Another of Mark Twain's best-selling yarns of skullduggery and mischief. Set in the deep South, Pudd'nhead Wilson is the central character as an attorney who solves a murder mystery and lays bare the wicked deeds of a larger than life ensemble of personalities in his own wry and peculiar way.

David Wilson is called “Pudd’nhead” by the townspeople, who fail to understand his combination of wisdom and eccentricity. He redeems himself by simultaneously solving a murder mystery and a case of transposed identities.

Two children, a white boy and a mulatto, are born on the same day. Roxy, mother of the mulatto, is given charge of the children; in fear that her son will be sold, she exchanges the babies.

The mulatto, though he grows up as a white boy, turns out to be a scoundrel. He sells his mother and murders and robs his uncle. He accuses Luigi, one of a pair of twins, of the murder. Pudd’nhead, a lawyer, undertakes Luigi’s defense. On the basis of fingerprint evidence, he exposes the real murderer, and the white boy takes his rightful place.

The book implicitly condemns a society that allows slavery. It concludes with a series of witty aphorisms from Pudd’nhead’s calendar.

Table of Contents:

A Whisper to the Reader

Chapter 01 Pudd'nhead Wins His Name

Chapter 02 Driscoll Spares His Slaves

Chapter 03 Roxy Plays a Shrewd Trick

Chapter 04 The Ways of the Changelings

Chapter 05 The Twins Thrill Dawson's Landing

Chapter 06 Swimming in Glory

Chapter 07 The Unknown Nymph

Chapter 08 Marse Tom Tramples His Chance

Chapter 09 Tom Practices Sycophancy

Chapter 10 The Nymph Revealed

Chapter 11 Pudd'nhead's Thrilling Discovery

Chapter 12 The Shame of Judge Driscoll

Chapter 13 Tom Stares at Ruin

Chapter 14 Roxana Insists Upon Reform

Chapter 15 The Robber Robbed

Chapter 16 Sold Down the River

Chapter 17 The Judge Utters Dire Prophesy

Chapter 18 Roxana Commands

Chapter 19 The Prophesy Realized

Chapter 20 The Murderer Chuckles

Chapter 21 Doom

Conclusion

Author's Note to Those Extraordinary Twins