At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilson a young slave woman fearing for her infant's son's life exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's. From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining funny yet biting novels. On its surface Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery: reversed identities a horrible crime an eccentric detective a suspenseful courtroom drama and a surprising unusual solution. Yet it is not a mystery novel. Seething with the undercurrents of antebellum southern culture the book is a savage indictment in which the real criminal is society and racial prejudice and slavery are the crimes. Written in 1894 Pudd'nhead Wilson glistens with characteristic Twain humor with suspense and with pointed irony: a gem among the author's later works.
