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Audiobook edition · 6 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a town’s certainty about blood and birth rests on nothing more than a cradle swap?
In Dawson’s Landing, a slave-holding town on the Mississippi, family names carry weight and custom decides a child’s future. Roxana, called Roxy, takes a desperate step to save her son from slavery: she swaps two babies. Her son grows up as Tom Driscoll, the wealthy heir, while Chambers grows up enslaved.
Meanwhile, David Wilson, a young lawyer from New York, earns the town’s mockery and quietly collects fingerprints. Tom grows vain, reckless, and burdened by gambling debts. In The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, Mark Twain brings sharp humor to a darker question: how much of a person’s fate comes from the life others assign them?
What you’ll discover
- A mother’s dangerous choice Roxy’s fierce love drives a cradle swap that places two children on unequal paths.
- The fool worth watching Meet David Wilson, whose fingerprint collection contrasts with the town’s confidence in family names.
- Privilege with a bitter edge Follow Tom as the comforts of an heir’s life give way to reckless debts.
- Custom under sharp scrutiny See Twain challenge the claim that race fixes a person’s nature or worth.
- Laughter that leaves a sting Enjoy a wry voice whose mock praise makes the town’s proud manners look troubling.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy sly humor with a serious edge, questions of identity and justice, vivid small-town characters, and mysteries with carefully planted clues will love this novel.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A proud town and a branded stranger
- Two babies, one threat, one swap
- The false heir grows into a tyrant
- The Italian twins dazzle the town
- Roxy returns and a kick starts a feud
- A mother sold down the river
- Race, training, and Twain's sly voice
Who’s who
- David WilsonA New York lawyer nicknamed Pudd'nhead who collects fingerprints on glass and keeps a Calendar of dry sayings. He wants to be taken seriously.
- RoxanaAn enslaved woman, one sixteenth Black, who swaps two babies to save her son from being sold down the river.
- Tom DriscollRoxy's son, raised as the Judge's heir. He is spoiled and cruel, and he wants money, pleasure, and safety above all.
- ChambersThe rightful heir, raised as a servant and bullied by Tom. He is strong and patient and keeps his silence.
- Judge York Leicester DriscollLeading citizen of Dawson's Landing and a proud Virginian who lives by the code of honor and dotes on his nephew.
- Luigi and Angelo CapelloItalian twins who arrive as noble guests. They charm the town and hope to settle there.
- Pembroke HowardA lawyer and the Judge's closest friend, also devoted to Virginia's code of honor.
- Rowena CooperA romantic nineteen-year-old who longs for glory and thinks the twins will bring it to her town.
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La Tragédie de Wilson Tête-de-Punaise
by Mark Twain · 1894
A secret baby swap and a lawyer's fingerprint collection connect two Missouri boys to a hidden truth.
Medium level2–5 hours to readfrançais
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In short
What would you do if one careless joke could label you a fool for twenty years? In 1830, a young lawyer named David Wilson walks into the Missouri river town of Dawson's Landing.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A proud town and a branded stranger
Dawson's Landing sits on the Missouri side of the Mississippi, half a day by steamboat below St. Louis. Twain paints it as a pretty place. White houses vanish under rose vines and honeysuckle, and cats sleep on the windowsills. Then he adds a plain fact. It is a slaveholding town, and the farms behind it are worked by enslaved people.
At the top of local society stands Judge York Leicester Driscoll, generous, fair in his own eyes, and proud of his Virginia ancestry. His closest friend is the lawyer Pembroke Howard, an authority on the code of honor. The Judge's younger brother Percy is a busy speculator in land.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1894
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 4 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Twain, Mark. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-tragedy-of-puddnhead-wilson.
Twain, M. (2026). The tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-tragedy-of-puddnhead-wilson (Original work published 1894)
Twain, Mark. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-tragedy-of-puddnhead-wilson.
@book{twain2026tragedy,
author = {Twain, Mark},
title = {The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-tragedy-of-puddnhead-wilson},
note = {First published 1894}
}
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What is The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson about?
It follows a Missouri river town in the years before the Civil War. An enslaved mother swaps her baby with her master's heir, and two boys grow up in the wrong roles while a lawyer called Pudd'nhead quietly collects fingerprints.
Why is David Wilson called Pudd'nhead?
On his first day in town, Wilson says he wishes he owned half of a barking dog so he could kill his half. The townspeople cannot make sense of the joke, decide he is a fool, and the nickname sticks.
Who are Roxy, Tom, and Chambers?
Roxy is an enslaved woman who is one sixteenth Black. Her son Tom is raised as the white heir of the Driscoll house after she swaps the cradles, and the real heir, Chambers, grows up as a servant.
The author
Mark Twain
1835–1910 · American humorist and novelist
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American author born in Missouri in 1835. He lived in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1874 to 1891. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Prince and the Pauper (1881). He died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910.
More by Mark Twain
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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