In the ancient city of London were born two boys: Tom Canty, born to a poor family, and who is enthralled by the grace and
nobility of royalty; and Edward Tudor, born to a rich family, and who is willing to forego his crown in exchange for a day of experiencing common delights. The difference, however, stops there, for the two boys look mightily alike, that dressed in the other's clothes, one could not tell them apart.
When by chance they meet one day, the two exchanged clothes in jest without anybody's knowledge. The prince, still clad in Tom's rags, made the mistake of stepping out of the castle and found himself
forever barred from the gates. Thus, Edward, the Prince of Wales, was thrown in the company of the most desolate, beaten, starved, forced to beg and steal. Tom, on the other hand, unaware of Edward's plight, was cast into the world of royalty and rigid protocol.
Both boys were thought of as mad: a beggar-clad lad, proclaiming himself to be the heir to the throne; and a richly-dressed child, forgetting courtly manners and denying his dignity. Then King Henry VIII dies. And until this wrong is righted, the false king will be crowned and the rightful heir will forever live the life of a destitute.
This is my first ever Mark Twain novel so I am not familiar with his writing style. I embarked on this book therefore with second-hand information as to the humor that Twain is so famous for. Finally, with
The Prince and the Pauper, I
experienced, first-hand, the much beloved and admired humor. Not lost to this great humorist however are the harsh realities of life, set in 1881, when he injected into his work injustice and poverty. While it may have been a century or two ago, the depiction of the brutalities of life is still very much the same as today; so much so that the work becomes a satire. I was entertained; in fact, I could hardly put the book down as I was itching to know the outcome of the switching. Thrown into a world totally different from what he had experienced, I ached for Edward to be discovered for who he really is, and spared the pain of common, yet painful, life. But then, I felt for Tom to as the return of the true king would mean Tom's return to a life of beatings and starvation. All ends well; and I was very much impressed with the way Twain turned a cliche what-he-learned-from-his-previous-life-was-put-to-good-use-as-a-king into an entertaining read.