یه دوستی دارم میگه مگه خوبی چه مشکلی داره که مردم بدی میکنن؟ حالا من میخوام این رو بگم که داستان کلاسیک مگه چه مشکلی داره که همه رو به مدرنیته و پست مدرن بیارن، خب من هدفم این نیست که یه مکتب رو زیر سوال ببرم، فقط نظرم رو گفتم، من ترجیح میدم قصه ای رو بخونم که فضا، زمان، شخصیت ها، توصیفات و قصه روشن و واضح باشه، تا اینکه بخوام دویست صفحه بخونم در نهایت ببینم از نگاه یک سگ داشتم به دنیا نگاه میکردم.
با خوندن این کتاب یه جورایی وارد دنیای نوجوانی شدم و داستان های تام سایر و هاکل بری فین رو برام زنده کرد، هرچند کیفیت اون ها رو نداشت، اما خب توی دوران خودش به نکات جالبی از جمله اثر انگشت و.... اشاره کرده بود و قصه کوتاه و جذاب بود.
بخش دوم رو خیلی دوست نداشتم چون یه مقدار غیر واقعی و پیچیده بود، همچنین مشخص بود که مارک تواین با عجله نوشته.

I grabbed this quickly at the library, needing a book on tape to listen to for a car ride, and wanting to hear some Twain. (Kind of a "should read". Yes, Twain is clever and dry and funny. And looks at issues of race. This is the story of 2 young men born on the same day, one white, one black, though they both look very white and are nearly identical. The mother of the black boy who is also the nanny of the white boy, switches them at seven months, to avoid her child being sold down the river. And so begins the tale of their growing up and their fates. Interesting for Twain to lay out such commentaries on what it meant to be white or black, and privileged or not, free or slave. It lays bare the absurdity of such categories, and shows how they are human-made.

چند روز قبل از عید سال چهارم دبستان (که قرار بود سفر نریم) با خاله‌م رفته بودم مدرسهٔ راهنمایی‌ای که توش کار می‌کرد و صاف رفتم توی کتابخونه‌شون بست نشستم تا برای عیدم توشه بردارم. الان که فکر می‌کنم کارم رسما رانت‌خواری محسوب می‌شد چون قاعدتا من پسربچه دبستانی نباید بتونم از یه مدرسه راهنمایی دخترونه اونم تو یه منطقه دیگه کتاب قرض بگیرم. بگذریم. نمی‌دونم واقعا بزرگترین کتابخونه مدرسه‌ای بود که تو عمرم دیده بودم یا چون بچه بودم و کوچیک بودم همچین حسی داشتم (چون همچین توهمی راجع به دبستانم هم داشتم ولی بعدا که برگشتم اونجا دیدم خیلی کوچیکه). خلاصه وحشیانه کتابخونه رو غارت کردم و چندین جلد کتاب رو به عنوان توشه عیدانه برداشتم. این چندین که می‌گم حدش این بود که بتونیم دو نفری همه‌شون رو ببریم خونه.
خلاصه ویلسون ابله یکی از دست‌آوردای اون غارت عیدانه بود و واقعا خوش گذشت موقع خوندنش. بچه که بودم واقعا طرفدار مارک تواین بودم :-)

رواية ذات حس فكاهي وطابع بوليسي شيق، افتتاحية جيدة جدا لهذا العام

للسخرية دور سحري عجيب يكمن في الحط من شأن أي شخص مهما كان عبقري أو وسيم.
وهذا ما حدث مع السيد ويلسون عندما جاء إلى البلده لأول مرة، واطلق عليه سكانها لقب المغفل، بسبب مزحه قالها بشكل عفوي.

لكن هذا المغفل المهووس بجمع بصمات الأصابع _في وقت لم يكن يُعرف فيه أن بصمات اليد يستحيل أن تتطابق بين فردين، حتى لو كانوا تؤام._ يتسبب في حل جريمة قتل معقدة وكشف سر دفين مر عليه سنوات طويلة. ويعلمنا الدرس الأهم هو ألا ننخدع بالمظاهر، فوراء كل حدث دوافع، ووراء كل مغفل شخص حكيم.


كُتبت هذه الرواية بعد أربعين عاماً من نهاية الحرب الأهلية في أمريكا. في ذلك الوقت كانت التفرقة العنصرية شائعة في الكثير من المناطق.

أحببت روكسانا وتعاطفت مع دوافعها، رغم ان ما قامت به عمل شرير للغاية.

تقييمي: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

call me puddn’head kim

I read this book because of a reference to it in Jon Clinch's afterword to Finn. I was startled by how bad it was. Wright Morris, in his engaging introduction to the text, quotes William Dean Howells on Twain's writing style: "Mr. Clemens is the first writer to use in extended writing the fashion we all use in thinking, and to set down the thing that comes into his mind without fear or favor of the thing that went before or the thing that may be about to follow." Morris goes on wryly to note that "Too many pages of Pudd'nhead Wilson testify to this observation." Twain himself, in an amusing afterword, writes of his own difficulties in composing the novel and makes it pretty clear that even he viewed it as a cobbled-together affair. Nonetheless, I guess I'm glad I read it, if only because now, when teaching Huck, I can speak from greater authority to my students about Twain's other work. I also did enjoy the chapter epigraphs, drawn from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar. For example: "Even popularity can be overdone. In Rome, along at first, you are full of regrets that Michelangelo died; but by and by, you only regret that you didn't see him do it." Or, "Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."

While I liked the basic story, I don't feel that this is one of Twain's better efforts. I am surprised that it is on the Guardian's list of 1000 novels everyone should read instead of The Prince and the Pauper which I think is much better.

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 acceptance in physiological differences between races that have since been discredited.

Although the changeling angle makes up most of the story Twain also brings up the subject of fingerprinting. Although the science of fingerprinting has been around for centuries, it was not used as a criminal forensic tool until 1892, when it was used to solve a murder in Argentina. Twain may well have read of this and incorporated into Pudd’nHead Wilson, which was first published one year later, in 1893.

Bottom line: This is not a perfect story so I can’t give it five stars but it is entertaining and it was also written by Mark Twain, who is one of the few writers whose shopping lists I would happily read. I definitely recommend this book.

Puddn'head Wilson is an ironic and humorous novel written by Mark Twain in 1834, and published in 1894. Novels heavy with irony and satire were nearly unheard of during this time period, making this book quite groundbreaking in literature. This book focuses on multiple story lines, which is also unusual during this time period. This style of writing is quite effective in keeping the reader interested.
Racism is very prevalent in this novel, as it is in nearly all of Mark Twain's books. Racism is shown in this book by slavery still being legal, heavy segregation, and white suppremecy. "Roxy was 1/16th black...but it was enough to make her Negro. Roxy did not show her 1/16th black, she was as white as anybody. Her son is 1/32nd black, and he would be able to be sold as a slave as well. This is where the story twists, Roxy decides to switch her child with a rich, white aristocrat's child, as they looked nearly identical. Because of Roxy's plan, her child had a rich and empowered life, which he otherwise would have been a slave if he was raised by his mother.
David Wilson gained the nickname "Puddn'head" when he came to Dawson's Landing with a hobby for fingerprinting. This was very unusual, fingerprinting was not yet used for criminal investigation during this time. Near the end of the book, Wilson is able to solve a murder case with his fingerprinting skill. The murder case involved Roxy's child. This is very ironic, because Wilson was always ridiculed for his hobby by the entire town but was able to put it to noble use to keep an innocent man out of prison.
This novel was facinating, I would recommend it to anybody who enjoys crime or mystery novels, or Mark Twain books. I have yet to read another book similar to this one, it was very unique in the story line, style, and time period. The multiple story lines did a lovely job of keeping me from becoming disinterested.

Twain's relentless use of the N-word and some of our true hero's (Roxy, not Mr. WIlson) comments are likely to keep this off of contemporary reading lists, if not the shelves altogether. That would be a shame given how the tale so smartly reflects on matters of identity, family, human motivation and, of course, race. From the FFVs to their western small-town counterparts to the portrayal of a self-aware, self-sufficient and superbly gifted female protagonist (ditto) Twain was once again apart from and ahead of his times.

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 that he thought "coloreds" - slave or free - were worthy of better treatment than they were receiving at the time, sure, but also not remotely the equals of White Americans or Europeans.

This is a great yarn well told. The plot is interesting and the pacing excellent. The entries from Pudd'nhead Wilson's almanac are marvelous. What a shame it's shot through with racist sentiments.

So let me start by saying I love Mark Twain. He is one of my favorite authors. I was first introduced to Twain in middle school when my grade watched a play performance of the The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Caravelas County. We then read the story in English class and one chapter later I was in love. Now I read anything that has “Twain” on it. I usually don’t read, but when I do I prefer Mark Twain. I randomly pick Twian’s short stories to read and this time I chose Pudd’nheaf Wilson.
The story open with a description of the town, Dowson’s Landing, located in Missouri by the Mississippi River. A “collection” of one to two stories building, homes with “pretty home” with gardens, and locust tress were on both sides of sidewalks. A new citizen arrives to town, David Wilson, who is recent law graduate who is moving to the country side to try his luck practicing law. Upon arriving he is greeted by a barking anf he makes a “fatal remark” in front of a crowd. He was annoyed by the barking and said “I wish I owned half of that dog”. Someone in the crowd asked him why, and Wilson responded, “because I would kill my have”. This led the gentlemen in the crowd to go on a page long discussion over the fact that if he killed half of the dog the other half would die, therefore he should just kill the whole dog. The men called him an idiot because someone cannot kill half of the dog while the other half lives. To them this comment makes no sense. Someone called him a pudd’nhead and from that point forward he was known as Pudd’nhead Wilson. This ruined his lawyer career and he was force to take on surveying and accounting. For the next 20 years he lives a life he was forced into. Then we meet a slave woman, Roxana and the twins Luigi and Angelo. We see the main plot divide as we are introduced with new issues like swapping children at birth and murder. All this frame stories connect and we have a sort of Shakespearean ending in terms of drama. In other words dramatic, not like the carnage we can see in act 5 of any of Shakespeare’s tragedies.

I loved this short story. The humorous tone is set right from the start when Wilson earns his nickname. This episode is full of irony as it is the gentlemen in the crowd that lack the brain cells to understand the comment Wilson makes. They are the actual pudd’nheads, but things take a twist for entertaining purposes. Then we see this other storylines presented as we meet a few more characters. Love the trio of stories and the way everything just is summed up at the end. It saved me a headache by having a closed ending. I connect with this story, as I’m sure a lot of do, because sometimes we make jokes and they are misunderstood. We make others laugh, but not at the joke but ourselves, because we are labeled as stupid. Moral of the story, don’t make a joke if you people listening needed to know background information before hand or if the jokes needs to be explained in depth.

I was not expecting to see the classic switched at birth situation that we see in Pudd’nhead Wilson, much less did I expect the murder case. There is more than what I’m revealing. Clearly the fascinating aspects of the story are still there, so go find them.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a laugh, entertainment, and a stress reliever. This simple and fun reading might make your day just a bit better after suffering through the struggles of the daily life. When I’m having a day where I don’t feel any positive energy in my body, I take a dose of my medicine, Mark Twain’s writing. When you are feeling down find something to bring you up, is that simple. Or maybe it’s just me and my method making a lot of sense in my head, which ultimately may not work for others. Bottom-line, Pudd’nhead Wilson is a good short comedic story to read.