Resumo de Puddin' Head Wilson

Review ? Puddi?nhead Wilson
by Mark Twain 295 pages copyrighted 1893 and 1922

This is actually two stories in one using the same characters and events in both yet the second story has a twist. In the main story of Pudd?nhead Wilson the characters of Luigi and Angelo are secondary characters whereas in the second story, Those Extraordinary Twins, they are the main characters. Here they are conjoined twins with two heads and four arms sharing the same internal organs and two legs.
In the introduction Twain confessed he had written a complex story that he was unable to untangle. After months of trying unsuccessfully to sort things out he decided to split one story into two after seeing a poster about conjoined European circus twins while living in Italy.
The Puddi?nhead Wilson story takes place in Dawson's Landing Missouri, USA starting in 1830 and follows two new born boys for the next twenty-five years. Thomas Driscoll was the son of a white businessman named Percy Driscoll. His mother died in childbirth and the boy was taken care of by a black nanny named Roxy. Her child born at the same time was called Chambers.
Roxy was 15/16 white and looked white. This was slave times and her other 1/16 made her black. A more offensive work is used for black people in the book as that was the term used then. Roxy also spoke in the black slay of the day and it was this that actually put her in the slave class.
Except for the clothes the baby boys wore only Roxy could tell them apart. When the boys were six months old Percy Driscoll sold three of the slaves. This terrified Roxy and she switched the boy?s identities by changing their clothes. Thomas grew up as the black child Chambers with no education and speaking poorly. Chambers was raised as Thomas by his uncle, Judge York Driscoll, after his father Percy died. He led a privileged life even after he started gambling.
David ?Puddi?nhead? Wilson came to Dawson?s Landing in 1830 as a lawyer and accountant. He made a dumb comment about a barking dog that the rest of the town labelled him as a fool and soft in the head like pudding thus the term puddi?nhead. Wilson didn?t get any work as a lawyer for twenty-five years until after he discovered the true identity of the person who murdered Judge Driscoll.
This is where the separate Italian twins, Luigi and Angelo Capello, enter the fray. Their parents died and they travelled throughout Europe as circus performers and musicians. While travelling in the United States they came to Dawson?s Landing and became celebrities. Soon after their arrival Judge Driscoll was killed with knife that belonged to the twins. This was also just after the judge had a dual with Luigi.
Neither of the twins were convicted and the true murderer was discovered. It seems that Wilson had an unusual hobby of collecting fingerprints of everyone he met. During the trial the true identity of Thomas and Chambers was also discovered and their social positions were corrected.
In the second story the events with the twins are the same except it happens with them sharing one body. After the acquittal of murder both run for the new city council. Angelo wins but cannot attend with Luigi. How is this dilemma solved? Sorry I can?t tell everything only I didn?t like Twain?s solution.

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