The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale For Young People of All Ages (Mark Twain Library, Band 5) - Softcover

Twain, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520270010 ISBN 13: 9780520270015

Verlag: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PR, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

"What am I writing? A historical tale of 300 years ago, simply for the love of it." Mark Twain’s "tale" became his first historical novel, The Prince and the Pauper, published in 1881. Intricately plotted, it was intended to have the feel of history even though it was only the stuff of legend. In sixteenth-century England, young Prince Edward (son of Henry VIII) and Tom Canty, a pauper boy who looks exactly like him, are suddenly forced to change places. The prince endures "rags & hardships" while the pauper suffers the "horrible miseries of princedom." Mark Twain called his book a "tale for young people of all ages," and it has become a classic of American literature.

The first edition in 1881 was fully illustrated by Frank Merrill, John Harley, and L. S. Ipsen. The boys in these illustrations, Mark Twain said, "look and dress exactly as I used to see them cast in my mind. . . . It is a vast pleasure to see them cast in the flesh, so to speak." This Mark Twain Library edition exactly reproduces the text of the California scholarly edition, including all of the 192 illustrations that so pleased the author.

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"Unquestionably the best book he has ever written."—Susy Clemens, aged thirteen

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"Unquestionably the best book he has ever written." Susy Clemens, aged thirteen

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The Prince and the Pauper

A Tale for Young People of all Ages

By Mark Twain, Frank T. Merrill, John J. Harley, L. S. Ipsen

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Copyright © 1983 The Regents of the University of California
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-520-27001-5

Contents

ILLUSTRATIONS, xi, 
FOREWORD, xv, 
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, 
Preface, xx, 
1. The Birth of the Prince and the Pauper, 1, 
2. Tom's Early Life, 3, 
3. Tom's Meeting with the Prince, 11, 
4. The Prince's Troubles Begin, 21, 
5. Tom as a Patrician, 27, 
6. Tom Receives Instructions, 39, 
7. Tom's First Royal Dinner, 51, 
8. The Question of the Seal, 57, 
9. The River Pageant, 61, 
10. The Prince in the Toils, 65, 
11. At Guildhall, 77, 
12. The Prince and His Deliverer, 85, 
13. The Disappearance of the Prince, 101, 
14. "Le Roi Est Mort—Vive le Roi", 109, 
15. Tom as King, 123, 
16. The State Dinner, 135, 
17. Foo-Foo the First, 141, 
18. The Prince with the Tramps, 157, 
19. The Prince with the Peasants, 169, 
20. The Prince and the Hermit, 177, 
21. Hendon to the Rescue, 187, 
22. A Victim of Treachery, 193, 
23. The Prince a Prisoner, 201, 
24. The Escape, 207, 
25. Hendon Hall, 211, 
26. Disowned, 221, 
27. In Prison, 227, 
28. The Sacrifice, 239, 
29. To London, 245, 
30. Tom's Progress, 249, 
3l. The Recognition Procession, 253, 
32. Coronation Day, 263, 
33. Edward as King, 277, 
Conclusion. Justice and Retribution, 287, 
Notes, 291, 
MAP OF LONDON, 298, 
REFERENCES, 301, 
EXPLANATORY NOTES, 303, 
NOTE ON THE TEXT, 319, 

CHAPTER 1

The Birth of the Prince and the Pauper

In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. On the same day another English child was born to a rich family of the name of Tudor, who did want him. All England wanted him, too. England had so longed for him, and hoped for him, and prayed God for him, that now that he was really come, the people went nearly mad for joy. Mere acquaintances hugged and kissed each other and cried; everybody took a holiday, and high and low, rich and poor, feasted and danced, and sang, and got very mellow—and they kept this up for days and nights together. By day, London was a sight to see, with gay banners waving from every balcony and house-top, and splendid pageants marching along. By night it was again a sight to see, with its great bonfires at every corner and its troops of revelers making merry around them. There was no talk in all England but of the new baby, Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, who lay lapped in silks and satins, unconscious of all this fuss, and not knowing that great lords and ladies were tending him and watching over him—and not caring, either. But there was no talk about the other baby, Tom Canty, lapped in his poor rags, except among the family of paupers whom he had just come to trouble with his presence.

CHAPTER 2

Tom's Early Life

Let us skip a number of years.

London was fifteen hundred years old, and was a great town—for that day. It had a hundred thousand inhabitants—some think double as many. The streets were very narrow, and crooked, and dirty, especially in the part where Tom Canty lived, which was not far from London Bridge. The houses were of wood, with the second story projecting over the first, and the third sticking its elbows out beyond the second. The higher the houses grew, the broader they grew. They were skeletons of strong criss-cross beams, with solid material between, coated with plaster. The beams were painted red or blue or black, according to the owner's taste, and this gave the houses a very picturesque look. The windows were small, glazed with little diamond-shaped panes, and they opened outward, on hinges, like doors.

The house which Tom's father lived in was up a foul little pocket called Offal Court, out of Pudding Lane. It was small, decayed, and ricketty, but it was packed full of wretchedly poor families. Canty's tribe occupied a room on the third floor. The mother and father had a sort of bedstead in the corner, but Tom, his grandmother, and his two sisters, Bet and Nan, were not restricted—they had all the floor to themselves, and might sleep where they chose. There were the remains of a blanket or two and some bundles of ancient and dirty straw, but these could not rightly be called beds, for they were not organized; they were kicked into a general pile, mornings, and selections made from the mass at night, for service.

Bet and Nan were fifteen years old—twins. They were good-hearted girls, unclean, clothed in rags, and profoundly ignorant. Their mother was like them. But the father and the grandmother were a couple of fiends. They got drunk whenever they could; then they fought each other or anybody else who came in the way; they cursed and swore always, drunk or sober; John Canty was a thief, and his mother a beggar. They made beggars of the children, but failed to make thieves of them. Among, but not of, the dreadful rabble that inhabited the house, was a good old priest whom the king had turned out of house and home with a pension of a few farthings, and he used to get the children aside and teach them right ways secretly. Father Andrew also taught Tom a little Latin, and how to read and write; and would have done the same with the girls, but they were afraid of the jeers of their friends, who could not have endured such a queer accomplishment in them.

All Offal Court was just such another hive as Canty's house. Drunkenness, riot and brawling were the order, there, every night and nearly all night long. Broken heads were as common as hunger in that place. Yet little Tom was not unhappy. He had a hard time of it, but did not know it. It was the sort of time that all the Offal Court boys had, therefore he supposed it was the correct and comfortable thing. When he came home empty handed at night, he knew his father would curse him and thrash him first, and that when he was done the awful grandmother would do it all over again and improve on it; and that away in the night his starving mother would slip to him stealthily with any miserable scrap or crust she had been able to save for him by going hungry herself, notwithstanding she was often caught in that sort of treason and soundly beaten for it by her husband.

No, Tom's life went along well enough, especially in summer. He only begged just enough to save himself, for the laws against mendicancy were stringent, and the penalties heavy; so he put in a good deal of his time listening to good Father Andrew's charming old tales and legends about giants and fairies, dwarfs and genii, and enchanted castles, and gorgeous kings and princes. His head grew to be full of these wonderful things, and many a night as he lay in the dark on his scant and offensive straw, tired, hungry, and smarting from a thrashing, he unleashed his imagination and soon forgot his aches and pains in delicious picturings to himself of the charmed life of a petted prince in a regal palace. One desire came in time to haunt him day and night: it was, to see a real prince, with his own eyes. He spoke of it once to some of his Offal Court comrades; but they jeered him and scoffed him so unmercifully that he was glad to keep his dream to himself after that.

He often read the priest's old books and got him...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0520270010
• ISBN 13: 9780520270015
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 321
• Herausgeber: Fischer Victor
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar