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    The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
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    The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
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    The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

    Written by Mark Twain

    Narrated by Michael Prichard

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Audio
    Release dateFeb 9, 2009
    ISBN9781400179183
    Author

    Mark Twain

    Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, left school at age 12. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher, which furnished him with a wide knowledge of humanity and the perfect grasp of local customs and speech manifested in his writing. It wasn't until The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), that he was recognized by the literary establishment as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. Toward the end of his life, plagued by personal tragedy and financial failure, Twain grew more and more cynical and pessimistic. Though his fame continued to widen--Yale and Oxford awarded him honorary degrees--he spent his last years in gloom and desperation, but he lives on in American letters as "the Lincoln of our literature."

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    Reviews for The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

    4/5

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    • 2/5
      Two babies - one partial African American slave and one from the master are switched at birth.
    • 4/5
      Once I got past Twain's characteristic offensive language concerning slaves and persons with darker skin, I actually loved this book. It made it easier that the narrator's position regarding skin color was not derogatory, just how he referred to them, as was common in the 1890s when the book was written. The novel had Twain's usual wit and clever dialog. It had a fascinating premise, and the courtroom scene was so much fun! The whole thing was an engaging read! I'm surprised it's not as well known as some of Mark Twain's other works. Maybe since it wasn't a "children's book" it wasn't as popular, but I think it could stand it's own against The Adventure of Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.

      Would I recommend this to my fellow book lovers? Yes
      Would I recommend this to my teen daughter? Yes

      4.5 of 5 stars
    • 5/5
      An excellent novel about slavery and the US Deep South
    • 3/5
      It was not intentional that I read "Pudd'nhead Wilson" during Black History Month. Nonetheless, it was a perfect choice for its focus on race, especially in its central plot of switching a black baby (being only a thirty-second mixed-race) with a white one and all the subsequent issues springing from that event. It was the worst choice to have read out loud to my wife since the dialogue was so saturated with racial slurs--especially in its chief employ of the dreaded N-word. A white dude narrating to his white wife black dialect some other white dude wrote in the darker, later period of his career. For all her head-turning at each N-bomb, I had to stop at one point to say, "You know, you're going to get a sore neck." It was awkward to say the least. It was exploitative to say the most.I had a friend recently say that Twain was just being honest, even though he'd never read the book. And I'd get that if it were part of the natural tapestry of the greater narrative. But for its first half, the dialogue is so absolutely clogged with racial epithets that it actually seemed to throw off the story instead of lend it realism; a bent toward obsession versus faithful narration. And I think this speaks to Twain's tendency to radicalism in his later writing, which I greatly appreciate and one reason for which I have an affinity for his writing. However, overuse is overuse.The point of literature, fiction in particular, I believe, is to suspend disbelief--to willingly immerse yourself into the created world. If you've done that, then you've achieved something outside yourself. Whether in novels or movies or relating an incident to a friend, if you've lost the audience in rant or artifice, then you've lost it all. And all literature is artifice. Dialogue is a very particular artifice within that artifice. It's all faked. (If you don't believe me, record a conversation of any length and faithfully transcribe every word, pause, misstep, burp, overlap and twang and you'll find it's damn near unreadable. You don't have to read Alexander Block's poetry to realize this.) So, whenever the sheet is pulled back and you notice that artifice for what it is--namely, cold naked fakery--you've blown it, gone too far, led the reader down an alley with a flashlight bereft of batteries. For me, Twain did this in "Pudd'nhead Wilson".When I was a young man, I went through an exploitation movie phase: sexploitation, blaxploitation, Nazisploitation, nunsploitation, Giallo films, you name it. Maybe to right the balance of all the foreign and Hollywood films I'd seen up until then. In any case, sometimes a film would go one beat too far and momentarily lose me. But that's the point of exploitation in art--it's supposed to shock you outside of ordinary narration. But even when that went too far, I couldn't help but exclaim: "Jesus Christ, enough already." "Fight for Your Life" was one such example. A racist criminal breaks into the home of a black minister and his family, takes them hostage, throws out every racist barb he can stick, threats and violence, until the minister unleashes unholy Hell upon the redneck bigot. It was hard to watch--not so much for its physical brutality as much as the pervasiveness of its brutal language. Twain didn't go that far, but it felt closer to this than what he'd written in "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" where the racism and language were a natural part of the story--part of its flow--not merely an insertion to get a rise (or faithfully record the era, whatever that means). Kind of like when Quentin Tarantino played the Australian miner in "Django Unchained" three-quarters of the way in. I mean, he couldn't get some other actor to play the role and give his mouth an N-bomb break?Not to say that I didn't enjoy "Pudd'nhead Wilson" at times. On the contrary, parts of it were whimsical and delightful (especially the scenes with the much underused title character). But there was a lot of wincing to be had. Next Black History Month I'll be sure to select a book written by an author who isn't white. Sometimes, we know how to fuck up a perfectly good story all too well.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      This book had been sitting on my shelves for many, and I mean many, years. I finally read it and what a pleasure! I was gripped by this "prince and pauper" tale. It is a gripping story with fantastic characters. It addresses social issues (slavery), character flaws, family issues, and general difficulties faced by just being human. Twain opens each chapter with a couple of so-called entries to Pudd'nhead's personal calendar which are pithy quips. My two favorites appear at the beginning of the same chapter. First, "He is useless on top of the ground; he ought to be under it, inspiring the cabbages". Second, on April Fool's Day, "This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four". Additionally, my Signet edition has an afterword by the author in which he explains the evolution of the novella from an idea, and it is worth just reading this alone.....almost.
    • 4/5
      It's always difficult to review a classic, because it must be considered both for the modern reader as well as the audience for which it was written.Twain's commentary on race relations, as always, is top notch. His understanding of human nature shines out, and the taste of what life is like in a small town at this time is matchless. Also, as a historical side note, we find the first ever use in literature of fingerprinting as trial evidence.The story is not a mystery, but rather character study that is resolved in the way that a mystery novel is often resolved. Do not enter into the book expecting a modern mystery story, because those elements do not enter until the last few chapters.If you're a fan of Twain, read it. If you haven't explored him before, you should start with his better known works first, and move on from there.
    • 4/5
      Every single critic (or reader) has accused Mark Twain of racism because of his representations in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, needs to read this book, which, while a lesser work of artistic achievement, savages American and Southern racism in their many forms. Roxy is a slave woman who is 1/16 African, and her infant son, who cannot be differentiated from the son of the master, is 1/32 African. On one occasion, Roxy fears that she and her son will be sold from Dawson's Landing, Missouri "down the river." Thus, she switches her son with the master's son, which means that the "slave" is raised as the "master" and vice versa. It takes detective work of a legitimate variety (the fingerprinting done by "Pudd'nhead") to solve the murder mystery that develops as the story goes along, but nothing is solved when the original mixup between the two infant boys is "corrected." The scars of racism run deep, as Mark Twain knows perfectly well.
    • 4/5
      A Mark Twain story I had never heard of! First published in 1894, it is the story of a slave woman, Roxy, who was as white as the rest of the town, but was 1/16th black, and so, in the times, was classified, "by a fiction of law and custom," Negro. Roxy has a baby son the same age as the nephew of her master, and one day, worried about her sons future, she decides to switch the babies. Pudd'nhead Wilson is a local attorney, whose hobby is studying fingerprints, a relatively new and untested forensic service at the time.What happens as these boys grow up, and how Pudd'nhead saves the day, is a fun story, with a good moral. The dialect was a little difficult to read, but still, a good book.
    • 3/5
      Pudd'nhead Wilson is a novella, born of a longer novel that Twain cut in two; it is a great adventure story and also a satire on slavery and what makes a man a man; but its plot is so similar to The Prince and The Pauper that it at times seems unoriginal.The characters are certainly well-drawn, although we see little of Wilson. His calendar entries are exceedingly witty, and are worth reading several times over (I certainly have). However, by writing all of Roxana's dialog in a kind of phonetic mash, some segments of the book prove difficult reading; it is worth comparing how Kennedy Toole handled dialect in A Confederacy of Dunces, set in much the same part of the world.
    • 4/5
      By all rights, Pudd'nhead Wilson should not have been published. This isn't a novel. It is the best draft you're ever likely to read.It tells the story of Roxy, a slave who, in a moment of desperation, exchanges her infant son with the identical boy of her Master. Hence her child, now called Tom Driscoll, is raised free and privilaged. And consequently turns into a complete horror.That's about as much of the plot as one needs to know. It started as a farce about a different set of twins, but as he wrote it Twain was distracted by the secondary characters; so he re-wrote his novel as a tragedy without completely doing away with the old trappings.Consequently, Pudd'nhead Wilson is many things. It is quite unpredictable. The plot leaps from one thing to another without settling. Some parts of it are very tragic, full of cruel irony. At other points, the farce elements still come through (such as during the brief cameo from the Fire Department). Though stylistically inconsistent, the hodgepodge of moods and plot threads did keep me turning the pages.The writing herein is quite good, and Twain's wit is legendary. The cast is a fine set that interacts well, and he does an excellent job at crafting the community of Dawson's Landing. And yet all these elements never mesh into something more. I liked this novel, but perhaps my hopes were a little too high. I was certainly not expecting it to be this messy. Characters are used; they do not live, or if they do, Twain ignores them until he has a use for them. Luigi and Angelo are introduced as if they mean something, yet are given precious little to do. Rowena's view is given for two whole chapters, then she vanishes completely. Most surprisingly, the titular character is given little to do. He emerges only when needed, and cannot be described as the main character.The focus is placed heavily on Roxy and Tom, yet they aren't the main characters either. The true protagonist is the omniscient narrator (the author) who tells this odd little tale.Well, I did like this. It was engrossing, I smiled at the witticisms and was even moved from time to time, as Twain had a marvelous grasp of humanity. My favorite quote from the book was this:"When the forenoon was nearly gone, she recognized with a pang that this most splendid episode of her life was almost over, that nothing could prolong it, that nothing quite its equal could ever fall to her fortune again."It's a pity that this book, with all its sundry elements of greatness, was a rush job that switched horses in midstream. But nevertheless, I still found it very enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      As I read more Mark Twain, I become a bigger fan. Sure, this book is not among his best works, but even mediocre Twain is above so much out there. Unlike Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, in my mind, this book was a little confusing with what the message was regarding Twain's feelings on slavery. Whereas the other books had Jim as an uneducated, yet intelligent, honorable and very likeable character, the main black character in Pudd'nhead Wilson was detestable and even the secondary black character only allowed for partial sympathy regarding her actions. The plot outcome was very predictable, but it was still fun reading on as Twain took me there. The most enjoyable part of the book for me was the preface where Twain explained what the book had started as and who the main characters had been before the story ran in a different direction and the way he came up with disposing of the then-useless characters was a moment for actual laughter. That alone is worth giving the book a chance, if for nothing else than to read the preface.
    • 4/5
      This is a fun little book that I first read in tenth grade. In fact, I think it's the only Twain I've ever read, though I really ought to change that. I was recently perusing my shelves for a short book that was a change of pace from my other current reads, and when I spotted this one, I knew I'd found it.This is such a neat little story as far as plot goes. He lays everything out for the reader from the beginning, all in plain sight, and then proceeds to tell a nicely interwoven complex tale, and you're not entirely certain where it's going until it actually gets there. My favorite part is the whole use of fingerprints in the story, a fairly novel thing in the time and culture this was written. Twain also manages to delve into the topics of race and circumstances of blood and upbringing, and what makes a man who he is.A short and enjoyable tale I would recommend to anyone, and one I would reread (and have).
    • 4/5
      Rather belabored plot, but funny and well-written--Puddin'head's chapter openers are Twain at his best
    • 5/5
      The Bantam Books edition has a fine introduction by Langston Hughes. This is a fascinating novel, with Twain taking on the questions of race and of nature/nurture head on. It was the first novel to bring finger-printing into the plot. The Norton Critical edition is very good, too.
    • 4/5
      Mark Twain never fails to bring a smile to my face. This isn't his best work, but it's still darned good. It's another book about the American South (I had a class) but this one isn't so obsessed with the South's fall (because it hadn't happened yet) as the Faulkner or the Welty. It is concerned, like those two, with the provinciality and callow nature of the Southern small town, and the consequences this has for a select group of elite. Pudd'nhead Wilson, the title character, is actually one of those elite. Twain's intellectual elite, Wilson, a wonderfully promising lawyer, has his career quashed by his townspeople when he makes a conversational flub and is dubbed "Pudd'nhead Wilson" permanently. This is the story of his revival, as told (oddly enough) by the culprit of the biggest crime the town has known. Beyond the immediate main character, this book is also a bitter condemnation of slavery and racial prejudice. It's well worth a read, and deserves all the time it's given. 8/10
    • 3/5
      This novel was intriguing, but I felt it was not as strong as Twain's usual writing. It was as if it was missing something fundamental, maybe in the structuring or theme, that escaped me and made the reading experience less vital than some of his other works. It's not a bad read, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.3 stars.
    • 4/5
      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 a belief in a physiological difference between races that has since been discredited.SPOILER ALERTAlthough 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 those writers whose shopping list I would happily read. I definitely recommend this book.
    • 3/5
      Pudd'nhead Wilson received his nickname because many townspeople considered him a fool. Although Pudd'nhead is not the protagonist, he plays an integral part to the story. I guess a subtitle could be, "How He Got His Name Back."Mark Twain's tale involves a slave, 1/16th black, impregnated by the slave owner, Judge Driscoll. She gives birth to twins, now 1/32nd black, one to become the heir to the estate while the other to remain a slave. The mother switches the two at birth; therefore, the fate of the two are reversed. As the heir, Tom Driscoll grows to manhood, he engages in profligate living resulting in significant gambling debts. His outlook on life is worsened when his mother appears and reveals that Tom is actually black. Despondent, he disguising himself as a woman breaking into wealthy homes to address his gambling debts. However, matters only become worse.Much of this book satirizes racism since the mother and twins essentially appear white. Another theme involves nature versus nurture or "clothes make the man."One of the reasons that Pudd'nhead receives his nickname is that he has a hobby of collecting fingerprints, which plays an important part in the climax of the book. Since this book was published in 1893, it is worthy to note that fingerprinting as a forensic tool had only been introduced a year earlier by Inspector Eduardo Alvarez in Argentina and Mark Twain incorporated it into the plot of this book.A lesser known book of Mark Twain I was glad I read.
    • 2/5
      The titular Wilson comes to a small town in Missouri and is categorized as an idiot (pudd’nhead) right from the start, and the name sticks. He gets used to it pretty quickly and the town gets used to his little quirks, like his interest in the nascent science of fingerprinting. Roxy is an enslaved woman who is only 1/16 black with pale skin and light eyes, but due to the one-drop law of the time, she is categorized as black and a slave. So is her son (though he’s only 1/32 black). At the same time as she is nursing her own son, she is also caring for the son of the master of the house, whose mother died in childbirth. Eventually she gets to thinking about her lot in life and that of her son’s, and then it hits her -- the two boys look like twins. No one will know if she switches them, ensuring that her son is raised as a white boy with all the riches and privileges that entails. Roxy is granted her freedom a few years later and makes a decent life for herself, until misfortune hits and she decides to let her true son know his origins so that she can gain a bit of his riches. Complication after complication hits: a pair of Italian twins arrive in town and cause quite a stir; there’s a thief ransacking the town; and a duel leads to deadly consequences. Can the Pudd’nhead sort this all out?As a product of its time, this book is full of racial slurs and stereotypes. However, it is also an indictment of the one-drop rule, which stated that so long as a person had a single black ancestor, no matter how far back in the family tree, that person would be considered fully black. There is also a thread of nature vs. nurture going through the story but it doesn’t really resolve cleanly. In truth, I found it a difficult read and put it down for several months before finishing. Of Twain’s works, this is not one that stands the test of time for me.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this story that opens up the "nature vs. nurture" debate.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. It was humorous and also interesting. Although somewhat predictable at points, I enjoyed the irony of the slave/free relationship and the "pudd'nhead" versus intelligence character of Wilson. It is impressive that Twain was able to blend comic, satire, moral comment, and societal comment without ackwardness.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful story by Mark Twain about a slave who believes she will be sold down the river. She switches her son with the judge's nephew when they are babies. She takes care of them. The tragedy of the judge's death comes to a head near the end of the story which is blamed on the foreign twins.
    • 4/5
      The main character was nicknamed "Pudd'nhead" because of his common sense, tongue-in-cheek ironies, and innovative ideas that no one understood. Excellent specimen of Mark Twain's famous wit. I decided to read it because I had read so many fascinating quotes from it.
    • 3/5
      An odd mix of Twain’s work, Pudd’nhead Wilson combines the character swapping from The Prince and the Pauper and the race drama in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It was not at all what I was expecting. The title character, Pudd’head, is actually the cleverest person in the book. Roxy is a slave, but is only 1/16th African. Her son is only 1/32nd African and in a moment of desperation she switches her son with her master’s child. The boys are almost identical and after the switch they are raised in their new lives with no knowledge of the past. Years later things become even more complicated as Roxy tried to reconcile the man her real son has become. The other major theme of the book is a very early look at the use of forensic evidence in detective work. It feels like common knowledge to us now, but at the time fingerprinting was a completely foreign concept. Throw in some twins from another country, a gambling problem and some bad choices and you’ve got a novel. It’s a strange book, one that doesn’t quite feel like Twain. It has some of his trademarks elements; a sharp wit, commentary on race relations, etc., but it’s unique in some other respects. It feels disjointed and a bit thrown together. I read a bit from Twain after I finished the book and he talked about how he set out to write one book and found himself in the midst of another. I think the plot reflects that and in the end it’s not one of his best. BOTTOM LINE: If you really like Twain, definitely check it out. If you’re new to his work I would check out Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer before this one. “When angry count four, when very angry swear.” 
    • 5/5
      I've never read this entire book before but have vague memories of references to it in discussions of other Twain novels or of general turn of the century literature. The one discussion I remember most vividly was a discussion of "courtroom drama" literature and how this particular book helped set up that format and in particular helped set up the presentation of evidence, especially the concept of using fingerprints to help solve crimes.Apart from the vague discussions about theme, I went into this novel fresh and really enjoyed it. I've always loved Twain's writing. Huckleberry Finn is one of my favorite all time books. In Pudd'nhead Wilson there is a lot of similar tone, setting, dialog and feel that made Huck Finn seem so real.This book is set in a Missouri town (Dawson's Landing) in the early 1800s and (although I'm not an expert on the 19th century South), it felt very authentic. Once again, Twain captures great elements of dialog and mannerism and does a great job of creating vivid environments and characters.The story is intriguing and feels at times like a Shakespearean "mistaken identity" play writ large. In the first few pages we're introduced to the townsfolk and shortly after introduction we watch a slave do the ol' switcher with two babies…her 'black' baby (1/32 black, and thus very easily confused as 'white') and her master's white baby. We stick with the worried mother Roxy for a few months and then fast forward through the childhood and adolescent lives of the switched boys. The story picks up with them in their early 20s and really kicks into overdrive as two twins arrive from Italy, vices of the switched "black" boy come to light, and murder is committed in the town. The story ends with the title character, Pudd'nhead, working to solve the crime and act as defense lawyer for the accused.There are many themes present throughout this book. They are all presented in Twain's subtle, ironic, humorous tones. Moreso even than in some of his other books, Twain keeps the various "morales" very subtly in the background. He never seems to overtly or explicitly condemn anyone for any of their crimes, prejudices or vices. Instead, he presents a variety of situations ranging from tragic to humorous to ridiculous and lets the reader make his/her own judgment call.So even though Roxy commits a crime in switching her black baby for her master's white baby, Twain never condemns her. He never makes any commentary on what he presents as the absolutely ridiculous practice that even a drop of "black blood" can make a person "black" and thus a slave, no matter how "white" that person really is. He doesn't even really speak out against slavery (even in the subtle way he did in Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer) though he does make is somewhat evident that he's not a fan just through the way the various interactions take place.The closest he comes to condemnation is through Roxy's dialog later in the book as she talks with her son and reveals his true heritage to him. Through Roxy, he condemns "Tom's" behavior…his despicable treatment of blacks, his many vices, his horrific act of selling "down the river" and more and more.Pudd'nhead acts almost as a counterpoint to Roxy's scathing comments. He seems sometimes to be the voice of reason or at least of calm, pensive thinking. Through his logical reasoning and his instinctive insight, we have a character who, although thought by his peers to be a dunce, is actually quite bright and has great wit and wisdom.As the full title (The TRAGEDY of Pudd'nhead Wilson) suggests, this book doesn't have a 'happy' ending per se. In the end, all the crimes are resolved and the innocent parties are restored to their freedom while the guilty parties are punished. However, the tragedy seems to be in how "matter of fact" the state of affairs is presented. After the trial is complete, the wrap up is somewhat disheartening. The white boy ('Chambers') who lived his life as black is now caught between worlds, not fitting into any place. The boy's uncle (Judge Driscoll) is dead and his estate now belongs to an out of place nephew newly restored to 'whiteness.' Roxy's punishment is almost a reward. And 'Tom', who should receive one major punishment is instead set "free" in terms of 'justice' but left a "slave" because of the value of a black man.This book is a very thoughtful and intriguing piece. It had in its underlying tone, much of the humor and irony that I really love about Twain's work. I really like the characters and the general story. I loved the presentation of the work and had a lot of fun reading this book. If I had to choose only one Twain, I'd still choose Huck, but this is another one that I'd recommend reading if you have any interest in Mark Twain, 19th century south, slavery, or American Literature in general. It's a great read.****4.5 out of 5 stars
    • 5/5
      Reviewed Dec. 1999 After the first reading of this book several years ago, I felt that this book (amongst others)should be required reading for Junior High School. and now after re-reading it again this December I find that I still feel this way. Twains grip of this era is wonderful, he eaves everything in...through reading the Negro speak is a bit difficult unless you do it fast. The mystery and suspense is as good as any modern mystery (accept the reader knows who did if from the beginning) but how the murderer is discovered is extremely entertaining. As a historical story it seems accurate while poking fun of the people at the time. the characters are very developed and interesting to read about. I had forgotten what a free-thinker Twain is, (could Twain have seen himself as Tom’s uncle?) Looking back almost 100 years to the customs and lifestyle of the time, a modern reader is flabbergasted by how far society has come. Puddenhead keeps us further entertained throughout with quips from his calender. “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” And many more. 52-1999
    • 5/5
      An unbelievable satire on American race relations and identity.