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The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, by
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Last Updated: December 23, 2008 Posting Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #102] Release Date: January, 1994
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON
by Mark Twain
A WHISPER TO THE READER
There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt. --Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar
A person who is ignorant of legal matters is always liable to make mistakes when he tries to photograph a court scene with his pen; and so I was not willing to let the law chapters in this book go to press without first subjecting them to rigid and exhausting revision and correction by a trained barrister--if that is what they are called. These chapters are right, now, in every detail, for they were rewritten under the immediate eye of William Hicks, who studied law part of a while in southwest Missouri thirty-five