 
| The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain Genre: Classic |
The more classic books that I read the more convinced that I become about the general misconceptions of the themes of such books. I had always thought that the prince and the pauper had purposely exchanged roles - the prince wanting freedom from his structured schedule and the pauper wanting relief from the hunger and misery that comes with being poor - but that is not the case! What began as childish whimsy, exchanging their clothes led to an exaggerated case of mistaken identity. I find it quite sad that the kids' parents didn't notice the exchange of the dopplegangers, though the pauper's mother did at least have her suspicions.
By weaving in actual facts of the royal family, Twain has made the history of this time period so interesting that I almost want to research it further - almost, but not quite. I was never a great student of history though I have gotten a little better as I have gotten older and certain topics will pique my curiosity.
I am not a huge fan of Twain, as i find his frequent use of phonetic depictions of dialects hard to read, but I have found some of his stories to be very enjoyable, and this was one of them. I would gladly read this story again, which I cannot say about all of his books.
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