Rating: 
Summary: Intresting Thought-E.A.W.
Review: There are many characters in this novel. Some which are named, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Roxy, Tom,Chambers, Rowena,Luigi, Angelo, Howard,and Judge Driscoll. Pudd'nhead Wilson is a man that's a lawyer with a kind heart. Roxy is a slave that will do anything to keep her child from being sold down the river. Tom is switched at birth and is really Chambers and lives a good life. He is a stubborn boy who doesn't care about others. Chambers is actually Tom and lives a life of A poor slave boy. He is a protecter of Tom. Rowena is the only girl in town that brightens up a person's day. Luigi and Angelo are twins that have good personalities except for Luigi who was uncaring and kicked Tom in the rear. Howard is a friend of Judge Driscoll who is a nosey person. Judge Driscoll is mean yet responsible.
During this book a slave named Roxy switched her child at birth soit would't be sold down the rivr. Her actual son did not know he was her son until later on. He wasn't nice to her till after that. Later on Judge Driscoll caught him in the act of stealing money. Pudd'nhead then found out about the switching and Tom was sold down the river. Read this book because it keeps you interested in it and it is enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Slavery, identity, and injustice.
Review: This book is considered one of Mark Twain's "Mississippi" writings. The setting is Dawson's Landing, Missouri in the 1850s. There is a melodramatic surface plot that seems rather trite by modern standards. The story revolves around switched identities and solving a murder by the fledgling science of fingerprinting. Mark Twain's celebrated acerbic wit is in evidence, but mainly in the chapter heading quotes from Pudd' nHead Wilson's calendar of daily observations and homespun philosophy rather than in the novel itself. In addition, the book portrays 19th century American slavery. The slave woman Roxy, speaking in a heavy dialect, is the catalyst that sets the critical events in motion. The injustice of racism is the underlying theme of the book. Twain refrains from preaching a social justice sermon, but the inferences are there. Pudd'nHead Wilson is a country lawyer with no clients. To pass time, he dabbles in one experiment or another, and enjoys fingerprinting the local citizens. Wilson resembles a 19th century version of Jimmy Stewart's "everyman" in films. Although a minor work, the novel is interesting as an example of Mark Twain's other writing beyond "Tom Sawyer" and "Huck Finn." The Dover Thrift Editions are an inexpensive alternative to accessing major works of world literature. The no-frills packaging presents the unabridged text and a brief biographical note on Mark Twain. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Slavery, identity, and injustice.
Review: This book is considered one of Mark Twain's "Mississippi" writings. The setting is Dawson's Landing, Missouri in the 1850s. There is a melodramatic surface plot that seems rather trite by modern standards. The story revolves around switched identities and solving a murder by the fledgling science of fingerprinting. Mark Twain's celebrated acerbic wit is in evidence, but mainly in the chapter heading quotes from Pudd' nHead Wilson's calendar of daily observations and homespun philosophy rather than in the novel itself. In addition, the book portrays 19th century American slavery. The slave woman Roxy, speaking in a heavy dialect, is the catalyst that sets the critical events in motion. The injustice of racism is the underlying theme of the book. Twain refrains from preaching a social justice sermon, but the inferences are there. Pudd'nHead Wilson is a country lawyer with no clients. To pass time, he dabbles in one experiment or another, and enjoys fingerprinting the local citizens. Wilson resembles a 19th century version of Jimmy Stewart's "everyman" in films. Although a minor work, the novel is interesting as an example of Mark Twain's other writing beyond "Tom Sawyer" and "Huck Finn." The Dover Thrift Editions are an inexpensive alternative to accessing major works of world literature. The no-frills packaging presents the unabridged text and a brief biographical note on Mark Twain. ;-)
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting twist by Twain
Review: This book was a great one. Mark Twain takes simple plots and manages to turn them into classics. The simple changing of children at birth leads to so much more in this novel. I especially liked Twain's use of foreshadowing and always trying to keep the reader in suspense. While it is no doubt predictable that Tom is going to commit a crime of some sort, I could never identify what he was going to do. The way it came about no doubt surprised me and I liked how Twain did it. Twain's style is another thing I love. He uses the vernacular so effectively and it helped to paint a picture of the characters in my mind. I can easily get images of all the characters because I can either relate the characters to someone I have come across or by the excellent description he has given. Pudd'nhead Wilson is an excellent book and Twain once again delivered a classic novel about the old West where slavery still dictated life, and as always, the Mississippi River played a role in the story.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting twist by Twain
Review: This book was a great one. Mark Twain takes simple plots and mangaes to turn them into classics. The simple changing of children at birth leads to so much more in this novel. I especially liked Twain's use of foreshadowing and always trying to keep the reader in suspense. While it is no doubt predictable that Tom is going to commit a crime of some sort, I could never identify what he was going to do. The way it came about no doubt surprised me and I liked how Twain did it. Twain's style is another thing I love. He uses the vernacular so effectively and it helped to paint a picture of the characters in my mind. I can easily get images of all the characters because I can either relate the characters to someone I have come across or by the excellent description he has given. Pudd'nhead Wilson is an excellent book and Twain once again delivered a classic novel about the old West where slavery still dictated life, and as always, the Mississippi River played a role in the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Puddinhead Wilson
Review: This book was so boring. I had to read it for school, and I was not impressed! It was so slow, and was not one of Twain's best. I definatly don't recommend this for kids or adults. DON"T READ PUDDINHEAD WILSON!
Rating:
Summary: Another great achievement by Twain
Review: This is an amusing and thoughtful novel, peering into the issues of slavery, the negative power of labeling, and the general humanity which is sometimes ignored through a heartful and satiric story.
Rating:
Summary: A unique take on slavery
Review: This is not one of Twain's best novels, but it is nevertheless a very good read. Like Huckleberry Finn, this book deals with slavery, but this time Twain tackles the problem in an entirely different manner. Roxana, a woman who is 1/16 Negro but still a slave, gives birth to an almost-white son, and switches him for a white baby at birth. The result is that the boys grow up in each others' roles, with the boy who should be master (Tom) being raised as the slave, and vice-versa.
Like Huck Finn, this novel makes a statement about the terrors of slavery (especially of slavery in the deep-South). But there is also something else at work here. Roxy's real child, Chambers (though he is known as Tom), grows up to be cruel and mean, both to his servants and his mother. The usurper Tom turns into a detestable young man while the slave boy (who is the real Tom) turns out cool and reserved, and very well-behaved. Whether the usurper is rotten because of his lowly birth or because of his upper-class upbringing is never exactly made clear, but the intriguing part comes about when the boys are finally restored to their respective positions. At this point the real Tom is unable to function as a member of upper-class society. He feels totally uneasy around other whites, and prefers the simple company of the slaves with which he was raised.
This novel effectively reduces the lot of a life of slavery to a matter of chance. It was chance that made one infant free and the other a slave, and it was also no fault of their own that they were changed. The horrible injustice of that institution becomes obvious when seen as a random consignment of one human being to freedom and another to slavery. This may not be the best of Twain's works, but it is nevertheless a classic of American Literature.
Rating:
Summary: A unique take on slavery
Review: This is not one of Twain's best novels, but it is nevertheless a very good read. Like Huckleberry Finn, this book deals with slavery, but this time Twain tackles the problem in an entirely different manner. Roxana, a woman who is 1/16 Negro but still a slave, gives birth to an almost-white son, and switches him for a white baby at birth. The result is that the boys grow up in each others' roles, with the boy who should be master (Tom) being raised as the slave, and vice-versa.
Like Huck Finn, this novel makes a statement about the terrors of slavery (especially of slavery in the deep-South). But there is also something else at work here. Roxy's real child, Chambers (though he is known as Tom), grows up to be cruel and mean, both to his servants and his mother. The usurper Tom turns into a detestable young man while the slave boy (who is the real Tom) turns out cool and reserved, and very well-behaved. Whether the usurper is rotten because of his lowly birth or because of his upper-class upbringing is never exactly made clear, but the intriguing part comes about when the boys are finally restored to their respective positions. At this point the real Tom is unable to function as a member of upper-class society. He feels totally uneasy around other whites, and prefers the simple company of the slaves with which he was raised.
This novel effectively reduces the lot of a life of slavery to a matter of chance. It was chance that made one infant free and the other a slave, and it was also no fault of their own that they were changed. The horrible injustice of that institution becomes obvious when seen as a random consignment of one human being to freedom and another to slavery. This may not be the best of Twain's works, but it is nevertheless a classic of American Literature.
Rating:
Summary: Pudd'nhead
Review: This was my third Twain novel, after Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Although this is a much later work, the similarities are striking: the contrived plot (we have to believe that two babies, entirely unrelated and one with some African heritage, are so alike that even their father cannot tell them apart), the device of having a male character disguise himself as a woman, the cruel treatment by a boy of his adoptive parents, and so on. "Pudd'nhead Wilson" is Twain's shortest novel and shows signs of having been pruned. Some characters, -- Rowena, for example -- play a significant part early on, then disappear. Wilson himself plays no part throughout most of the story. My guess is that Twain originally intended a much longer novel, with more incidents and secondary plotlines. The fingerprint aspects of the story will seem quaint, and often downright inaccurate, to the modern reader, but at the time they must have been quite startling. The technique had not yet been officially adopted by law enforcement. Some of you may remember an episode of "Alias Smith and Jones" in which Hannibal learns about fingerprinting from this book. A (perhaps the chief) delight of the book is the selection of aphorisms from "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar", appended to each chapter heading. It's a great excuse for Twain to peddle some marvelous quotables. Every reader will choose a favorite; mine is "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry". The Bantam Classics edition has a very poor introduction by Langston Hughes, consisting mostly of a plot synopsis (fine if you want to remove all suspense from your reading experience) padded out with generous quotations from the text. Some editorial notes would have been nice too, to help out with a few unfamiliar phrases; this novel is after all more than a hundred years old. I'm sure there must be better editions out there.
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