Book description
Determined that her baby son Tom shall not share her fate and remain in
slavery, Roxy secretly exchanges him with his playmate Chambers, the son
of her master. The two boys' lives in the quiet Missouri town of
Dawson's Landing remain entwined even though they take very different
directions. The indulged Tom (now heir to a fortune rightfully that of
Chambers) goes to Yale, where he learns how to drink and gamble, while
Chambers looks set to remain a subservient drudge. But then a strange
sequence of events begins - one in which the much-derided lawyer,
'Pudd'nhead' Wilson, has a key part to play - and changes everything.
Darkly ironic, blending farce and tragedy, Pudd'nhead Wilson is a
complex and fascinating depiction of human nature under slavery.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835. He trained as a
river-boat pilot, but turned to journalism after the Civil War, and
published his first short story in 1865. He is also the author of The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Malcolm Bradbury was a renowned writer and journalist.
