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

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