num_pages: 512
description: Widely acknowledged as the greatest of his later works, The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, is Twain's most searingly ironic vision of race in America. Set in a town not unlike the Hannibal of Twain's youth, the book began life as a slapstick comedy about Siamese twins. But "it changed from a farce to a tragedy," Twain tells us, in the course of his writing, &amp; the result was one of the most profound meditations on race &amp; identity an American writer has produced. The voice that dominates this tale is that of Roxana, a light-skinned slave desperate to keep her child from being sold down the river, who switches him in the cradle with the child of her master. Roxana, Twain's most complex &amp; fully-realized adult female character, is a compelling tragic heroine; the plot she sets in motion is daring, risky &amp; totally riveting. Murder &amp; mayhem precede a courtroom scene that ranks as one of the most memorable in American literature. This conflicted, provocative, richly satirical novel confronts head-on the enigma of what makes us who we are.
language: English
title: The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson/Those Extraordinary Twins
titlecomplete: The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson/Those Extraordinary Twins
genres: Fiction, American, Classic Literature, School, Humor, Literature, Read For School, Classics, Novels, 19th Century
ratings_count: 4833
publisher: Oxford University Press