The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Another post I've been wanting to write for quite some time, and finally got the chance to, having now finished the book at last.
This title was not on the reading list for the OTIS creative writing program, in case you're wondering. This was a book I purchased in June of last year, while taking a day trip down to Newport
Beach to participate in the annual Art Festival into which I had been accepted. It took place in a lovely little plaza near the Newport Beach Library. After dropping off my work in the morning and with a few hours to kill before the festival opened, I moseyed on over to a local mall and picked this off the shelf at Barnes and Noble to read in my car. I'd always wanted to own a copy of any classic I can get, expanding my personal library of titles I know I'll be going back to for the rest of my life, and boy, was I right.
I just finished reading it a few weeks ago, because of my staggered schedule, I had to read it off and on this past year, but remarkably, the book has this type of magic that keeps the momentum going every time you pick it up. It is like no time has passed at all in between sessions with that book.
I was surprised to learn that this book was written by Mark Twain, of all people. I mean, that book title is one you hear a lot, catchy as it is, and Twain is a guy you figure has nothing outside of the Huck Finn Tom Sawyer saga. Really remarkable the shift in tone and language and overall attitude from those books to this.
His charm and charisma come through so magnificently, as always, even if the diction and dialogue are now in a medieval English setting, and not the nineteenth century old South of the United States. It totally makes you forget about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Though Twain's theme of the magic of childhood is still prevalent.
The story surrounds a poor boy who lives as a peasant, (named Tom Canty) who spends his time reading lots of books about royalty, kings, queens, royal courts, knights, all that stuff, and learns the graces and mannerisms and customs of that level of society, while only dreaming about it, watching it from a distance. Then one day, as he's standing in a crowd, watching the prince, (a boy his same age) make some public appearance, Tom gets unfairly harassed by one of the castle guards, and the Prince sees this and is angry at the guard for his misconduct, so he invites Tom into the castle to meet him. They notice that they look and sound exactly the same, by coincidence, and decide to switch clothes to stand in front of the mirror as a joke. Then, being reminded in conversation of the guard's misconduct, the prince goes back outside to reprimand the bully, forgetting that he's still wearing the peasant boy's clothes. The guards laugh at him, and throw him out back into the street.
We spend the book watching Tom Canty become acclimated to his new position as "Prince" even watching the king pass away and Tom "inheriting" the position. While the little Prince wanders about the lower classes, getting a chance to see "how the other half lives" and developing a sympathy for them, living under the harsh rule of his father.
Like I said, because of the confident, charismatic, and not too self-involved or self-important writing of Twain, the book loses no momentum, and every time you pick it up, it's like you never left.
This title was not on the reading list for the OTIS creative writing program, in case you're wondering. This was a book I purchased in June of last year, while taking a day trip down to Newport
I just finished reading it a few weeks ago, because of my staggered schedule, I had to read it off and on this past year, but remarkably, the book has this type of magic that keeps the momentum going every time you pick it up. It is like no time has passed at all in between sessions with that book.
I was surprised to learn that this book was written by Mark Twain, of all people. I mean, that book title is one you hear a lot, catchy as it is, and Twain is a guy you figure has nothing outside of the Huck Finn Tom Sawyer saga. Really remarkable the shift in tone and language and overall attitude from those books to this.
His charm and charisma come through so magnificently, as always, even if the diction and dialogue are now in a medieval English setting, and not the nineteenth century old South of the United States. It totally makes you forget about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Though Twain's theme of the magic of childhood is still prevalent.
The story surrounds a poor boy who lives as a peasant, (named Tom Canty) who spends his time reading lots of books about royalty, kings, queens, royal courts, knights, all that stuff, and learns the graces and mannerisms and customs of that level of society, while only dreaming about it, watching it from a distance. Then one day, as he's standing in a crowd, watching the prince, (a boy his same age) make some public appearance, Tom gets unfairly harassed by one of the castle guards, and the Prince sees this and is angry at the guard for his misconduct, so he invites Tom into the castle to meet him. They notice that they look and sound exactly the same, by coincidence, and decide to switch clothes to stand in front of the mirror as a joke. Then, being reminded in conversation of the guard's misconduct, the prince goes back outside to reprimand the bully, forgetting that he's still wearing the peasant boy's clothes. The guards laugh at him, and throw him out back into the street.
We spend the book watching Tom Canty become acclimated to his new position as "Prince" even watching the king pass away and Tom "inheriting" the position. While the little Prince wanders about the lower classes, getting a chance to see "how the other half lives" and developing a sympathy for them, living under the harsh rule of his father.
Like I said, because of the confident, charismatic, and not too self-involved or self-important writing of Twain, the book loses no momentum, and every time you pick it up, it's like you never left.
