Pudd'nhead Wilson

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

Roxy, a slave who is only one-sixteenth black, serves as a nanny to her master's son, Tom Driscoll, who was born the same day as her own son, Chambers. Afraid that Chambers will one day be sold to another family, Roxy switches the two infants, who look almost exactly alike. Only Pudd'nhead Wilson, the town's laughing-stock, is able to figure out her ruse and set things right. Written during a period of great tragedy in Mark Twain's life and great social unrest in America, Pudd'nhead Wilson rises above its farcical plot to ask pointed philosophical questions about society, values, and racism.

©1992 by Richard Ewing (P)1992 by Recorded Books, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Dietz is, as usual, the man for the narrating job. He does Twain proud with his characterizations and adept sense of comic timing." (Kliatt)

One of Twain's best

I have enjoyed several of Mark Twain's books both by reading them and, more recently, by listening to them as audible books. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are fantastic, but I actually enjoyed Pudd'nhead Wilson even more. The story is intriguing, and the Narrator does an excellent job with the dialects. The extra material at the end was fascinating in which Twain explained how he had trouble getting this book the way he wanted it to be because, he finally realized, it was two stories in one. He told how he had to kill off many of the characters (by having them fall into a well) to remedy the problem.

awesome must read

I enjoyed the reading thoroughly

Yuck

The story is great-the audio quality and reader is awful!!!!