The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
By Mark Twain
Cover: The Jolly Flatboatmen (1846), oil on canvas by George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1879)
Mark Twain's 1894 novel set in Dawson's Landing on the Mississippi. Two babies, one white and one the child of an enslaved woman, are swapped in the cradle. A lawyer with a fingerprint hobby is the only man who can untangle it. A dark satire of race and law.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.
Table of contents
- 1: Pudd'nhead Wins His Name
- 2: Driscoll Spares His Slaves
- 3: Roxy Plays a Shrewd Trick
- 4: The Ways of the Changelings
- 5: The Twins Thrill Dawson's Landing
- 6: Swimming in Glory
- 7: The Unknown Nymph
- 8: Marse Tom Tramples His Chance
- 9: Tom Practises Sycophancy
- 10: The Nymph Revealed
- 11: Pudd'nhead's Startling Discovery
- 12: The Shame of Judge Driscoll
- 13: Tom Stares at Ruin
- 14: Roxana Insists Upon Reform
- 15: The Robber Robbed
- 16: Sold Down the River
- 17: The Judge Utters Dire Prophecy
- 18: Roxana Commands
- 19: The Prophecy Realized
- 20: The Murderer Chuckles
- 21: Chapter 21