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Pudd'nhead Wilson (Enriched Classics (Pocket))

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Pudd'nhead Wilson is a great story that can be read by those of all ages. For a book that was written over a hundred years ago, it is amazing to see all of the aspects that make todays books and movies so great; a murder, a great court scene, thrilling dectective work, a switched birth, and overall an ironic and surprising ending. Its not a long book and it can be read in one or two sittings. The social overtones in this book also really make you think about race relations today. Twain is a fablous author and although this book is not as great as Huck Finn, if you loved that as I did, you will certainly enjoy Puddn'head Wilson

This was my third Twain novel, after Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Although this is a much later work, the similarities are striking: the contrived plot (we have to believe that two babies, entirely unrelated and one with some African heritage, are so alike that even their father cannot tell them apart), the device of having a male character disguise himself as a woman, the cruel treatment by a boy of his adoptive parents, and so on.

"Pudd'nhead Wilson" is Twain's shortest novel and shows signs of having been pruned. Some characters, -- Rowena, for example -- play a significant part early on, then disappear. Wilson himself plays no part throughout most of the story. My guess is that Twain originally intended a much longer novel, with more incidents and secondary plotlines.

The fingerprint aspects of the story will seem quaint, and often downright inaccurate, to the modern reader, but at the time they must have been quite startling. The technique had not yet been officially adopted by law enforcement. Some of you may remember an episode of "Alias Smith and Jones" in which Hannibal learns about fingerprinting from this book.

A (perhaps the chief) delight of the book is the selection of aphorisms from "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar", appended to each chapter heading. It's a great excuse for Twain to peddle some marvelous quotables. Every reader will choose a favorite; mine is "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry".

The Bantam Classics edition has a very poor introduction by Langston Hughes, consisting mostly of a plot synopsis (fine if you want to remove all suspense from your reading experience) padded out with generous quotations from the text. Some editorial notes would have been nice too, to help out with a few unfamiliar phrases; this novel is after all more than a hundred years old. I'm sure there must be better editions out there.

Huckleberry who?? "Pudd'nhead Wilson" is Mark Twain's best novel. Forget about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and the Connecticut Yankee and those lazy riverboat days on the Mississippi. This is the book that people should think of when they think of Twain. It's a masterpiece of American comedy, as well as a pointed satire of racism and American slavery and an entry in the nature-nurture debate. This is Twain at his best--even better, in my opinion, than the late novella "The Mysterious Stranger."

Do others ever misjudge you? Did you, as a result, ever have a nickname you didn't like? Did you appreciate that experience? How did you overcome it?

What if you had been switched in the baby nursery at the hospital for another child? How might your life have been different?

These are the kinds of thoughts that will occur to you as you read Pudd'nhead Wilson.

I was attracted to the story after reading about its genesis in the new illustrated biography of Mark Twain.

Pudd'nhead Wilson is tragic story about the consequences of two children being switched at birth in the slave-holding society of the American South. Those who admire the eloquent portrayal of common humanity among African-Americans and whites in Huckleberry Finn will find more examples of this point to delight them in Pudd'nhead Wilson.

Pudd'nhead Wilson was a novel that gave Mark Twain a great many problems. The book started as a short story about Italian Siamese twins with a farcical character, as the drunken twin caused the Prohibitionist one to get into trouble with his woolly headed sweetheart. As Twain turned the story into a novel, the most important characters began to disappear in favor of new characters. Stymied, Twain realized that he had written two stories in one novel. He then excised the original of the two stories in favor of the tragedy, while leaving many satirical and ironic characteristics. Part of this switch no doubt related to Twain's growing pessimism as he grew older and to the personal tragedies and financial difficulties dogged his efforts and life.

Perhaps it is this deep plot difficulty that caused Twain to leave the novel with two rather large flaws, which vastly reduce its effectiveness. The first flaw is building a plot around switching two children at birth to establish that perceived racial differences and slavery had been unjust. Unfortunately, the "bad" actor in the novel turns out to be the irresponsible Tom Driscoll (ne Valet de Chambre), who is 1/32 African-American but is raised as a white free man. Thus, those readers who wish to believe in racial differences affecting character can point to that underlying racial factor as still being present in explaining the misbehavior in the story . . . despite what appears to have been Twain's opposite intention. Had Twain developed his story to make the false Tom morally equal to his all-white counterpart Chambers (ne Thomas a Beckett Driscoll), the story would have worked much better in condemning racism and slavery. The second flaw involves having the story turn on establishing the unchanging nature of finger prints in a trial conducted in a small Missouri town many decades before that point was scientifically proven and legally accepted.

For us today, the story moves slowly because we know all about fingerprints as a means of identification which makes much of the eventual resolution easy to anticipate, and also because Twain left many unnecessary remnants of his other story in the book.

Despite these weaknesses, the Pudd'nhead Wilson has many brilliant sections that strikingly portray how the concepts and realities of slavery corrupted both African-Americans and slave-holders. Because of thefts in the Driscoll household, the real Tom's father threatens to sell his slaves down the river (a fate to be avoided). When three of them confess, he agrees to sell them locally. Frightened by the potential for her child to be sold in the future, Roxy plans to kill herself and her son. By accident, she realizes that she can successfully switch the two children's clothing, since both of them look the same to Tom's father, and ensure that her son will never be sold, because he will be raised as the master's son, a white person. Many of the ways for rearing white child are bad for Tom, making him spoiled and disagreeable. Chambers does much better on a simple diet, and from performing physical labor. Tom is arrogant and nasty. Chambers is uneducated and cowed. Later, when Tom realizes that he is 1/32 African-American, he begins to behave as a slave would towards white people.

But the story is much broader than that. Pudd'nhead (a derogatory term somewhat like "featherhead") Wilson is thought to be a fool by the townspeople because of something he said about a dog when he first came to town. Because of that perception, his legal career is delayed by 20 years . . . even though he is actually quite bright. In other areas of the story, a man dresses as women and a woman dresses as a man. A thief has his booty stolen from him, so he is also the victim. In many ways, the story reminds me of Shakespeare's many comedies and tragedies about misperceptions being harmful to all concerned.

Although you will not think this is one of Mark Twain's best books, it is one that will encourage you to have many valuable thoughts about questioning labels and assumptions that we apply to one another. For example, if someone is not very quick to grasp certain widely-accepted points, we may feel the person is stupid. The person may actually be able to grasp many nuances that make the situation ambiguous, and be the opposite of stupid. Or someone who is slow in one way may be a positive genius in other ways. Yet a label may be attached that is the opposite.

Keep an open mind, and observe vastly more about what is going on . . . and be able to create vastly better results!

Puddin' Head Wilson, by Mark Twain, is full of fun twists and laughs. You will either extremely love or hate the characters in this novel. Puddin' Head gets a bad start in the town that he has recently moved to- to be a lawyer. Puddin' Head doesn't give up even when times are bad; you just have to admire that perserveerance! I believe that this was a wonderful book that is a timely classic.

Twain's easy reading style makes this book a quick read at just 160 pages. The story is about two boys who look exactly alike born on the same day. They are both cared for by a very light skinned negro slave named Roxy. Fearing that her son may one day be "sold down the river", Roxy switches the boys identity at an early age and their lives are changed forever. The new "free" child grows to be an ungrateful man who causes trouble for all around him - including Roxy. The story reads more as an observation and commentary than it does for specific character development. For instance, there is little mention of the wrongly enslaved child and his life and relationship to his "new" mother Roxy. The ending reads more like a detective story, though it is still enjoyable.

It is a shame and an irony that really, really good writers end up with their books becoming required reading in school, a fact that, naturally, makes students avoid them like the plague, "them" referring to both the writers and their books. Happily, though, PUDD'NHEAD WILSON is pretty slim for a novel, the edition I have weighing in at only 149 pages, so it might actually attract some reader other than a poor, benighted student on whose bowed shoulders yet another inscrutable assignment has been laid. Such a reader will be greatly rewarded for having picked up this book, for it fairly bursts with Twain's ironic humor, biting social commentary, and fascinating character studies.

Now, I have no idea as to why Twain chose to title this tale as he did, for "Pudd'nhead" Wilson is hardly more major a character than many of the others who populate the story, and is perhaps even less so than some. Roxy--slave, freed woman, and slave again--is more of a catalyst for much of the action than is Wilson. Tom Driscoll, not the real Thomas a Becket Driscoll, but Valet de Chambre, who grows up believing himself to be Tom, is another nominee for the role of principal protagonist. Wilson's receipt of his nickname, it is true, gives us one of Twain's first commentaries in the book on people who cannot distinguish sarcasm from literal fact, and, yes, it is Wilson's acumen that saves two innocent men from hanging and brings to light the web of deception that Roxy began spinning years before. Still, had I written such a story, I do not believe that choosing the name of that particular character as the title would have occurred to me, but perhaps that is Twain's genius. The nickname is assuredly ironic, and this story is full of ironies.

Also curious is the presence of the twin Italians, Luigi and Angelo. Their part in the story is clear enough, of course, for their treatment by the townspeople is a powerful indictment of a society that can revere an idol on one day, only to cast the infidel down into the mire the next, thanks solely to rumor, innuendo and erroneous appearance. Still, this could have been accomplished with a single foreign visitor to the town, and Twain's choice to present us with twins is perplexing, particularly since Luigi consistently overshadows Angelo in the story line. Twain's own preface to the story is not to be taken as an explanation here, for he is being as witty and non-literal is the preface as he is in the story proper. Thus far, I can find no satisfactory explanation for the use of twins, although I have no doubt that Twain could give one were he so inclined (and still able to communicate in the mortal world).

Conventional analysis of PUDD'NHEAD WILSON makes much of Twain's condemnation of slavery, and such examples as Chambers' inability to rejoin white society successfully after his true identity as Tom Driscoll is made known clearly show the demeaning and destructive nature of slavery. Yet, I feel that Twain goes far beyond the institution of slavery in his commentary on universal human nature--and that commentary is anything but an affirmation of positive aspects of humanity. Can any son sink so low as Chambers in deceiving his own mother and selling her back into slavery "down" the river? For that matter, could any mother sink so low as to ensure that both her son and the babe entrusted to her care both grew to sordid manhood through living a lie? Pudd'nhead Wilson, Luigi and Angelo may be the only fully honorable characters in the story--and the twins hightail it back to Europe as quickly as they can, leaving the sordidness of society in Dawson's Landing as far behind them as possible.

Inasmuch as comprehending a novel such as this hinges on both the writer's creativity and the reader's skill in interpreting the creation, and because the reader's skill has much to do with his knowledge of the society that the writer is depicting, I do find myself wondering whether a reader who is intimately familiar with the culture of the "Deep South" may understand and, therefore, enjoy Twain more fully than one who is not. Will a reader from, say, the Midwest, who may never have listened to speech along the southern reaches of the Mississippi River fully appreciate the phonetic spellings of Roxy's discourses? Will every reader understand equally the significance of Roxy's reaction when she realizes that Chambers has sold her DOWN the river rather than up? These are neither criticisms of the book nor weaknesses in it; they are merely cautions that not every reader may find PUDD'NHEAD WILSON as meaningful as others may.

For my part, I suggest that this tale is both fascinating reading and accurate commentary on a large segment of society in the U.S. I also suggest that the society described in the story did not entirely vanish at the end of the 19th century and that Twain's depictions of many of the flaws in that society are as valid today as when they were set to paper. In short, I can think of no reason whatsoever not to read PUDD'NHEAD WILSON. It is thought-provoking but in a most enjoyable way.

Pudd'nhead Wilson is classic Twain: it manages to be as fun and as funny as it is disturbing and bleak. The entertainment results from both the comedy inherent in mistaken identity and the straightforward detective story that frames the narrative. The tragedy arises from Twain's complicated treatment of social hypocrisy, slavery, racial identity, and the debate between the influences of one's heredity and one's environment.

The novel, like Twain's earlier "The Prince and the Pauper," features switched-at-birth boys: Tom, who is born to Judge Percy Driscoll, and Chambers, who is born to a slave named Roxy and is 1/32 black. Roxy exchanges the babies to keep hers from being "sold down the river," and the two change names--and races. They later become rivals when the new Tom lords his authority over the new Chambers. A second pair of boys, the dashing Luigi and Angelo, are former vaudevillian actors who arrive in town and become implicated in a murder. (In an early draft of the novel, the two were conjoined twins--and Twain didn't quite excise or revise all the relevant passages.) The amateur investigator and accidental detective, David "Puddn'nead" Wilson, is a lawyer who has become the town outcast and who pursues the mystery to expose the townsfolk's self-importance and self-deception.

If you're looking for a detective thriller, this one is a bit far-fetched. (There is a subplot involving Wilson's dabbling in the new "science" of fingerprint identification that is fascinating.) But the plot is incidental to Twain's humor and, especially, his themes.

There has been on ongoing debate between critics of this book that will never be resolved: between readers who condemn Twain, for implying that Tom's wickedness and indolence result because of his genetic make-up (i.e., because he was "born" black), and readers who defend Twain, who feel that he was arguing that Tom's faults resulted from his family and the society (i.e., because he was "raised" white). Similarly, Roxy's portrayal is alternately troubling (she is devious, wicked, and mad) and sympathetic (she is quite intelligent and will do anything for her child). I tend to side with those who defend Twain, because it's clear that Twain doesn't much care for the traditions and principles of (white) society, which is why an outcast like Wilson must become the hero. But I also feel that Twain, deliberately choosing ambiguity over pedantry, was investigating the nature versus nurture debate without definitively answering the question--and the fact that readers seem split on the verdict hints to me that he succeeded. Twain dares to ask the question: What is race, and does it really exist?

In spite of its occasional profundity, the novel as a whole, which is quite short, is really an exercise in absurdity that perhaps only Twain could make work. (Most young readers who know Twain through his early works won't cotton on to "Pudd'nhead Wilson.") The book has an unfinished, first-draft feel, and it feels almost patched together from various stories and plots (which it is). But fans of Twain's other works would be making a mistake not to read it.

This was the first book that I ever had the chance to read by Mark Twain. I really enjoyed the storyline and thought that the characters are very humorous. If anybody wants a good book to read that was written by Twain, this is not one to miss.

PUDD'NHEAD WILSON is not HUCKLEBERRY FINN, but it is a worthy Twain novel, a strong example of his satiric and ethical writing. Written in 1894, ten years after he published his masterpiece, Twain revisits antebellum small-town Missouri life and this time, his anger at the institution of slavery and the racist folly are front and center in the voice of an omniscient narrator. Twain puts several 19th century conventions of pop entertainment to work in this story: murder, suspense, dramatic irony, verbal irony, babies switched at birth, cross gender dressing, and foreign intrigue, but he takes it out of the ordinary by making the trigger for the various plot lines come down to the very real human tragedy of slavery and the fear of being "sold down river."

Although the suspense story may seem simple or outdated to a contemporary reader, many of Twain's themes are not. The subject of nature versus nurture is still debated today as are the politics of language and dialect. Twain's titular character is a hobbyist in what was then the nascent science of fingerprinting and his discussion compares to the contemporary debate over DNA evidence. Of course, the biggest problems the author addresses remain our biggest social challenges-- racial discrimination, the gap between the haves and have nots, and the persistence of classist social systems.

Artistically, no, this is not HUCKLEBERRY FINN, but few books are. Twain's use of irony wells up from every scene, every phrase so much so that it shines brilliantly. It is a pleasure to read and it keeps you thinking long after it is over.