Pudd'nhead Wilson and Other Tales

This novel reveals the sinister forces that Mark Twain felt to be threatening the American dream. In spite of a plot which includes child swapping, palmistry, and a pair of Italian twins, it also raises the serious issue of racial differences.

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Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) was Mark Twain's last serious work of fiction, and perhaps the only real novel that he ever produced. Written in a more sombre vein than his other Mississippi writings, the novel reveals the sinister forces that Mark Twain felt to be threatening the American dream. In spite of a plot which includes child swapping, palmistry, and a pair of Italian twins, this astringent work also raises the serious issue of racial differences. This volume also includes two other late works `Those Extraordinary Twins' and `The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg'. This book is intended for general readers, students of American literature, and American history, students of the novel, those on racial studies courses, at undergraduate and sixth form level.