Mark Twain
The Prince and the Pauper
$16.95, £11.95 paperback
9780520051089
Available Now
341 pages, 5-3/8 x 8-1/2 inches, 191 b/w illustrations
December 1983, Available worldwide
Also in: American Literature; Fiction
December 1983, Available worldwide
Also in: American Literature; Fiction
"What am I writing? A historical tale of 300 years ago, simply for the love of it." Mark Twain's "tale" became his first historical novel, The Prince and the Pauper, published in 1881. Intricately plotted, it was intended to have the feel of history even though it was only the stuff of legend. In sixteenth-century England, young Prince Edward (son of Henry VIII) and Tom Canty, a pauper boy who looks exactly like him, are suddenly forced to change places. The prince endures "rags & hardships" while the pauper suffers the "horrible miseries of princedom." Mark Twain called his book a "tale for young people of all ages," and it has become a classic of American literature.
The first edition in 1881 was fully illustrated by Frank Merrill, John Harley, and L. S. Ipsen. The boys in these illustrations, Mark Twain said, "look and dress exactly as I used to see them cast in my mind. . . . It is a vast pleasure to see them cast in the flesh, so to speak." This Mark Twain Library edition exactly reproduces the text of the California scholarly edition, including all of the 192 illustrations that so pleased the author.
The first edition in 1881 was fully illustrated by Frank Merrill, John Harley, and L. S. Ipsen. The boys in these illustrations, Mark Twain said, "look and dress exactly as I used to see them cast in my mind. . . . It is a vast pleasure to see them cast in the flesh, so to speak." This Mark Twain Library edition exactly reproduces the text of the California scholarly edition, including all of the 192 illustrations that so pleased the author.
PRAISE FOR THE SERIES:
"Each additional volume reaffirms our faith and celebration in this splendid series."—Nineteenth-Century Fiction
"Any academic who assigns another text rather than one of the . . . volumes now available in the Mark Twain Library owes the profession an apology if it can be found."—American Literature
"Handsome, readable and full of surprises…the American classics that come to us from the Mark Twain Library are simply superb."—Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
"The Mark Twain Project of the University of California Press is reuniting Samuel Clemens's texts with the essential illustrations he commissioned for them, and the results are splendid: may the Twain never again be sundered!"—Cathleen Medwick, Vanity Fair
"If you want to enjoy, and to understand fully, the genius of Mark Twain, the California editions are the only texts to have."—Michael Shelden, London Telegraph
"Each additional volume reaffirms our faith and celebration in this splendid series."—Nineteenth-Century Fiction
"Any academic who assigns another text rather than one of the . . . volumes now available in the Mark Twain Library owes the profession an apology if it can be found."—American Literature
"Handsome, readable and full of surprises…the American classics that come to us from the Mark Twain Library are simply superb."—Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
"The Mark Twain Project of the University of California Press is reuniting Samuel Clemens's texts with the essential illustrations he commissioned for them, and the results are splendid: may the Twain never again be sundered!"—Cathleen Medwick, Vanity Fair
"If you want to enjoy, and to understand fully, the genius of Mark Twain, the California editions are the only texts to have."—Michael Shelden, London Telegraph
"Unquestionably the best book he has ever written."—Susy Clemens, aged thirteen
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