Pudd’nhead Wilson

novel by Twain
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Also known as: “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins”
In full:
The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins

Pudd’nhead Wilson, novel by Mark Twain, originally published as Pudd’nhead Wilson, a Tale (1894). A story about miscegenation in the antebellum South, the book is noted for its grim humour and its reflections on racism and responsibility. Also notable are the ironic epigraphs from a fictional almanac that open each chapter. Roxana, a light-skinned mixed-race slave, switches her baby with her white owner’s baby. Her natural son, Tom Driscoll, grows up in a privileged household to become a criminal who finances his gambling debts by selling her to a slave trader and who later murders his putative uncle. Meanwhile, Roxy ...(100 of 147 words)