A+ for Mark Twain! This is my first book that I have read by him, and I found it absolutely amazing. For one, I am not usually a fan of classic books (or maybe I just haven't really given myself a chance at them), but I found myself engaged and ready to finish this book as fast as I could.

Surprisingly, this was one of our books for English III that we had to read. I just finished it, and I just can't stop saying just how great it was. I am shocked by how Mark Twain was able to create such an amazing story. I loved the dialect even if it was difficult at times for me to read. (Definitely easier when you read it out loud.) The way he was able to depict the dialect was incredible. I enjoyed it very much.

The theme for this story was that education and environment determines a person's life and character. I think it's so true, and I love the theme. The conclusion was perfectly written. Well, everything was.

Here's to Pudd'nhead Wilson...and possibly more classic books on the way (by him or others).

I know it's a classic, but ugh!

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.

tThe 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.

tIn 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.

tDoes 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.

tIt 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.

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

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!

Strange to have Twain give serious treatment to any topic, let alone slavery. Pudd'nhead Wilson is filled with classic echoes from the writer: set in 1830's, babies switched at birth, and a copious amount of cross dressing. The novel is filled with the tongue-and-cheek humor for which we have come to love Twain. The comedy moves between bizarre and edgy. Twain makes a passing reference to people dueling with artillery rather than pistols. The author also favors giving citizens numbers rather than names. As always, Twain utilizes many comic angles.

The story spotlights the arbitrary nature of the categories society assigns: black, white; rich, poor; free, slave; man, woman. The novel plays with gender roles through Roxy and Tom by having them cross dress. In true Mark Twain fashion, they both carry off the ruse to great effect. Another way Twain pillories society structure is through the twins. There are two sets of twins, although Tom and Chambers would never be placed together despite the physical resemblance. A little farce adds an interesting spice to the mix of the story. The storyline plays with the perceptions of the characters versus the reality. The plot is heavy in dramatic irony: Wilson is trying to solve a mystery, but the reader already has the answers. The comedy is more light than in other works from Twain, but the humor has an edge that cuts into the layers of society.

p.2 To be a gentlemen; a gentlemen without stain or blemish was his only religion.
p.22 She saw her darling gradually cease from being her son.
p.85 She sent out the sort of whole-hearted peal of laughter which God has vouchsafed in its perfection to none but the happy angels in heaven and the bruised and broken black slave on the earth.

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 figure out where Twain stood on the most prominent issue. Because it was written about slavery and the effects it had on all parties, there are numerous words that today are considered offensive.
I don't know for sure (I haven't read many of his works), but it seems that he favors situational ethics. This time it was actually rather convicting. Does our 'religion' wear off and let us do what ever we want, or does is change us through and through?

I read an edition of this book which I checked out of the Anaheim Public Library, and it's a New Amereon House or New American Library (1964) limited edition--only 300 copies printed. From the typeface and illustrations included, it looks to be a replica of what was perhaps the first edition. Since I couldn't find the exact version in the Goodreads database, I substituted an edition that was dated the same year and has the same number of pages.

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, herself a light-complected, mixed-race slave who has just given birth to a male child, conceived via a white man in the slave-holding village of Dawson's Landing.

Roxana's child, named Chambers, is 1/32nd black, while Tom, the other child is the son of Judge York Driscoll, who owns Roxana & whose wife dies just after giving birth, with the judge demonstrating little interest in his own newborn son.

The switch, made when Roxana fears for the worst for the future of her own child may seem simple enough, given that she senses no one will ultimately know the difference but it sets in motion a life-altering series of events for both, as the two boys mature & settle into the roles and characteristic behavior of their counterparts, lives that would have seemed almost preordained prior to the switch.

Roxana, perhaps the strongest character in the novel and who had considered killing herself and her child prior to the switch, continues to care for both children, not revealing the essential secret of their respective identities until much later.

Another vital character is David Wilson, 25 & a Scot via New York, trained as a lawyer, who somehow wanders into Dawson's Landing, stringing together occasional work and an interest in the new science of fingerprinting, a sort of hobby that eventually becomes an essential skill in solving a mysterious killing.

Beyond that, Mr. Wilson, who is judged as out-of-place in this little river town & called a "pudd'nhead" or buffoon because of his Eastern sensibility and his odd cast of humor, concocts an almanac or whimsical calendar that is both benign and cynically mirthful, patterned by Twain on Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, though Mark Twain took issue with the Franklin almanac.

Thus, David Wilson, initially a secondary character, also has two distinct faces and ends up driving the plot of the novel, a book I found fascinating for its ideas & characterizations, rather than for the writing style employed.



Without wishing to give the ending away, in reading this novel one comes to more fully understand the meaning of the phrase "being sold down the river" and the perceived differences between master/slave relationships in this border state vs. in the "Deep South", at least in 1830 when the novel begins. I suspect that this novel is not often read & many may not even be aware of it but it is an excellent counterpoint to the more well-regarded classic tales by the author.

Meanwhile, Those Extraordinary Twins, which served as a kind of literary parent to Pudd'nhead Wilson is less a story of ideas and much more light-hearted and amusing, involving two Italian conjoined twins of completely differing personalities. Luigi is a pipe-smoking, hard-drinking reader of Deist books, an irreverent free-thinker, while his brother Angelo is mild-mannered, an anti-alcohol, non-smoker who considers himself a Methodist & reads pious books.

David "Pudd'nhead" Wilson has the task of defending the two twins in court when one of them is charged with kicking Mr. Tom Driscoll but where deciphering which twin is the guilty party presents a major challenge. Twins also figure in Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson but with a very different impact on the story.



As with almost everything written by Samuel Clemens, there is a sense of an authorial split personality, with the homespun Missouri lad from a small town along the Mississippi River contrasting and contesting with the successful Eastern-based author & world traveler with an honorary degree from the University of Oxford, an aspect that is present in almost everything Twain wrote.

This is particularly with regard to Huckleberry Finn, and Pudd'nhead Wilson, two novels that confront America's racial divide. Interestingly, the African-American writer, David Bradley sees Samuel Clemens as white and Mark Twain as his black alter ego and Bradley is not alone in this view.

*Within my review are two images of the author + an engraving from an early edition of Pudd'nhead Wilson.

I'm a fan of Mr. Twain, but somehow had neglected this gem. I say gem in the realization that for many that is a controversial description, but there it is. I can't say what the public reaction was at the time although it appears to have been received well. I have a sense that the book is not received so well today, but I submit that is due to a variation of the same issues that are portrayed in this novel. We live in the upside down now compared to Twain's day. In a lot of respects that is a good thing, but in some the reality is just a shifting of views that to my mind are a shade of the past in different light. Anyway, I enjoyed the tale and the telling of it. It was an adventure that had I read as a lad I'm sure I would have wished to grow up as Pudd'nhead Wilson, who perhaps would fit in the world today and might be the only character purely capable of it. Variations of good and evil in the others just like today.

So read it and enjoy it as it was meant, which means think about the fates of us all and what happens when you try to change or control your own. There might be a Wilson or just simple karma waiting at the end of the day.

This audio with various voices for the characters conveyed the story well, so I recommend that also.

Pudd'nhead Wilson proved itself much more serious, dark and tragic than anything I'd expect from Twain's writing, but all the better for it. In that sense, the book was a pleasant surprise. I was honestly very saddened and moved by this story. There is a detective element to this novel, but on overall this book seems to revolve around the topic of slavery. In that moment when Roxane (a white skinned slave) decides that it was better to kill her child and herself then to risk the horrible fate of being sold 'down the river' some day, I was reminded of Toni Morrison's Beloved. Roxana, however, opts out of that fate and that basically creates the plot of this novel. When Roxana decides to put on some fancy clothes on her and her baby before attempting suicide and murder, she realizes that there is another way to save her child- and that is by switching him with the master's child (both of them being infants of the same age and colour making it impossible for anyone but her to tell the difference). A cruel act, but Roxy pardons herself by the difficulty of her position and her maternal instincts. From that point on, there are quite a few twists and turns as well as a lot of brilliantly sarcastic social commentary.


Despite being written in recognizable Twain's style and filled with humour, this novel digs much deeper then any other work of Twain's I have read so far. Puddn'head Wilson reveals the true horror of slavery. For all its sarcasm and humour, this is a profoundly serious and sad novel. The plot as such was entertaining if somewhat predictable. I found it easy to predict the ending and I could see most of the plot unfold in advance. That being said, the events seemed logical enough and I still enjoyed seeing the story unfold. Some descriptions were a bit too sentimental for my liking, but I could see how they fit the story and Twain's style. What I enjoyed most about this book were two things: the successful character study and the insightful social commentary. Pudd'nhead Wilson was a well portrayed character and I greatly enjoyed his calendar 'writing' that served as a wonderful introduction to every chapter. I think this novel can serve as a warning against slavery. It is probably not up to today's standards in matters of racial discussion, but there is no doubt that it was progressive for its time. I do recommend this book.

This cringe-worthy short novel does not sit well in the body of Sam Clemens' work. It has not aged well. It contains little of Mark Twain's inimitable humor apart from the epigrams, attributed to the eponymous Pudd'nhead, he borrows for the beginning of each chapter. There's little suspense for the contemporary reader, who merely wishes to get through the thing and see an obvious malefactor brought to justice, through means that are foreshadowed early in the story. We admire the decent, sensible, intelligent Mr. Wilson as we despise his most prominent tormentor, who would today be termed a malignant narcissist, incapable of empathy or of seeing anything from any point of view other than his own narrow self-interest. Moreover, the speech in Mark Twain's antebellum Missouri is presumably faithfully reproduced by overuse of the familiar offensive "n-word" as both a noun and an adjective, even as an insult directed by a black woman to her offspring. Nothing in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Folded Age, the travel books, Life on the Mississippi, the short stories, or anything else on Mark Twain prepares the reader for this novel's local Missouri vernacular. The story seems to lead the reader to draw an inexcusable moral to the tale or conclusions about "nature vs. nurture" variations in human nature.

The thing I enjoyed most in Pudd'nhead Wilson was its brevity, and I was happy to be done with 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.