The Prince and the Pauper (Signet Classics)
by Mark Twain
List Price:
Our Price: $0.89
You Save: $3.06 (77%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Mark TwainAfterword: Everett Emerson
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-05-01
ISBN: 0451528352
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Signet Classics
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780451528353
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Book Reviews of The Prince and the Pauper (Signet Classics)
Book Review: A Rich Switch
Summary: 4 Stars
It's a book everyone knows but hardly anyone seems to read, notes Jerry Griswold in his introduction to the Penguin edition of this book. Even well-read people who recognize the importance of Mark Twain often regard "The Prince And The Pauper" as kiddy lit. Well, it is written for children, yet in a clever and immersive way adults can enjoy, too.
Tom Canty is a 16th century London street urchin who dreams of becoming a king. Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, dreams of escaping his royal confinement. One day Tom stumbles into Westminister and meets Edward. Both are struck by the fact they are practically mirror images of one another. Edward changes clothes with Tom for a lark, then goes outside to upbraid a guard for cuffing Tom. Big mistake. Now Edward is the street urchin, foolishly protesting his kingship, while Tom adjusts to the royal life.
Twain wrote this in 1881, between "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn." It's darker than the first but lighter than the second, evidence for the theory Twain charted a steady course in his life from cheerful cynic to bitter nihilist. The overall tone of "Prince" is fairly light, with a style that sends up Sir Walter Scott's roundabout locutions. But dark moments occur with bracing frequency, especially as the story rounds on Edward in peasant's garb. He watches executions by fire, witnesses casual crimes, and hears of the depravity people endure under his father's reign.
"The world is made wrong," young Tudor observes. "Kings should go to school to their own laws, at times, and so learn mercy."
There's comedy, too, much of it in what Tom Canty undergoes. In one episode, he discovers it takes a small army to get him dressed in the morning. He also meets another youth whose job is to absorb the corporeal punishment when the young Prince fails his education, a youth who fears he could become unemployed by Tom's instinct for mercy. "My back is my bread" he cries.
The novel is a fun ride and a trip for the imagination, but somewhat indifferent as an adventure story. The main business Edward faces is escaping Tom's cruel father, who turns up rather illogically in several places before disappearing without a word. A subplot involves a down-on-his-luck soldier Edward meets in his wanderings, Miles Hendon; yet the relationship between him and Edward is never explored satisfactorily enough to explain Hendon's selfless loyalty to the boy. Canty's part of the tale falls by the wayside for the book's second half, and never resumes until nearly the end. The novel's conclusion, while satisfying, just sort of happens without any build-up.
All these are admittedly the kind of criticisms that occur to one who is really engaged by the book. "Prince" is very much a pleasure to read, a stylistic detour for Twain that still connects with the kid in all more than a century later.
Summary of The Prince and the Pauper (Signet Classics)
A pauper caught up in the pomp of the royal court.A prince wandering horror-stricken through the lower depths of English society.
Out of the theme of switched identities, Mark Twain fashioned both a scathing attack upon social hypocrisy and injustice, and an irresistible comedy imbued with the sense of high-spirited play that belongs to his happiest creative period.
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Best Kids Book List by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times
Lad: A Dog (1919)by Albert Payson Terhune
Kessinger Publishing, LLC; Published: 2008-10-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $30.96
Price in other shops:
The Prince and the Pauper (Signet Classics)by Mark Twain
Signet Classics; Published: 2002-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops:
On to Oregon!by Honore Morrow
HarperCollins; Published: 1991-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $99.49
Classic Starts: Little Lord Fauntleroy (Classic Starts Series)by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Sterling; Published: 2008-02-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.13
Price in other shops:
The Dog Who Wouldn't Beby Farley Mowat
Bantam Books; Published: 1984-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.88
Price in other shops:
Anne of Green Gables (Unabridged Classics)by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Sterling; Published: 2004-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.81
Price in other shops:
Gentle Ben (Puffin Modern Classics)by Walt Morey
Puffin; Published: 2006-02-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.96
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: 10th Anniversary Edition (Harry Potter)by J.K. Rowling
Scholastic Inc.; Published: 2008-09-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.60
Price in other shops:
The Alex Rider Collection (Alex Rider Adventure)by Anthony Horowitz
Speak; Published: 2008-09-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.96
Price in other shops:
Freddy the Magician (Freddy the Pig Series)by Walter R. Brooks
Overlook Juvenile; Published: 2002-09-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.98
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Aesop's Fables (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)by Aesop
Dover Publications; Published: 1994-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.62
Price in other shops:
Pudd'nhead Wilson (Bantam Classics)by Mark Twain
Bantam Classics; Published: 1984-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.45
Price in other shops:
Water Skyby Jean Craighead George
HarperTeen; Published: 1989-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Teen Health Course 3 Student Activities Workbookby McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill/Glencoe; Published: 2008-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.24
Price in other shops:
The Innocents Abroadby Mark Twain
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Robinson Crusoe (Dover Thrift Editions)by Daniel Defoe
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1998-06-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.53
Price in other shops:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Penguin Classics)by Mark Twain
Penguin Classics; Published: 2006-02-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.16
Price in other shops:
Life on The Mississippi (Signet Classics)by Mark Twain
Signet Classics; Published: 2009-03-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.36
Price in other shops:
Julius Caesar (Cambridge School Shakespeare)Cambridge University Press; Published: 2008-03-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Courtby Mark Twain
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops: