The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

Tom Canty is a London street urchin who dreams of becoming a king while Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, dreams of escaping his royal confinement. By a sudden twist of fate, they find themselves in each other’s circumstances. Thus a bedraggled “Prince of Poverty” is raised to royalty, while a pampered Prince of Wales finds himself tossed into a world of filthy beggars and villainous thieves. The Prince and the Pauper originally published in 1881, is one of Mark Twain’s earliest social satires. With his tongueincheek irony, Twain satirizes the power of the monarchy, unjust laws and barbaric punishments, religious intolerance and superstitions. Although originally written as a story for children, The Prince and Pauper is a classic novel for adults as well, offering critical insight into a people and time period not really all that different from our own.