Featuring the brilliantly drawn Roxanna, a mulatto slave who suffers dire consequences after switching her infant son with her masters baby, and the clever Puddnhead Wilson, an ostracized small-town lawyer, Twains darkly comic masterpiece is a provocative exploration of slavery and miscegenation. Leslie A. Fiedler described the novel as half melodramatic detective story, half bleak tragedy, noting that morally, it is one of the most honest books in our literature. Those Extraordinary Twins, the slapstick story that evolved into Puddnhead Wilson, provides a fascinating view of the authors process. The text for this Modern Library Paperback Classic was set from the 1894 first American edition.From the Trade Paperback edition.