Customer Reviews:
 Good July 6, 2008
Mehajabeen Farid (Coventry)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is a very funny and adventurous story that Mark Twain, (who was probably a genius), wrote about identity mistakes.
Tom Carty and Edward Tudor live very different lives yet they seem so similar - for one thing they look like each other. One day, the two boys meet and the heir to the throne and the poor poverty stricken lad have a wonderful idea and they carry it out...
The young men get a chance to live a new life and find out about how the outside world/ the life in the palace is like.
I am quite sure that you or your children have watched the Disney film of this book, which is quite amusing. Did you know that this book was the inspiration for it? Yes/ no, well know you do!
 There's shame of it - not in Heathenesse, but Christian Church July 15, 2006
Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium)
This book is a sublime `drama' of errors. The prince and the pauper change clothes and are mistaken by the whole population for one another. The prince lives a life of a vagabond and the pauper a royal one. In other words, all men are equal; one has only to change the garments. And, `So evanescent and unstable are men's works in the world.'
This book gives a fair picture of England in the 16th century, worth a Defoe or a Swift: the immense chasm between the rich and the poor, a heavily biased and corrupt judicial system and extremely cruel punishment. `It was a crime to be hungry in England.'
People were hanged for trifling larcenies and slowly boiled for alleged poisoning. `Witches' were burnt at the stake: `My good old blameless mother strove to earn bread by nursing the sick; one of these died, the doctors knew not how, so my mother was burnt for a witch, whilst my babes looked on and wailed ... drink to the merciful English law that delivered her from the English hell!'
The rich chased their farmers away by foreclosures (changing farms in sheep ranges), making instantly beggars of them. They risked heavily to be sold as slaves.
This book is a bittersweet Breughelian comedy about human injustice, cruelty and ultimately generosity.
Not to be missed.
It may not have happened,but it could've happened-! August 10, 1999
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My favorite kind of historical fiction is that which is historicaly accurate and tells fiction without contradicting any real history.In this novel,Mark Twain does all that and more!Through the switch,Tom sees the facade of royalty-while Edward sees the truth of the peasant life.Edward runs into many people(including a crazed would-be Pope,a band of outlaws,and a similar detached heir),and learns what it takes to be a merciful, fair,understanding king.Miles Hendon is an excellent aide for the king,even though it takes Miles a while to see that his young companion is what he claims to be.There are also good examples of Mark Twain the humorist at his best.
Hard but fun read April 16, 1999
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The story of a prince and a pauper who switched places and lived in the others place. This is writen by one of the best authors ever but it is hard to read because of the old english so i would recommend this only to people who will take the time to comprehend the sayings.
The Prince and the Pauper April 3, 1999
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Tom Canty was still a small, poor boy until he met Edward Tudor, the Prince of Wales, who decided positions.So he became the Prince of Wales, while Edward Tudor became him. But fate then casts them out into each other's worlds for adventure beyond their wildest dreams!
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