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Title details for The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, with eBook by Mark Twain - Available

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, with eBook

by Mark Twain
Michael Prichard
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Two half brothers look so similar as infants that no one can tell them apart. One, the legitimate son of a rich man, is destined for a life of comfort, while the other is condemned to be a slave because he is part black. The mother of the would-be slave is also the nurse of the other; to give her son the best life possible, she switches the babies. Soon the boy who is given every advantage becomes spoiled and cruel. He takes sadistic pleasure in tormenting his half brother. As they grow older, the townspeople no longer notice that the boys look similar, and they readily accept that each is born to his station.


A local lawyer, David Wilson, has had a similar experience. On his first day in the village, he made an odd remark about a dog, and the townspeople gave him the condescending name "Pudd'nhead." Although he was a young, intelligent lawyer, he is unable to live down this name, so he toils in obscurity for over twenty years. Finally, he is presented with a complex murder trial—a chance to prove himself to the townspeople and shake this unjust label.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 9, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400129188
      • File size: 186139 KB
      • Duration: 06:27:47

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1070
    • Text Difficulty: 6-9

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Twain's 1894 novel of two nearly identical brothers raised on opposite sides of the race line (one as white, one as black) isn't nearly as strong as his more famous works. The author's political ambitions--critiquing American attitudes on race and class--are too nakedly displayed, and the plot creaks like an old melodrama. But it's still Mark Twain, and that means more wit than half a dozen other authors, delivered in shrewd, folksy language. And it's possible that Michael Prichard's delivery works better than reading it on the printed page. Prichard shifts dialect to match Twain's acute ear for regional differences, and he brings a widely diverse cast of characters vividly to life. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      November 15, 2003
      This novel's central character is not the eponymous Pudd'nhead but Roxy, a mostly white slave in 1830s Missouri who is so desperate to rescue her baby son from slavery that she switches him with the baby of her widowed master. She then watches her natural son become a spoiled and heartless slaveowner and eventually a criminal. The climax comes in a spectacular murder trial in which lawyer Pudd'nhead exposes Roxy's terrible secret. This is not Twain's best work but is worth listening to because it is his most direct attack on slavery and ideas about "race." Moreover, in Roxy he drew his strongest female character; it is also one of the first books to use fingerprints as a plot device. Michael Prichard's narration is competent, but the material calls for a reading with greater passion.-Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA

      Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1070
  • Text Difficulty:6-9

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