Pudd'nhead Wilson
(Book)

Set before the Civil War, in the first half of the nineteenth century, this novel of Mark Twain's delves into the ironies of racial prejudice. A young would-be lawyer, Wilson, sets out to solve a murder using the (at that time) unproven method of fingerprinting. Thought to be a simpleton or 'puddenhead', he eventually makes his critics look like puddenheads themselves. The main focus of the novel, however, deals with the identities of two young men who grew up together; one an heir of a privileged and wealthy family, the other a slave who is chattel to that family. Unknown to both, they are victims of a deed that occurred when they were infants, and are soon to discover the truth that will wreak havoc in their lives and the lives of those around them.