Switching Places The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain was a fun book to read, but it didn’t match the normal profile of a Mark Twain novel. Everything that I have read by him wasset in the Mississippi River Valley before the Civil War. The Prince and the Pauper was setin sixteenth century England.The story revolves around a Prince and a Pauper if you can imagine that. BothPrince Edward Tudor and Tom Canty were born on the same day. Edward was welcomeby the whole country as an heir to the throne, but Tom’s family didn’t want him becausethey were too poor as it was. The book mentions this and then keeps to the boys teenageyears.Tom grew up in Offal Court. He had a very tough life. His dad made him go out onthe streets and beg all day and if he didn’t get enough money his father and grandmotherwould beat him . If he thought he raised enough money for a day, he would go to FatherAndrew’s church and learn to read and speak Latin. Tom’s biggest wish was to see a real prince dressed like royalty. He got this wishone day when he was walking by the king’s palace and saw a boy his own age. He gotcloser to the fence and a guard grabbed him and pushed him away. The prince saw all ofthis and told the guard to let Tom in the palace. Prince Edward fed Tom and the startedtalking about each other’s lives and switched clothes. Then, Edward noticed the bruise onTom’s hand and went to punish the guard. Dressed in Tom’s old clothes, the prince wasthrown out of the palace by the guard. Tom was suddenly Edward, Prince of Wales andEdward, Tom Canty of Offal Court. Tom was not refined enough to be a prince. While atstate dinners, he had no clue what to do and just began to stress out King Henry.Tom’s father found Edward and took him home and beat him because he hadn’tcollected enough money from begging. He kept proclaiming that he was the Prince ofWal...
