This is one of those books where you know what’s going on, but you have to wait a long time for the characters in the story to catch up. Sigh.
The title is the nickname given to a lawyer who settles in a small town but fails to achieve success because the locals think he’s weird. Partly, he is; as a hobby, he takes people’s fingerprints and compares them. The townspeople aren’t as clever as they think they are, so it’s ironic that they give the young lawyer a nickname that disparages his intelligence (see below). But the book isn’t about the lawyer.
The book is about two boys, one “white” and one “black”, who change places, kind of like the boys in The Prince and the Pauper. This time, however, the change is deliberate on the part of the mother of the “black” boy, who swaps him for her employer’s son to give her own son a better life. That doesn’t really turn out well for anyone, except maybe the lawyer; everyone has to admit that his fingerprinting hobby is actually quite useful for identification purposes.
The “I see where this is going” plot made me impatient, and the dishonest mother and her spoiled son are somewhat and very irritating, respectively. However, the setting is interesting; the themes are interesting; the lawyer is interesting; and the dialect dialog is interesting. Moreover, the wry observations in the narration are interesting (see below).
Pudd’nhead Wins His Name
“[A]n invisible dog began to yelp and snarl and howl and make himself very comprehensively disagreeable, whereupon young Wilson said, much as one who is thinking aloud— ‘I wish I owned half of that dog.’ ‘Why?’ somebody asked. ‘Because I would kill my half.’ …’If he ain’t a pudd’nhead, I ain’t no judge, that’s all.’
Wit
“The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world’s luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took: we know it because she repented.”
Wisdom
“[D]eceptions intended solely for others gradually grew practically into self-deceptions as well.”
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear— not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word.”
“Tryin’ ain’t de thing. You’s gwyne to do it.”
“Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.”
When and Why I Read Pudd’nhead Wilson
Time to read some Mark Twain.
Genre: American Literature
Date started / date finished: 29-Mar-25 to 30-Mar-25
Length: 119 pages
ISBN:
Originally published in: 1894/2004/2023
