The Prince and the Pauper

By Mark Twain

Categories: Children's Books, Literature & Fiction

The Prince and the Pauper is Mark Twain's 1881 novel about two identical-looking boys in sixteenth-century England who switch places. Tom Canty, a poor boy from London, meets Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII. As a joke, they swap clothes, and soon the prince is thrown out of the palace while Tom is treated as royalty. Each learns about the other's world. The novel satirizes injustice and the cruelty of the law.