Audiobook · read by volunteers
Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Mark Twain (1835–1910)
Read by Michael Yard · 23 chapters · 7 h 06
About the book
Dawson's Landing is a sleepy town on the Mississippi where everyone knows everyone, until a clever newcomer arrives. David Wilson is a lawyer with no clients, and a dry joke the townspeople fail to understand earns him the nickname Pudd'nhead, while he quietly pursues a hobby of collecting fingerprints. Meanwhile, in the household of a leading citizen, two baby boys are swapped, one born free and one born into slavery, and each grows up in the wrong place. Mark Twain turns this switch of identities into a sharp, ironic tale about race, upbringing and the stories a society tells itself. It is also a courtroom drama with a satirical edge. Michael Yard reads the twenty-three chapters in about seven hours, and the town comes to life with every voice. Sly, sharp and surprisingly modern, it is Twain in a darker and more daring mood.
Introduction
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who lived from 1835 to 1910. The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson appeared in 1893 and 1894, a period when Twain was troubled by money worries and was writing to pay off debts. It is one of his later novels, and it differs from the comic tone of earlier books such as Tom Sawyer. The humour is still there, but it is sharper and more bitter. The story is set in Dawson's Landing, a small Missouri town on the Mississippi.
The book brings together several traditions: the frontier town of the Mississippi, the detective story built around evidence, and the comedy of mistaken identity. It also confronts the question of race, which Twain approached with irony, showing how arbitrary the lines between people can be. Each chapter opens with a short epigram taken from the lawyer's calendar, a collection of aphorisms that has been quoted often since.
The LibriVox recording lasts a little over seven hours and is divided into 23 chapters. A single reader, Michael Yard, takes all the roles. Readers have long argued about whether the novel is a tragedy, a satire or a mystery, and probably it is all three. It offers a rewarding listen for anyone who wants to see a more critical side of Twain, and the courtroom scenes are among his finest.
The short sayings that open each chapter, drawn from a calendar of the title character, are small jewels of dry wit, and they set the tone for the whole book. Michael Yard's single voice carries the whole town, from the gossips to the lawyer.
Public domain
Mark Twain died in 1910: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text