Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55481-266-0
Verlag: Broadview Press Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 275 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 277 mm x 218 mm, Gewicht: 344 g

Reihe: Broadview Editions

The two narratives published together in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins are overflowing with spectacular events. Twain shows us conjoined twins, babies exchanged in the cradle, acts of cross-dressing and racial masquerade, duels, a lynching, and a murder mystery. Pudd’nhead Wilson tells the story of babies, one of mixed race and the other white, exchanged in their cradles, while Those Extraordinary Twins is a farcical tale of conjoined twins. Although the stories were long viewed as flawed narratives, their very incongruities offer a fascinating portrait of key issues—race, disability, and immigration—facing the United States in the final decades of the nineteenth century.

Hsuan Hsu’s introduction traces the history of literary critics’ response to these works, from the confusion of Twain’s contemporaries to the keen interest of current scholars. Extensive historical appendices provide contemporary materials on race discourse, legal contexts, and the composition and initial reception of the texts.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Twain, Mark

Hsu, Hsuan L.

Über Autor(innen)

Mark Twain is the pen name of Samuel L. Clemens (1835-1910), an American author and humorist. He is perhaps best known for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Hsuan L. Hsu is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, USA. He is the editor of the Broadview Edition of Sui Sin Far/Edith Maud Eaton’s Mrs. Spring Fragrance (2011).