The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

by Mark Twain, 203 pages                                                                         In the 1830s, Dave Wilson, a college graduate from out East, decides to settle in a small Missouri town along the Mississippi River and open a law office.  Unfortunately for him soon after coming to town, Dave makes an ironic comment that confounds the town folk and convinces them that he's nothing more than a pudd'nhead.  Dave's law practice never quite catches on, and he solidifies his reputation as a town fool with his odd habit of collecting everyone's fingerprints.  Roxana is a slave, 1/16 black, and terrified that her only son might be sold down river one day, so she switches his crib with that of the master's son.  No one knows what Roxana has done, and she suspects no one ever will as long as Pudd'nhead Wilson never catches on.

This was written later in Twain's life while he was living abroad in Italy.  It's the first time the science of finger printing is used in a mystery, so we can forgive the town folk for treating it with the same reservations as they would palmistry or other pseudosciences.  The story holds plenty of Twain's trademark humor, but also explorers the injustices of slavery in a pre-Civil War Missouri.  This is a quick and entertaining read made all the more interesting for its local setting.