Customer Reviews

The Prince and the Pauper

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This story has been a favorite of mine since I first read it as a child. I have re-read it many, many times, most recently to two of my children (who also enjoyed it), and it continues to be rich and engaging. Since the language is true to the era of the story, however, it may put some readers off. Others will find that the archaic language enhances the tale.

A beggar (Tom Canty) and a prince (Edward Tudor), who look so alike as to be twins, meet and swap clothes for a lark. But an accident of judgment stretches the lark into an adventure, and the adventure into a nightmarish struggle of life and death, honor and dishonor.

Hasn't everyone wished to be royalty at some point in their lives? And especially if you were the poorest of the poor, like Tom Canty, wouldn't it be your dearest wish as a child? This is a great and yet fearful adventure, superbly detailed and believable. It was carefully written in such a manner that genuine history leaves it possible. One of Twain's best ever.

I read the book The Prince and the Pauper, by Mark Twain. It is a book about Edward, the Prince of Wales, and Tom, a poor boy from the streets of London. Tom ventures out to the palace to meet a real prince, which was his lifelong desire. Edward rescues Tom from a crowd that jeered at him because of he was clothed in rags. The two become friends. They switch clothes and realize that they look exactly alike! But then everyone mistakes Edward for being the poor boy and Tom for being the prince. The boys are separated.

Tom is thought to be the Prince by everyone in the palace. When Henry VIII dies, Tom is declared Edward VI, King of England. He denies it and tries to tell them he is a pauper, but they think he is mad and teach him what he needs to know to act like a king. Tom learns to enjoy being king, but wants to return to his home and family.

Edward goes on a quest to find his way back to the kingdom and Tom. During his adventure, he meets Miles Hendon, a kind fellow who was on a journey to his home, for he had finally gotten out of a war he was fighting. Miles rescues him from another crowd that is about to throw him into the Thames River. He decides to take Edward in with him. Together, they travel to Miles' old home and then to the palace to declare Edward's rightful place as the prince.

I enjoyed this book very much. It has got a straightforward theme: Don't judge a book by its cover. I would recommend this book to either teens or adults, since Twain uses some hard-to-understand archaic English words like "hither" and "thither". This book is book is not easy to read, but has interesting adventures.

The Prince and the Pauper , first published in 1882, by Mark Twain is a literature classic and has been read by many generations. This book is hard to criticize because it is written by one of the greatest authors, has around for so long, and it is considered a classic. The story is about one prince (Edward Tudor) and one pauper (Tom Canty) who meet each other and end up trading places. At the time they don't realize the resemblance between them, so once they switch places and go off, no one will believe their true identity. This book shows the adventures of these two boys with the roles they end up in, one it the gutters and one in the palace. The main message and theme behind this book is about the natural human fault of judging people merely based on their outward appearance. My overall opinion was that this was a good book and it was fun to read. Yet there were some aspects that I think needed more improvement

One of the aspects that I think needed more developing was the characters At first I was a bit disappointed because, unlike all of the other Mark Twain books I have read, this one had very little character description. There is not much that you know about the two characters and you don't feel connected to them. There was nothing that you could relate to with Canty and Tudor and while reading the book the only image that you had of them was a very vague image. This was why it is pretty hard to get caught up in this book. I believed Mark Twain left a lot about the characters so that he could focus and develop more on the plot and adventure of the story than who they characters actually were.

In the book, Tudor is constantly being kidnapped by the pauper's father (John Canty) , who believes that Tudor is his son , and in return Tudor is always running away. After a while of this wild goose chase between Canty and Tudor it gets repetitive and tiresome to the reader. In this book Mark Twain focuses more on the situations of Tudor then those of Canty. He also wrote more about Tudor then Canty. I found the situations with Canty in the princes place were much more interesting and humorous then the situation of Tudor. I would have enjoyed this book more I think if there had been more scenarios and stories about Canty

This book is recommended for all ages yet I found parts of it hard and difficult to understand. The language that all the people in the book speak is old English. There are chapters in the book that is just conversation. I found this incredibly hard to understand by reading it through just once. The only reason that I understood the conversations is because I am familiar with the old English writing style (Shakespearean style) and have had past experience reading books in this style. To someone who would read this type of book for the first time, I think that they would hardly understand any of the conversations between people. Yet the author Mark Twain wrote this book in a great way. This is why it appealed to lots of audiences. For example, Mark Twain's description of the palace are not like usual boring ones, his descriptions are fun to read and you can almost exactly picture things that he is describing. Also his wording makes it easy to keep reading and reading as if each sentence flows perfectly to the next.

The book also had many strengths, in contrast to what I thought would happen, this book did not become predictable. Every chapter has a new twist or turn. The story was also very humorous. It was very amusing and hilarious what Canty did in the prince's position. For example at his first dinner he begins drinking the rose water, which is intended for washing his hands. He also says that all the ways of royalty are strange and annoying referring to when the official "food taster", tastes his food before he eats it and the long, grueling task of putting on clothes which involves a long chain of people who pass an article of clothing down one by one.

I would recommend this book mainly to people in high school or older. In my opinion it is too childish for an adult reader, and I think many adults would get bored. The adults that would enjoy this I think would be those who are "young at heart", and enjoy fictional fairytale like stories. The humor, marvel, and intrigue that this book contains is for a younger audience. Also the difficulty of the language in the book is too hard for children to understand (below 7th grade). I believe that if this book were to be rewritten in modern English it would be a perfect story for a child at any age.

The Prince and the Pauper is Mark Twain's historical novel of mistaken identity. In it, Prince Edward and a filthy, destitute urchin who looks exactly like him inadvertently switch places. The majority of the book is spent following the boys, particularly Edward, as they attempt (or not) to regain their rightful places.

This book features numerous historical characters, and Twain researched them and the time period well. There is a great deal of social commentary here, as Twain has quite a lot to say about some of the more ruthless laws that England has had. He also delivers a rather ironic commentary on the social classes of the day.

The Prince and the Pauper is entertaining, although it suffers from slow pacing. There's entirely too much time spent with people carrying on about how each imposter has gone mad, and how he must be humored, and how this will put him to rights again. It grows tiresome, as does Edward's continual attempts to assert his kingly rights while dressed in rags. His learning curve is a straight line.

All in all, The Prince and the Pauper is an entertaining enough book, and certainly it inspired innumerable inferior derivatives like few works have, but it doesn't quite measure up to Twain's later work of historical fiction, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain

A palace. The streets. Two boys-one a prince, the other a homeless beggar.

Edward Tudor is a prince that is always bored. Tom Canty is a beggar that is always beat...when fate brings them together; they decide that it would be fun to switch clothes. Since they are the same age and have the same features, this should be easy...not! Edward sees what he has to do to be a beggar. Tom finds out that being a prince is no joke. Mark Twain's colorful language tells you a lot about how the families feel when the boys are born. For example, on page 7. "Tom Canty was born to a family who wore raggedy clothes and lived in a one room house. To them the newborn was just another unwelcome mouth to feed." When Edward was born, as you can imagine, there was a huge celebration! See the difference? There's a huge one!

When the book ended, I thought of it as a river because I wanted to book to never end like a river keeps flowing. The characters are so real that it feels like you are in the book holding on to their hand. When they have a problem you want to help them and you start to care about them. The character's problems are not childish, but they are not like problems we have. In the book they are a bit more unique. The illustrations fit wonderfully with the book because it helps you understand the book better. Under the illustration it has a sentence about what the picture is about. It usually is the most important sentence on the page. The incredible details create powerful mind pictures. When Tom's nose started to itch, the details made my nose itch to!

Once you start the book, you will not be able to put it down (trust me on this)!

The book grabs your attention and steals your heart! Action, adventure, suspense, details, and great illustrations are in this amazing book: The Prince and The Pauper! What are you still doing, reading this? Pick up the book!

By Sum 1 Special

One of the most persistent themes in American pop and literary culture is the switched identity plot. Movies like Garfield 2, Face-Off, Big Business and Double Dragon have been based on this trick. Where did it all start? Probably with this children's classic by Mark Twain. Set in Renaissance England, it tells the story of two boys who look exactly alike, except one is a prince and the other is a poor boy. The two meet each other, exchange places, and have loads of fun. All ends well as they each regain their proper places with more wisdom and friends than before.

The text of the book is readable by most elementary school kids, though the length is quite long for a children's work. The dialogue is English, and might make hard reading the first time around, and the comedy might be dry for those not used to it. But the book is enjoyable and totally appropriate. I highly recommend it.

Mark Twain classic "The Prince and the Pauper" has ever been so excitedly ever told tale of two look-alike boys; a tale of the rich and the poor. No wonder, this has ever been the best educational pick in the classroom as kids would love to dive into imagination and get the moral of the story. Two different worlds and Tom Canty and Edward Tudor shared the same birth date and same features. Fate brings them and they decide to change clothes for few minutes. This leads to the adventures beyond wildest dreams. He pokes fun at the old upper class in England and showed how wrong it was to judge people by outward appearances. Born in November, the author's other famous Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were my fav too. A good Pick for all ages.

- ilaxi

The book The Prince and the Pauper was about two young men who just wanted to experience what it was like to have a different life. When Tom Canty met Prince Edward of Wales, they knew that there was something weird about the other. Then they realized that they both looked exactly alike. They switched their clothes and that is where the trouble began. As you read this book, you will join Tom and Edward on their journeys in each others life. This wonderful book was brought to life marvelously by the one and only Mark Twain.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I normally don't like to read, but this book kept my interest the whole time. I never wanted to put the book down. It was written beautifully and is full of suspense and even a little comedy. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, young or old, who wants to read a great book that takes you on a fun filled and wonderful journey.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this great classic. It was very interesting and had me hooked onto it through the whole story. This story is about how the beggar named Tom Candy and Prince Edward meet and discover that they were both completely identical, except for their clothes. They switch their clothes and change places. Then, each of the two boys have to live through a terrible life of each other. The Prince is beaten, called names, starved, and has to live the life of a beggar. Tom or the Pauper has to go through laws, diplomacy, languages, and royalty. Both of them are considered mad as they try to tell the truth to everyone. Suddenly, the little tiny thing of switching places turns out to be a humongous problem as Prince Edward's father, Henry VIII dies. Tom, who is thought as the Prince, is naturally supposed to be the next king. Both boys has to find each other or else the Pauper would become the wrong king of the nation.

This book is very interestingly written. I started reading this once, but I had a better book(or I thought it was a better book) to read so I stopped. Then, I decided to just finish reading "The Prince and the Pauper" and thought that it was just a great and interesting book! I think that this is a great book to read because it's quite witty, interesting, great, and very well written.

This is the story of a prince and a pauper who switch places because of their uncanny outer resemblance. They obviously go through many trials and ordeals - the pauper trying to learn the ways of royalty, and the prince having to witness and undergo the results of some of the ridiculous laws and practices of the period.

Like many of Mark Twain's books, this is another satire that makes fun of the values that society holds to be important. In this story, Mark Twain points out how people place so much importance on outer appearance. A prince and a pauper, who, despite their outer resemblance are very different people, switch places, without anyone noticing. There is more to a person than their looks, and this is one point stressed throughout the novel.

The one complaint I have about this book is that there wasn't enough written about Tom Canty, the pauper who became a prince. I found his situations much more interesting than those of the true prince, but this was only a minor point.

I would recommend this book for ages 12 and older. Younger people could read the story, but miss the underlying meanings in certain situations. I wouldn't call this book a "Must Read" but it is a good introduction to classic literature.