Pudd'Nhead Wilson

by Twain, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780783891477
• ISBN10: 0783891474
• Edition: Large
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co

Summary

A young slave woman, fearing for her infant son's life, exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's. From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels. On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery: reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, a suspenseful courtroom drama, and a surprising solution. But, seething with the undercurrents of antebellum Southern culture, the book is a savage indictment in which society is the criminal and racial prejudice and slavery are the crimes.

Table of Contents

A Whisper to the Reader	7	(4)
Pudd'nhead Wins His Name	11	(8)
Driscoll Spares His Slaves	19	(11)
Roxy Plays a Shrewd Trick	30	(9)
The Ways of the Changelings	39	(12)
The Twins Thrill Dawson's Landing	51	(8)
Swimming in Glory	59	(7)
The Unknown Nymph	66	(5)
Marse Tom Tramples His Chance	71	(14)
Tom Practises Sycophancy	85	(8)
The Nymph Revealed	93	(7)
Pudd'nhead's Startling Discovery	100	(20)
The Shame of Judge Driscoll	120	(8)
Tom Stares at Ruin	128	(10)
Roxana Insists Upon Reform	138	(14)
The Robber Robbed	152	(13)
Sold Down the River	165	(6)
The Judge Utters Dire Prophecy	171	(4)
Roxana Commands	175	(16)
The Prophecy Realized	191	(13)
The Murderer Chuckles	204	(12)
Doom	216