A really great book where the only thing I wasn't crazy about was the dialect of the black people which was hard to go through but it didn't take away from the pleasure of reading it. Otherwise the book is pretty much perfect. It is entertaining while also talking about serious topic.

The story is fun to read. It may be a tragedy as described by Mark Twain and yet he wrote it with a lot of humor and the plot is interesting from the beginning to the end . And while being entertained we also get a look at not such a fun theme which is race and slavery. It was written after the abolishment of slavery so it isn't extra ordinary that slavery is presented to the reader as negative but Mark Twain gives a very clever critique to racial prejudice. We see how different the lives of people who seem so alike turn out just because one of them is 1/31 black. And besides this simple look at race Mark Twain also gives us a look at ugliness of power and imaginary superiority by making "Tom" become a horrible kid and then adult once he is switched and becomes white enjoying his power over people like him whom he sees as inferior to him.

Roxy is also a special character. She is not written as a mammy caricature. Roxy doesn't enjoy being a slave and taking care of her master's kids. She is a mother who makes sure that her kid is getting the better life and sacrifices herself for him. We don't get to know much of her life as a free woman but it seems like she had seen a lot by traveling unlike other characters who spend all the time in the same town. Her character seems to be more complex than any other character in the book.

We also see how Puddn'head Wilson is looked at as a dumb one while he is the one who knows the most and is able to solve a big mystery because of what he did while the town were laughing at him. Like society that rejects something because they don't understand it.

And the ending seems like fair at the end but then if one thinks more one could say that it is actually a tragedy as it goes by the unfair rules of racial discrimination and slavery.

The second part, Those Extraordinary Twins, should have been part of the main novel but Mark Twain decided to take it out and present as a separate short story. And it was a right decision since it would take too much attention away from the main plot. In this case it is a farce about two Siamese twins. Two individuals who share a body but are so very different. While it is a humorous story it still makes one think.

I didn't even know what an extraordinary author Mark Twain is. His writing style is awesome and the story with all the entertainment and social criticism in it is definitely on a higher level.

Believe the title, “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson”, as this is no comedy. It stated as a farce but the outrageous parts were tossed and the comedy that remained is dark. Still, it is the work of a true master and, except for the over abundance of the N word, reads smoothly and swiftly. Some of the best parts are the aphorisms that start each chapter, small bits of brilliance that light up all the following pages, until a new set appears. Twain saw this country’s ridiculous attitude toward race, put it down for all to see, and here we are 100+ years later, still struggling mightily. But reading this will help you know where your true north is when considering your fellow countrymen.

Typically, you only get Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as a student, but this book gave me all the reason I need to respect Twain. There are certainly some technical flaws in the writing, but the story is engaging and full of social commentary veiled to various extents. Where else would cross dressing be a metaphor for the fallacy of racial essentialism? As misanthropic as Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court but more focused on the immediate issue of slavery and reconstruction.

As someone has said, this is not the best of Twain's writing nor is it the worst. I enjoyed this short novel (Those Extraordinary Twins is actually a separate novel following two of the major characters in Pudd'nhead Wilson. My commentary refers to the first book.) The witty quotes, attributed to Puddn'nhead Wilson, heading each chapter are one of its gems. Also valuable is its highly ironic social commentary. If you have a taste for Mark Twain, you should enjoy this book.

I would greatly recommend this book!! It is full of plot twists, perspectives, deep and dark thoughts and feelings, incredible plot, and more! You are able to see how they would talk during this time, their were two very different cultures living amongst each other. This book definitely relates to when slavery was a real thing. You are able to read and feel what it was like to be Black. You would feel their pain, sorrows, misery, and the feeling of it all just wanting to be over. You will also be seeing it from a White perspective. How cushy they had it. How they were able to mess up a million times and still have a great life. These two parts of the story collide when the two sides meet, it is an amazing transition and I love the way that it is presented. I rated this book 5/5 because of the way the whole story is told. The story takes place in a little town in Missouri called Dawson's Landing, in the year 1830. No change has come to the town in about 20 years, ever since Pudd'nhead moved into the town. As the story unfolds, it is seen throughout multiple perspectives; Tom Driscoll/Valet de Chambers, Roxy Chambers, Luigi and Angelo Capello, and Dave Pudd'nhead Wilson. Tom was born White, but with a White father and a Black mother, therefore, making him a slave. He grows up only with his mom, because his dad was assassinated. When he is only a few months old, his mother is found stealing provisions from her master. She either has to give away Tom, or she will be sold down the Mississippi River into Mississippi. So Tom is given to a White elderly couple with no children, and a large inheritance. Roxy is Tom's black mom. She makes the ultimate sacrifice of giving up her child. After years of being a slave, she buys her freedom and journey's off to see Tom, her son. Although she has no money, she hopes that he is willing to give a stranger hospitality. Dave Pudd'nhead Wilson is often thought of as a nut job to everyone in the town. He always has these crazy and fair out schemes that are always coming up short. He moved to Dawson's Landing to practice Law, but not once has he been taken up on that. Luigi and Angelo Capello are those Extraordinary Twins. They come from Italy, their parents died when they were both ten, and they were left into slavery. After two years they were able to buy themselves their freedom. They travel all around Europe and Asia, meeting Royalties all throughout the lands. They come to the U.S. in hope for a change, they find housing with a local Widow, Aunt Patsy. They bring change to this town. They bring their stories, their adventures, their treasures, and a dark past that will surely make the town stir. It truly is a fantastic read and is well worth your time.

An often over-looked short novel by Mark Twain. A very interesting commentary on race, visual markers of race, and culture. A short read that should be a classic.

The actual highlights for me were the witty excerpts from Wilson’s calendar at the beginning of each chapter.

Not my favorite Twain. Were definitely some funny parts - but, overall, just not as good as his other books.

A couple years ago I found this nice illustrated and boxed collector’s copy of Pudd’nhead Wilson at the excellent book store in Virginia City, NV. It’s a classy-looking illustrated volume with some color prints, a foreword from Mark Twain, and the Pudd’nhead Wilson’s “calendar” of sayings as an appendix. Finally got around to reading it, and I’ve got to say, I’m disappointed.

First of all, the binding was so dried out that it cracked when I opened it. Oh, well. Books are for reading, not for looking pretty on the shelf. No, the real disappointment is with the author I so respect and admire. I couldn’t have guessed Mark Twain could produce such a volume of racist clichés with the cleverness and subtlety of a minstrel show. I ordinarily don’t respond to political correctness and modern revisionism, but this book seems to have been written to the lowest social and intellectual level of its own time.

The story features two boys switched in the cradle by their caricature of a black slave nanny. One is the son of a prominent Missouri man and the other son of an unknown shiftless black man, but both are light-skinned and remarkably alike. The fateful switcheroo results in the “white” child being consigned to the life of a household slave, and the “black” one endowed with all the benefits his well-to-do family can give. Throughout his life, the undiscovered black (himself unaware of his parentage) is a nasty, thankless, morally bankrupt, miserable human being. It is the eccentric lawyer Pudd’nhead Wilson who discovers the truth as the ridiculous tale moves from farce to tragedy. Well, even Shakespeare indulged in dumb plots of mistaken identity and such, too, providing low-brow laughs for the groundlings. Still, I can’t believe Mark Twain wrote this mess, and then went so far as to publish it.

Great book. in Missouri in the 1830's, a slave woman-who looks entirely white-switches her son-who looks entirely white-with her masters son, to prevent her boy from any chance of being 'sold down the river' one day. She takes care of both babies and only she knows the truth. No one else notices. Both boys grow up, and the masters son is mean and cruel to the slave boy his same age, when in reality he is the black boy and the slave boy is the white one. Different things happen, but in the end the scheme is found out and the slave boy is returned to his place as 'master' and the black boy is shamed and ends up being 'sold down the river'.

Twain argues nature vs. nurture in respects to racism, and that the society back then doomed black people, and no matter what a black person could never escape this. The n-word is used a lot in this book, and when the real black boy(who is only 1/32 black! haha) finds out he is black, he becomes dejected and for a few days plays the part of a 'nigger', i.e. lets white folk pass him in the street, doesn't look in people's eyes, doesn't eat at the 'white folks' dinner table. I recommend this book because it will teach you the truth about what things were like at the time, that being a 'nigger' was a social weapon that was ingrained in the minds of every person who was considered black from the time they were a child.

I recommend the short story, "That Evening Sun Goes Down" by William Faulkner for those who want to understand more about what the n-word meant back then, and how ingrained the lie was.

5th Read:

The richness and delight of this novel get better every read - though it's hard to believe it’s been 8 years since I last read this.

Another favorite quote:

July 4th. Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.

--

4th read:

Pudd'nhead Wilson is an extraordinary novel wherein Mark Twain explores the human condition through the lenses of humor, suffering, irony, and race, et al. Twain's dexterous use of these lenses allows the reader a waterfall of new insights into what it means to be alive.

Twain's exploration of how race affects what it means to be alive is stunning & edifying on every plane of understanding & existence I am capable of experiencing -- it may even be stronger than Huckleberry Finn in this aspect, which is incredible in its own regard.

Throughout Pudd'nhead Wilson, Twain's beautifully layered levels of irony help the reader shift through multiple perspectives with an array of emotions & empathies. These beautifully layered levels of irony allow the novel to touch upon the sublime, for my part.

Ah, and the humor: I smiled and laughed so many times while reading this novel it felt like I was enjoying time with a best friend.

Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar begins each chapter with a usually pithy & an always insightful quote -- they include some of Twain's finest. Here's a current favorite.

"April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four."

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