Wednesday, April 01, 2009

The Prince and the Pauper

*Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Clemens
*His novel was first published in 1882- 127 years ago
*He dedicates the book to his 'good mannered and agreeable children Susie and Clara Clemens'
*He quotes Shakespeare's the Merchant of Venice at the beginning of the book. This quote has to do with Mercy- something Edward VI learns
*The language was a little hard to get used to at times (lots of 'thee's and 'thou's) but the eloquence was altogether likable.
*My favorite character was Miles Hendon, I like the way he acted, thought, and the privilage the King gives him. Although he is not a main character, it is easy to say that the story could not go on with out him.

There were once two boys who were born at the same time and looked uncommonly alike, but they were born into completely different families. One was born a prince, and the other a pauper. By chance they meet one day, and end up living each other's lives. After a wild chain of events, and very interesting characters, will they realize that their own family and sstatus is what they prefer?

Much of the time that I read I was laughing, or at least smiling, at all of the close calls, near escapes, and problems that came up out of nowhere for each boy during their 260 page adventure. One thing I found funny was how the boys continually told the truth about who they were, but no one believed them.

I really enjoyed Mark Twain's classic. All I really knew about it was from the Micky Mouse version I had watched when I was younger, if you watch parts of it on youtube you will understand that I did not know what to expect. I am glad to report that I was happily surprised.

Now in closing, I leave you with a quote from the character Edward VI:
"The world is made wrong; kings shuld go to school to their onw laws at times, and so learn mercy."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is my favorite book!! I found this book last year. I never read a book that really get me interested like this one. One day I hope I could make the animated movie of it

Nicole said...

I agree that it was easy to get into the world Mark Twain created in this book, and that everything was so interesting it was hard to put down! I think an animated movie of it would be quite intriguing, but personally I think I'd like to see a real-person movie of it. But a movie, nonetheless. There is so much suspense and great characterization I think it would be phenomenal.