then unexpectedly turns serious, telling and showing the tragedy of slavery... Mark Twain wrote about this evil institution and reached the American conscious. ...more

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Feb 26, 2018 mark monday rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: these-fragile-lives, murdertime, masterpiece-theatre, into-the-past

Samuel Langhorne Clemens: I shall write a classic novel, full of my customary barbed wit yet leavened with my compassion for humanity. I shall open the tale with a delightfully wry meta-introduction - before "meta" was even a thing! The wryness shall continue throughout what will be an exciting story of bold misdeeds, uncertain justice, and a compelling and surely very surprising trial. We shall end the tale with evil happily circumvented - but it will be an ending that is also dripping with iro ...more

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Jul 07, 2008 Kressel Housman rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, classics

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has biting social commentary, but Puddin'head Wilson has all-out black humor. It's the story of Roxy, a light-skinned slave woman who successfully switches her even lighter-skinned son with her master's baby, and follows how each one grows up. I would have liked to see more inside the slaves' lives other than from the character of Roxy, but Mark Twain's point was mainly to criticize the spoiled slaveowners. In any case, the courtroom drama in which Puddin'h ...more

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Jul 23, 2017 LaDonna rated it really liked it

Shelves: a-must-read, goodreads, african-american-diaspora, 2017-reading-challenge

WOW!! Without divulging any spoilers, that was my reaction to the last sentence of Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Suffice it to say that the book took several twists and turns that I did not see coming, but each of them definitely kept the story moving.

There was no way I was going to pass on an opportunity to read a book with a premise such a this one: A white man, born free, but switched at 7 months of age to be raised as a slave. A black man, born into slavery, but switched at 7 months of WOW!! Without divulging any spoilers, that was my reaction to the last sentence of Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Suffice it to say that the book took several twists and turns that I did not see coming, but each of them definitely kept the story moving.

There was no way I was going to pass on an opportunity to read a book with a premise such a this one: A white man, born free, but switched at 7 months of age to be raised as a slave. A black man, born into slavery, but switched at 7 months of age to be raised as a slave owner. What a freakin' social experiment!! A devil born to a young couple is measurably recognizable by them as a devil before long, but a devil adopted by an old couple is an angel to them, and remains so, through thick and thin. First published in 1894, Twain manages to truly challenge the idea of nature versus nurture, using both humor and suspnse. (Twain even manages to throw in some forensics science for good measure).

In a the words of Langston Hughes, author of this particular edition's introduction,

In Pudd'nhead Wilson Mark Twain wrote what a later period might have been called in the finest sense of the term, a novel of social significance...Twain minces no words in describing the unfortunate effects of slavery upon the behavior of both Negroes and whites, even upon children.

I am quite sure that most of us read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in an English Lit. class, somewhere along the line. But, personally, I would have loved to have read this one. It has been well over 100 years since Mark Twain created this work; yet, it still speaks to criminality our society condones and the racial prejudices that still exist. Even Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar has an adage that speaks to the importance of embracing differences, It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse-races.

If you have not guessed, this book is definitely on my must-read bookshelf. It will truly leave you wondering: Where do we go from here? And, how can we make things better for everyone?

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not the absence of fear --Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar ...more

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Jan 14, 2020 Sara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

3.5, rounded up. Not my favorite Twain, but quite worth the reading.

Pudd’nhead Wilson is a tragedy masquerading as a farce, or maybe a farce masquerading as a tragedy. As was always true with Twain, he writes comedy that is so cutting that it can barely mask the underlying seriousness of his subject. The subject is slavery, and the farce is necessary, for the tragedy is real.

In this novel, two babies are switched at birth, one a master the other a slave, and through that prism we are able to vie 3.5, rounded up. Not my favorite Twain, but quite worth the reading.

Pudd’nhead Wilson is a tragedy masquerading as a farce, or maybe a farce masquerading as a tragedy. As was always true with Twain, he writes comedy that is so cutting that it can barely mask the underlying seriousness of his subject. The subject is slavery, and the farce is necessary, for the tragedy is real.

In this novel, two babies are switched at birth, one a master the other a slave, and through that prism we are able to view some important contrasts--nature vs. nurture, loyalty vs. betrayal, and a mother’s love vs. a father’s indifference. Twain is at home with this device, as he loves to turn tails on his characters: The Connecticut Yankee who finds himself in another century; the Prince and the Pauper, another set of switched children; even Huck, who finds himself transported from a world in which slavery is the norm to one in which a man can be set free. But this is his most ambitious switch-up, because this switch touches at the core of what makes a man who he is.

Beyond the racial theme is the theme of loyalty and betrayal that is truly stark and brutal. There is one event in the book that makes me shiver, despite the frivolous tone and lightness of the telling. If viewed for even one second in a serious manner, this book would turn your blood to ice water. I have long thought comic genius arises from tragedy, think of Robin Williams or Richard Pryor, or think of Mark Twain. If you know his life, you know it must have very often been the case that he insisted on laughing to prevent crying. I’m not certain there ever existed a sharper wit or a more astute mind.

You know I am going to be partial to anyone who would write this: A home without a cat--and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat--may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?

One of the things I truly enjoyed about this particular novel were the entries into Pudd’nhead’s Calendar. A few examples:

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.

Consider well the proportions of things. It is better to be a young Jane-bug than an old bird of paradise.

There are days when I particularly feel that last one!

One of my favorite characters here was Roxy, the mother who does the switch-a-roo. She is a prime example of the person in charge might not be the person you think, and her quick mind saved the day more than once. Her weakness--that blasted kid.

Glad to have finally read it. Wouldn't really want to have to say there was a Twain I had not experienced. ...more

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Mar 28, 2019 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, 3classics, 2fiction, 1audio

I read this as a teen, so probably 45 years ago. I thought I remembered fairly well. Nope! Oh, I remembered the main points, but it was almost like a new book & really worth reading. This is Twain's answer to nature versus nurture while satirizing race, religion, 'honor', & small town life. While the destination is wonderful, it's the trip that is best.

The story is so well known enough that there will be spoilers in this review.

Tom & Chambers are switched at birth by their nurse who had her bab I read this as a teen, so probably 45 years ago. I thought I remembered fairly well. Nope! Oh, I remembered the main points, but it was almost like a new book & really worth reading. This is Twain's answer to nature versus nurture while satirizing race, religion, 'honor', & small town life. While the destination is wonderful, it's the trip that is best.

The story is so well known enough that there will be spoilers in this review.

Tom & Chambers are switched at birth by their nurse who had her baby the same day as her master's wife. She raises them both & doesn't want to see her son endure a life of slavery, so she swaps them since no one else can tell them apart. Tom is 'white' while Chambers is 1/32 black, thus is 'black' by the 'One Drop' rule & raised as a slave. (IIRC, this is about how much Indian blood Elizabeth Warren claimed.) The white child becomes a spoiled, cowardly, vicious despot while the black one becomes ignorant & servile, but good of heart & strong.

The other main character is David "Pudd'nhead" Wilson. He makes a joke when he first comes to town & it flies so high over the town folks' heads that they think he is serious, thus a pudd'nhead. It takes him 20 years (about 1830-50, the entire course of the novel) & one of his foibles (a hobby of collecting fingerprints) to reclaim his reputation despite the constant evidence of his character & intellect. He does so only through public spectacle.

The use of fingerprints as the crux of the story is long foreshadowed for us, but I'm not sure how obvious it was in 1893 when this was published. It wasn't until about 1860 that fingerprints were documented in our current civilization (Chinese used them in 300BC.) In 1892, an Argentinian cop first used them to nail a murder according to this quick history. I recommend reading it. Interesting.

One of the high points of the novel is each chapter beginning with an aphorism from Pudd'nhead Wilson's calendar, mimicking Poor Richard's. Many of Twain's best known come from this source.

The characters are well voiced by Norman Dietz. Highly recommended. ...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Raymond rated it really liked it

I read this book in a Southern Literature class about 10 years ago. I remember liking the book very much it is short and was a book that I was unaware that Twain had written.

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Mar 25, 2020 Patricia Williams rated it liked it

Read quite a few years back but never forgot it.

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Jul 22, 2012 Joe rated it liked it

Pudd'nhead Wilson is a brisk concoction; mixing adventure, mystery, and social commentary. Mark Twain trains his wit upon the arbitrary nature of 19th-century slave laws and rightfully skewers that wicked institution. But even as Twain's righteous humor often finds the mark, he nearly as often proves his naivete, as when he appears to condone another brutish custom; 'honorable' duels to the death.

Elsewhere, Twain cleverly explains the forensic power of fingerprints (before they were commonly use ...more

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Sep 09, 2012 B. P. Rinehart rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-story-stuff

"There are three infallible ways of pleasing an author, and
the three form a rising scale of compliment: 1—to tell him
you have read one of his books; 2—to tell him you have read
all of his books; 3—to ask him to let you read the
manuscript of his forthcoming book. No. 1 admits you to his
respect; No. 2 admits you to his admiration; No. 3 carries
you clear into his heart." —Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the prin ...more

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Sep 27, 2012 P.V. LeForge rated it it was ok

Although I enjoyed reading Pudd’nhead Wilson, I enjoyed it more because Twain is generally enjoyable rather than because of anything remarkable about the book. In fact, I found the book to be more than a bit ragged. Hindsight is always easy, I know, but the knowledge of how the book came to be written and published points out the book’s flaws in a way that is hard to ignore.

The book was to have been called “Those Extraordinary Twins,” and was to have been a farcical love story between a lightw Although I enjoyed reading Pudd’nhead Wilson, I enjoyed it more because Twain is generally enjoyable rather than because of anything remarkable about the book. In fact, I found the book to be more than a bit ragged. Hindsight is always easy, I know, but the knowledge of how the book came to be written and published points out the book’s flaws in a way that is hard to ignore.

The book was to have been called “Those Extraordinary Twins,” and was to have been a farcical love story between a lightweight heroine named Rowena and one half of a pair of Siamese twins. An interesting idea and one that would not only have leant itself to many humorous opportunities but one that was staple Twain fare at the time. Twain was, after all, known as a humorist; he even called himself a “jackleg” novelist rather than a literary or serious one.

In 1893, Twain had already written all of his best works of long fiction. Although a famous man by that time, he had made several bad investments and, refusing to take advantage of bankruptcy laws, assumed a $100,000.00 debt. Although a world tour helped, the expenses of this tour were in themselves hefty, so it was necessary to sell something quickly. “Those Extraordinary Twins,” which he had begun several years earlier, was the thing closest at hand. Unfortunately, over the years, other characters had crept into his story and had literally taken it over. At the end of the new version, his original characters had become insignificant. He ended up taking out the entire original story of the twins, cut them apart to make them two whole men, and came away with the novel Pudd’nhead Wilson. Unfortunately, in his haste to publish and his creative time consumed with financial matters, Twain didn’t do as good a job of revising the manuscript and smoothing out the story as he could have. Several references to Luigi and Angelo as “freaks” were left in, both subtle and overt. Also left in is a scene where Luigi kicks Tom Driscoll over a bank of floodlights. Not only is the reason for Luigi’s anger unfathomable, but the idea of such a kick is improbable.

Does these omissions half-revisons ruin the book? Well, partly. The relationship between Tom Driscoll and Rowena is only hinted at, as if Twain did not want to take the responsibility of actually bringing that pair together, knowing what was to happen to Tom later. It is an unfortunate omission because it would have been interesting to see how he would have handled it.

Four characters stand out in Pudd’nhead Wilson. Tom Driscoll is hateful almost from the moment of his birth and remains so. Wilson, called Puddn’head, is seems genuine and stable, although the reputation he has with the town is not as believable as it might be. He is obviously a smart man and well spoken. Judge Driscoll, the third important character, changes almost in mid-step. His feeling of warmth and friendship for the twins turns to disgust on only the word of his nephew, who has never shown the slightest tendency toward telling the truth or doing the right thing. Roxana, probably the strongest character in the book, changes as well. She is shown as a likeable young woman early in the book, yet becomes hard and deceitful, supporting Tom’s burglary activities. Of course, her baby was switched at birth with another. Did this harden her? Perhaps, but I would have liked to see it come out more gradually.

It is also disturbing that Twain seems to leave unchallenged Roxy’s assertion that having even a drop of black blood makes a person bad. Even if she had not said it, the example of Tom and Chambers would have made the same statement. And, of course, Roxy had her own streak of evil. Twain never mentioned what Roxy thought when she heard that it was her son that killed the judge. Would she have supported him in that, too, even though she wanted the twins executed for the deed when she thought that they were guilty? Another omission.

All in all, this book should be read by Twain aficionados only, and only as an example of what might have been.

...more

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Jul 25, 2019 Bill Kerwin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 19th-c-amer, novels, humor, detective-mystery, historical-fiction

If you consider a mans “best” books to be the ones with the most consistent tone and the fewest flaws, then Tom Sawyer and The Prince and the Pauper are Mark Twain’s best works of fiction. If, however, “best” means the most interesting, the most resonant, even if the flaws are considerable and the results problematic, then that honor belongs to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” Huckleberry Finn are—I would argue—The Tragedy of Puddin’head Wilson too.

The flaws and the problems of Twai
If you consider a mans “best” books to be the ones with the most consistent tone and the fewest flaws, then Tom Sawyer and The Prince and the Pauper are Mark Twain’s best works of fiction. If, however, “best” means the most interesting, the most resonant, even if the flaws are considerable and the results problematic, then that honor belongs to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” Huckleberry Finn are—I would argue—The Tragedy of Puddin’head Wilson too.

The flaws and the problems of Twain’s fiction stem from the fact that the limited but parochial projects of Twain the humorist are often undermined and thwarted by the comprehensive soul of Twain the writer of fiction. In Connecticut Yankee, for example, as much as Twain admired Yankee know-how and despised the “jejune romanticism” of Sir Walter Scott, there was still a part of him that grudgingly admired Southern chivalry and was appalled by how Yankee know-how literally blew that chivalry apart on the great battlefields of the Civil War. For this reason, an essentially humorous book about a cunning modern inventor who outfoxes King Arthur’s finest ends with a bitter picture of modern warfare which considerably alters its tone. And the end of Huckleberry Finn exhibits similar problems in the comic—but essentially unfunny—return of Tom Sawyer to the narrative.

Puddin’head Wilson—a smaller but equally resonant work—is comparable problematic. It began as a novel with the title Those Extraordinary Twins, featuring a pair of conjoined twins based on a well known Italian pair, Giovanni and Giacomo Tocci. Twain wished to contrast their relatively happy life with the dark story of two little Missouri boys growing up in the small town of Dawson’s Landing in the years before the Civil War. The two boys look much alike, but Tom is to be the master of the house, and Chambers is to be his slave. The story of how they are made to switch places, together with tale of Puddin’head Wilson, a lawyer who eventually resolves the mystery—if not the resulting tragedy—through the newly emerging science of fingerprinting, is a fascinating one. Unfortunately, it completely overwhelmed the story of the Italian twins. Twain decided, left them—unconjoined- to wander with little purpose through the narrative, a baffling vestige of his original comic conception.

Still, it is a powerful narrative, particularly in its account of how the institution of slavery molds the characters of both the false master and the false slave. Twain’s touch is not always sure—there are even moments when Twain appears to be saying that even a drop “black blood’ may be enough to taint the human character—but at its basis this is a profound tale of the fatal effect of nurture versus nature, and how two boys switched at birth can be changed irrevocably, particularly when is slave and one is free.

The novel isn’t perfect, but it is also a rattling good mystery, with a lot of good stuff about fingerprints, an exciting courtroom scene, and a wickedly ironic conclusion to the fate of the faux master. It’s got its problem, sure, but it is well worth a read. ...more

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Jul 08, 2016 Amanda NEVER MANDY rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016

The transparent plot earned this read a three star rating. The author’s voice was very unique and distinct but the story itself was so-so. It had a missing piece feel to it like it was part of a continuous storyline and I happened to snag book three. The only memorable part for me was how the character obtained his childishly silly nickname. You know I walked around for at least three days calling everyone in my house a Pudd’nhead.

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Jan 15, 2020 John rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-classic, southern-fiction, classic, racism

Pudd'nhead Wilson received his nickname because many townspeople considered him a fool. Although Pudd'nhead is not the protagonist, he plays an integral part to the story. I guess a subtitle could be, "How He Got His Name Back."

Mark Twain's tale involves a slave, 1/16th black, impregnated by the slave owner, Judge Driscoll. She gives birth to twins, now 1/32nd black, one to become the heir to the estate while the other to remain a slave. The mother switches the two at birth; therefore, the fate ...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Camie rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is Mark Twain’s darkest novel about a master and slave switched at birth. When Roxy a “ light skinned” slave swaps her son Chambers with the master’s son Tom ( Twain’s favorite male character name) they grow up in completely different lifestyles, as you might expect. When one of them commits a brutal crime the eccentric town lawyer Puddin’ Head Wilson himself is called in to figure it out. Luckily he has previously fingerprinted all of the townspeople as an odd hobby he happened upon and ma ...more

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May 22, 2019 SheAintGotNoShoes rated it it was ok

Glad that is over !
I did not like this book much.
The idea of the infant switching was a good one, but then it got too convoluted and became a chore to continue reading.
The excessive use of the slave dialect was maddening and tiresome and this most certainly is not my favorite work by Twain at all.

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Mar 11, 2018 Elena rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Very uneven read for me. Contemplated abandoning the book two or there times but at the trial time of the plot picked up myself and ended up enjoying the book, especially after it ended - reading the author's notes about the evolution (metamorphosis even) of the story itself. ...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Kevin Lake rated it it was amazing

Found myself laughing out loud as I read this one. Mark Twain's style of implementing his dry, cynical wit into his writings was magnificent. If you happen to pick up the version with the forward by T.S. Elliot, skip the forward. All he does is talk of why Twain sucked as well as all other American authors except his beloved Henry James. The book is hilarious and has some great, down home wisdom in it. ...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Monica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, pub-b4_1950, kindle_fiction, classics

Amusing and cautionary tale of deception which doubles as a fable on the evils of slavery. This is perhaps one of the first novels that outlines "white privilege". Written in the late 1800s, this novel is way ahead of its time. Twain was able to see the viability of fingerprints as a form of evidence long before it was adopted in real life. That ability to understand the long term impact of science in ways that change world views is extraordinary. The book is not without it's pitfalls. Slavery i ...more

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Dec 05, 2012 David Sarkies rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: People who want something different

Recommended to David by: Nobody in particular.

Shelves: historical

The Show Trial
21 January 2013

I had never heard of this story until I purchased a Samuel Clements (aka Mark Twain) book that contained it with two of the stories of his (Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer) that I wanted to read (and it also contained the Prince and the Pauper). In a way this story is very similar, but very different, to Prince and the Pauper. The similarities involve two boys that take each other's place, but that is pretty much where the similarities end. This story is set in the The Show Trial
21 January 2013

I had never heard of this story until I purchased a Samuel Clements (aka Mark Twain) book that contained it with two of the stories of his (Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer) that I wanted to read (and it also contained the Prince and the Pauper). In a way this story is very similar, but very different, to Prince and the Pauper. The similarities involve two boys that take each other's place, but that is pretty much where the similarities end. This story is set in the United States and the two boys are switched at birth, not by accident, but deliberately. Further, the story only focuses on one of the boys, since the switch involved a pure white baby and a baby that was 1/32 part Negro, but because of that really minor part that was Negro, he was still considered a Negro.

The character whom the title is named after, David Wilson, really takes a back seat for most of the story, and only comes to the fore in the last few chapters when he is finally given the chance to prove his worth. Basically Pudd'nhead is a lawyer that moves out to a small town south of St Louis and on his first day makes a stupid comment and is then cursed with the name Pudd'nhead, which basically means stupid. Pudd'nhead is more eccentric than stupid, and one of the things that makes him eccentric, his collection of fingerprints, is what ends up turning him around and making him a hero.

Some have said that this story is a courtroom drama, but most of the comments that I have read about it have suggested that it is not. While there is a courtroom scene, it only makes up a small part of the story, though much of the story builds up to this scene. In a courtroom drama the murder is usually commented near the beginning, or even before the story begins. However the murder in this story does not occur until near the end, and while it is clear why the murder was committed (money and unpaid gambling debts) it is more like an anti-climax.

The thing that impressed me the most about this story though was that forensic fingerprinting played a very major role in an era before fingerprinting was actually accepted as evidence in court. However remember, this is a small town in rural America, and as such courtroom scenes become more like some sort of show (as is indicated in this book) than some really serious matter as one would expect in the city. Remember, everybody knows everybody else, including the judge, and it is basically the person that performs the best show that wins the trial.

However, that is still very much the case today. Trials are less to do with actually finding the truth and more to do with who tells the more believable story, and who the judge prefers to believe. In my time in personal injury litigation there are always stories about soft judges and hard judges. This is basically determined by who likes plaintiffs and who hates plaintiffs, and even then, their word is never final. When somebody else ends up paying the court fees, the ability of plaintiffs to actually prosecute their case increases. ...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Dusty rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012

Mark Twain wrote this novel when he was pretty old, pretty crabby, and living in Europe to avoid creditors and the other people who made him feel old and crabby. Really, it's a simple story: A light-skinned slave woman swaps her baby with her master's baby, hoping to ensure the former a happier life without the risk of being "sold down the river," and the rest of the book builds suspense for the "big moment" when true identities are revealed.

I've read a few reviews that allege that Pudd'nhead W Mark Twain wrote this novel when he was pretty old, pretty crabby, and living in Europe to avoid creditors and the other people who made him feel old and crabby. Really, it's a simple story: A light-skinned slave woman swaps her baby with her master's baby, hoping to ensure the former a happier life without the risk of being "sold down the river," and the rest of the book builds suspense for the "big moment" when true identities are revealed.

I've read a few reviews that allege that Pudd'nhead Wilson is a book against slavery, but this isn't quite accurate, as the Civil War had made slavery effectively illegal a quarter century before it was published. Instead, Twain writes a book to counter "scientific" claims made in the late nineteenth century in support of (white) racial superiority. Slavery is over, he argues, but people who believe nature (one's heritage) has a larger impact than nurture (the social conditions into which one is born) are essentially slave-holders in their modern reincarnations. On one hand, I'd like to fault Twain for writing a book ostensibly about being black in the United States without including a single character whose skin is noticeably dark. But on the other hand, it's a treat how he points out real and artificial differences between white skins. There is, after all, less difference in color between "white" master and "black" slave than there is between the Italian twins who move into town, who are able to be distinguished only because one is slightly "darker" than the other.

Twain stages his conclusion in a courtroom, where poor Pudd'nhead Wilson finally has the chance to practice the law he studied oh-so-many years ago. For those of us who're accustomed to (and extremely tired of) the courtroom formula that plays out every week in Law and Order and a dozen other TV series, I think this is a bit of a let-down after what is otherwise an imaginative and caustic romp. However, I can't deny that that "big moment," when it finally happens, is written masterfully. Four stars. ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 Tom Mathews rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-before-2010, oldies-but-goodies, read-in-2020, group-reads, southern-lit

This entertaining American version of H.M.S Pinafore is a good book that suffers greatly from having to exist in the shadow of its more adventurous siblings, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Like its English cousin, it uses the old switched-in-the-cradle plot device to explore the subject of class divides, in this case racial. Sadly it also reveals a good deal about what Mark Twain himself thought about the subject which, despite his commendably progressive attitudes, still reflects an acceptanc ...more

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Apr 30, 2020 David rated it really liked it

Mark Twain's fiction has always left me feeling conflicted, and this has not improved with age. His incredible insights into human behavior, and his ability to dissect the (dys)functions of small town society, still pack a punch. He was a talented humorist and pithy philosopher. His portrayal of rural Black folk, on the other hand, has become more noxious with time. It's simply not possible to pass off these usually undignified, vulgar, shifty portrayals as "character studies". It's pretty clear ...more

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Jul 21, 2017 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-jul-american-stories

4 stars for Pudd'nhead Wilson, 2 stars for Those Extraordinary Twins. ...more

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Nov 29, 2020 Emma Rose rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, new-england-literature

Mark Twain is a very interesting author...an author I usually always enjoy. Not to say I didn't enjoy this book at all, it was just...different. I never really fully grasped the whole plot or purpose of the story. And then it ended and left me very perplexed. I did laugh many times throughout it and enjoyed some of the characters, but this is one I probably won't pick up again. ...more

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Oct 20, 2014 Quo rated it really liked it

Shelves: african-american-experience, reviewed, personal-identity, societal-struggle

Jorge Luis Borges once commented that Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn in collaboration with that great American river, the Mississippi and the same could most certainly be said of Pudd'nhead Wilson, an imaginative novel representing a bifurcation of an idea into two stories, the 2nd one being Those Extraordinary Twins.

Pudd'nhead Wilson is a tale at once both simple & complex that explores the nature vs. nurture debate when two infants are switched in their cradles by their nanny, Roxana, hers ...more

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May 11, 2016 Yibbie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries

I liked this one much better than the last Twain work I read, but then I rather like the tongue in cheek type of humor. Twain is certainly a master there.
I shelved it as a mystery even though you, as the reader, are never mystified; instead it's a mystery to the characters. It done well enough. The only week point was Wilson's refusal to consider Tom as a suspect. It made for a more dramatic ending, but seems far fetched.
There is a lot of social commentary woven in. It doesn't take much to figu ...more

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Jun 29, 2007 Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is definitely a well-kept secret. There are a lot of unknown Twain novels that are quite good, but this is sometimes referred to by critics as the third of his truly American novels. I like this book, and considering I had to write a whole research paper on it that's saying something. As a story its good, with a murder mystery, daggers, children switched at birth, etc... But on a deeper level it deals with slavery and miscegenation, humanity and the nature v. nurture concept. Very interesti ...more

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Mar 16, 2015 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, history

I found this book utterly fascinating. I had no idea what this book was about until I delved into it and I was completely absorbed from page one.

This book deals with prejudice in just about every area that you can think of: intellect, race, gender, social class and there was even some xenophobia thrown in for good measure.

This is a wonderful book for discussion!

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Apr 13, 2014 Karen Chung rated it liked it

I've been on a Mark Twain kick, having just finished listening to (Librivox readings of) The Innocents Abroad, which I loved; Tom Sawyer, which I enjoyed a lot; and Huckleberry Finn, which I enjoyed less; and thought I'd find out what this lesser-known book was like. I guess I was at a point of diminishing returns. I happened to listen to the author's notes at the end before starting the book, in the process learning that the two Italian twins in the story started out as conjoined twins, but the I've been on a Mark Twain kick, having just finished listening to (Librivox readings of) The Innocents Abroad, which I loved; Tom Sawyer, which I enjoyed a lot; and Huckleberry Finn, which I enjoyed less; and thought I'd find out what this lesser-known book was like. I guess I was at a point of diminishing returns. I happened to listen to the author's notes at the end before starting the book, in the process learning that the two Italian twins in the story started out as conjoined twins, but they were later "separated" in the course of revising the manuscript. Well, that explains the many references to them being mercilessly "put on display" by their parents, and other bits that would make more sense if you were talking about Siamese twins rather than twin brothers who are highly skilled musicians.

Beyond the patchy adaptation of the plot to the new circumstances of key characters, I have a general problem with Twain's fiction, which I didn't have with his more journalistic Innocents Abroad travelogue. And that is that he gets his characters into such desperate straits that I often have to put the book down for a while because it's too hard to keep listening. When I come back to it, it's usually with a greater sense of detachment, in which I constantly remind myself that it's just outrageous fantasy. And for me that detracts from the work. I was relieved when I finally finished this relatively short book. It has a satisfying ending, I suppose - you see a scoundrel getting his just deserts, and some good or pretty good characters being vindicated or lionized. And I am fascinated by the firsthand accounts of slavery - like the previous two novels, and like Uncle Tom's Cabin and various firsthand accounts by former slaves, it does succeed in giving a modern reader a keen sense of what slavery must have been like - you realize how deeply entrenched the system was, and how it was an inherent part of the everyday norm for everybody in the country, North and South. These depictions have helped me make more sense of current race relations in the US and African-American culture and pathology. This is what happens when you choose a very bad expedient for immediate profit or benefit, in this case, exploitive cheap forced labor from and harsh abuse of one particular group of people. Folks obviously weren't thinking of where it might and probably would lead in the future. Polluters, global warming deniers, and resource wasters (which includes all of us), are you listening?

But I can't say I think very highly of this particular book or that I would recommend it to anybody other than a hardcore Twain fan. The ending is a bit too tidy, and it is hard for a modern reader to identify with, since fingerprinting apparently hadn't yet been established at this time and it is treated like a new scientific wonder, which I guess it must have been back then.

I still do plan to at some point go on to Life on the Mississippi, in the hopes that it will be something closer to truthful reporting, more like Innocents Abroad (which however also includes wild flights of fancy in parts, but only in parts), than the incredible fabrications of Pudd'nhead Wilson. But first I am taking a restorative nonfiction break from Twain for a while. ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
On the Southern L...: * Initial Impressions: Pudd’nhead Wilson, by Mark Twain – January 2020	36	39	Jan 30, 2020 10:33PM
On the Southern L...: * Final Impressions: Pudd’nhead Wilson, by Mark Twain – January 2020	10	27	Jan 14, 2020 05:56PM
First Switched at Birth type book??	12	36	Sep 20, 2014 04:12AM
St. Anne's Readin...: Pudd'nhead Wilson Part 1	4	7	Apr 07, 2013 08:57AM
Significance of the Italian twins?	3	70	Aug 29, 2011 05:19AM
Switching the babies (for those who read the book)	5	45	Jun 16, 2011 07:16AM

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About Mark Twain

Mark Twain

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Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also work ...more

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“April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.” — 1423 likes

“Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.” — 967 likes

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