Pudd'nhead Wilson

At the beginning of <i>Pudd'nhead Wilson</i> a young slave woman fearing for her infant's son's life exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's.&#160;&#160;From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining funny yet biting novels.&#160;&#160;On its surface <i>Pudd'nhead Wilson</i> possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery:&#160;&#160;reversed identities a horrible crime an eccentric detective a suspenseful courtroom drama and a surprising unusual solution.&#160;&#160;Yet it is not a mystery novel.&#160;&#160;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.&#160;&#160;Written in 1894 <i>Pudd'nhead Wilson</i> glistens with characteristic Twain humor with suspense and with pointed irony:&#160;&#160;a gem among the author's later works.