The Prince and the Pauper
The Prince and the Pauper is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547, it tells the story of two young boys who were born on the same day and are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive, alcoholic father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane in London, and Edward VI of England, son of Henry VIII of England.
While written for children, The Prince and the Pauper is both a critique of social inequality and criticism of judging others by their appearance. Twain wrote of the book, "My idea is to afford a realizing sense of the exceeding severity of the laws of that day by inflicting some of their penalties upon the King himself and allowing him a chance to see the rest of them applied to others..."
Excerpted from The Prince and the Pauper on Wikipedia.
The Prince and the Pauper
| Author | Mark Twain |
| Country | United States |
| Genre | Historical fiction, Children's Literature |
| Copyright | Public domain worldwide. |
| Book cover | - |
| Ebooks | Project Gutenberg |
| Scans | Google-digitized |
| Audio | Librivox | Internet Archive Reader: John Greenman 01-03 04-05 06 07-08 09-10 11 12 13 14 15 16-17 18-19 20-21 22-23 24-25 26-27 28-30 31 32 33 |
| Read online | The Prince and the Pauper |