Pudd'nhead Wilson
The Authoritative Edition, with Those Extraordinary Twins
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 30. April 2024
Book
Hardback
872 pages
978-0-520-39809-2 (ISBN)
Description
This critical edition publishes-for the first time anywhere-the original manuscript and revised versions of Pudd'nhead Wilson.
Mark Twain's story of the antebellum South, first published in 1894, continues to prompt conversations about race and the dire legacy of American slavery. At its heart is Roxy, a mixed-race woman enslaved to a wealthy Missouri family. To save her infant son (whose father was white) from being "sold down the river," Roxy switches him in the cradle with her master's son, setting in motion a train of ironic and bitter events. With its mixture of farce, social commentary, tragedy, and satire, Pudd'nhead Wilson has come to be one of Mark Twain's most-read and most-studied works.
But few have read the original Pudd'nhead Wilson. The text familiar since 1894, as editor Benjamin Griffin shows, was heavily edited and censored-first by the author himself under pressure from family and friends, then by his publishers. Now the Mark Twain Project makes available the full text of the Morgan Library manuscript (the original version), together with a critical text of the revised version, stripped of the changes imposed by Mark Twain's editors and publishers-two fascinating ways to encounter this troubled and troubling novel.
Mark Twain's story of the antebellum South, first published in 1894, continues to prompt conversations about race and the dire legacy of American slavery. At its heart is Roxy, a mixed-race woman enslaved to a wealthy Missouri family. To save her infant son (whose father was white) from being "sold down the river," Roxy switches him in the cradle with her master's son, setting in motion a train of ironic and bitter events. With its mixture of farce, social commentary, tragedy, and satire, Pudd'nhead Wilson has come to be one of Mark Twain's most-read and most-studied works.
But few have read the original Pudd'nhead Wilson. The text familiar since 1894, as editor Benjamin Griffin shows, was heavily edited and censored-first by the author himself under pressure from family and friends, then by his publishers. Now the Mark Twain Project makes available the full text of the Morgan Library manuscript (the original version), together with a critical text of the revised version, stripped of the changes imposed by Mark Twain's editors and publishers-two fascinating ways to encounter this troubled and troubling novel.
Reviews / Votes
"If you add only one book to your Mark Twain research library this year . . . this is the one." * Mark Twain Forum Reviews * "Thanks to the Mark Twain project, which has published authoritative editions of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as well as multiple volumes of his letters, we now have the definitive and original version of Pudd'nhead Wilson, without the subsequent changes forced on the author by friends and publishers. We also have the revised version in this volume, so readers can see how the tale of the slave who switched her baby, who is black, with the son of her master evolved under Twain's pen." * Airmail * "The new Mark Twain Project edition of Pudd'nhead Wilson is an opportunity for readers to gain more insight into the author's sincere, if imperfect, efforts to attack the scourge of racial prejudice." * The Objective Standard * "Benjamin Griffin's outstanding critical edition of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) recounts the tangled composition history that led Mark Twain to perform what he famously described as a 'literary Caesarian operation' upon the novel." * Textual Cultures * "A remarkable achievement on the part of Ben Griffin and his felloweditors at the Mark Twain Project. If such a reminder is necessary, and for
most of us it is not, this edition proves how fortunate we are to have such
talented, dedicated scholars doing the hard work necessary to keep Mark
Twain's writings-in all their messy glory-readable, vibrant, and relevant."
* American Literary Realism *
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
73 b-w images
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 56 mm
Weight
1315 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-39809-2 (9780520398092)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2024
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€19.49
Available for download
Persons
Benjamin Griffin is an editor at the Mark Twain Project, which is housed within the Mark Twain Papers in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. For more than four decades the Project has been producing a complete scholarly edition of everything the author wrote. Griffin's previous editorial credits include the three volumes of the best-selling Autobiography of Mark Twain.
Content
Contents
About the Texts in This Volume
Abbreviations Used in This Volume
Offensive Language in Pudd'nhead Wilson
Acknowledgments
PUDD'NHEAD WILSON: A TALE. THE MORGAN MANUSCRIPT VERSION
Addenda to the Morgan Manuscript
PUDD'NHEAD WILSON: A TALE. THE REVISED VERSION
THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS: A POSTSCRIPT TO PUDD'NHEAD WILSON
EXPLANATORY NOTES
The Morgan Manuscript Version
The Revised Version
"Those Extraordinary Twins"
APPENDIXES
A. MS Berg: Contents and Numbering
B. MS Morgan: Contents and Numbering
C. Mark Twain's Working Notes
D. Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar for 1894
E. Contract with the American Publishing Company
F. American Publishing Company Advertising Flyer
G. Illustrating Pudd'nhead Wilson
H. ["The Man with Negro Blood"]
Introduction
TEXTUAL APPARATUS
Note on the Texts
Guide to the Textual Apparatus
Description of Source Documents
Emendations and Historical Collations:
The Morgan Manuscript Version
The Revised Version
"Those Extraordinary Twins"
Word Division in This Volume
References
About the Texts in This Volume
Abbreviations Used in This Volume
Offensive Language in Pudd'nhead Wilson
Acknowledgments
PUDD'NHEAD WILSON: A TALE. THE MORGAN MANUSCRIPT VERSION
Addenda to the Morgan Manuscript
PUDD'NHEAD WILSON: A TALE. THE REVISED VERSION
THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS: A POSTSCRIPT TO PUDD'NHEAD WILSON
EXPLANATORY NOTES
The Morgan Manuscript Version
The Revised Version
"Those Extraordinary Twins"
APPENDIXES
A. MS Berg: Contents and Numbering
B. MS Morgan: Contents and Numbering
C. Mark Twain's Working Notes
D. Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar for 1894
E. Contract with the American Publishing Company
F. American Publishing Company Advertising Flyer
G. Illustrating Pudd'nhead Wilson
H. ["The Man with Negro Blood"]
Introduction
TEXTUAL APPARATUS
Note on the Texts
Guide to the Textual Apparatus
Description of Source Documents
Emendations and Historical Collations:
The Morgan Manuscript Version
The Revised Version
"Those Extraordinary Twins"
Word Division in This Volume
References