Description
Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) was Mark Twain's last serious work of fiction, and perhaps his only real novel. Written in a more sombre vein than his other Mississippi writings, it reveals the sinister forces that, towards the end of his life, Mark Twain felt to be threatening the American dream. The central plot revolves around the tragedy of 'Roxy', a mulatto slave whose attempt to save her son from his fate succeeds only in destroying him. In spite of a storyline that includes child swapping, palmistry, and a pair of Italian twins, this astringent work also raises the serious issue of racial difference.This volume includes two other late works by Mark Twain, 'Those Extraordinary Twins', and 'The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg'.
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Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), written in a more sombre vein than his other Mississippi writings, was Mark Twain's last serious work of fiction. It reveals the sinister forces that, towards the end of his life, Twain thought to be threatening the American dream. The central plot revolves aroundthe tragedy of "Roxy," a mulatto slave whose attempt to save her son from his fate succeeds only in destroying him. An astringent work which raises the serious issue of racial difference, Pudd'nhead Wilson is considered by the critic F.R. Leavis to be "a classic of the use of popular modes--thesensational and the melodramatic." The volume also includes two other late works by Twain, Those Extraordinary Twins and The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.
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