Prince and the Pauper Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

PRINCE AND THE PAUPER

Written By: Mark Twain

Review submitted by: Neha Asif

Prince and the pauper is a book which has been placed on my bookshelf from a very young age. It is one of those few books I have read when I started reading literature other than my curricular books.

From Mark twain’s further classics this is a winning book for young readers. Surprisingly connecting the reader with a world of two boys, one a prince enjoying a lavish life in the palace other an urchin pauper living in the not so good street of London. Both unpredictably having the same identities by face but not by names or living standards.

The story grows to a point where both these boys confront each other, Tom Canty happens to meet Prince Edward of Wales. And after a situation of confusion they nearly switch places to each other.

The story revolves around Tom, who is sick of being beaten by his cruel father, and Edward who is bizarre of being present to his royal responsibilities. They both switching their lives among themselves animate each other's lives, yet, it's not as easy as they thought it would be.

Tom has a dream even though by getting brutality from his father and grandmother -despite of caring mother and sisters- that one day he will meet the prince himself. And thinking about his dream he witnessed the hallucination of living a luxurious life.

Waking up Tom decided to visit way to Westminster Palace. A guard outbreaks him as he gets a little too close to the gate. Fortunate for Tom, this interests the attention of the prince, who reproaches the guard and let the pauper into the palace. It's his dream come true.

Talking to each other they both conversed about themselves and completes that regardless of their families they both are fateful somehow, so we guess that's something to bond over. Prince feeling excited about tom’s life decides to swap lives, just for a little while. Changing his visual attire of a prince to a pauper he keeps himself still in that clothing and conversed further when halfway he thought to investigate the guard who opposed tom at the gate. What he wasn't expecting was to be mistaken for Tom and kicked out of the palace because no one could recognize him without his apparel of a prince. Now he's just another poor person on the street.

The story continues with some entertaining situations depicted by the writer as both have been switched in places now. One of them as in the court, when Tom is given a finger bowl, he drinks from it, announcing, "This is a very flavourless soup." And everyone thinks he's crazy. Meanwhile, Tom starts to get a little twitchy at the palace. He tries to turn himself in, but everyone just assumes that he's crazy whereas on the other hand he’s scared to get caught and punished.

One the other hand in the slums of London Tom’s dad is angry that Edward (who he believes is Tom) doesn't have any money to give him. He brings the prince home, and beats him for saying that he's the prince. Tom's mother responds, "Oh, poor Tom, it's all those books you read that's done this to you”. But later she did believe him as the mother knows all.