A Southern town scandalized by the murder of its most prominent citizen uncovers a mystery even more shocking in this ironic suspense story from a great American master
Afraid for her infant sonโs life, a slave switches the boy with her masterโs child. A young New York lawyer fascinated by palmistry and fingerprint analysis moves below the MasonโDixon line, makes a bad joke, and is immediately and forever branded a โpuddโnhead.โ Two Italian noblemen pay a visit to Dawsonโs Landing, Missouri, and become prime suspects in the murder of a local judge.
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From these disparate plot strands, Mark Twain fashions a humorous and entertaining tale with all the elements of the traditional murder mystery: a case of mistaken identity, a gruesome crime, a sinister villain, an eccentric detective, a climactic courtroom showdown, and an ingenious solution. But beneath this potboilerโs pomp and circumstance lurks a clear-eyed and savagely compelling indictment of slavery and its poisonous effects on American society.
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Twainโs last novel set in the antebellum South, Puddโnhead Wilson offers his clearest and most provocative condemnation of racial prejudice.
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