The Prince and the Pauper

Additional Book Details

"It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it could have happened, wrote Mark Twain in his preface to The Prince and the Pauper. What am I writing? says Twain, A historical tale of 300 years ago, simply for the love of it. This is the tale of two young boys, one a prince and the other a pauper, who by a stroke of fate look identical. They meet and on a whim briefly trade places, but to their horror become trapped in the others world. The prince endures rags and hardship while the pauper suffers the demanding obligations of princedom. The text is unabridged and includes 114 vintage illustrations from the original 1882 edition.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) is better known by the pen name Mark Twain. He was born in Florida, Missouri and grew up along the Mississippi Valley. Although he left school at the age of 12, when his father died, he was eventually awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Missouri, and Oxford University. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, miner, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, novelist, and publisher. His vivid imagination, keen sense of humor, and sharp wit resulted in some of the most beloved classics of American literature. His novels include such favorites as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.