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The plot concerns the ascension of nine-year-old Edward VI of England in 1547 and his interactions with look-alike Tom Canty, a London pauper who lives with his abusive, alcoholic father.
- Mark Twain
- 1881
The Prince and the Pauper, novel by Mark Twain, published in 1881. In it Twain satirizes social conventions, concluding that appearances often hide a person’s true value. Despite its saccharine plot, the novel succeeds as a critique of legal and moral injustices.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Tom Canty's life in Offal Court, off Pudding Lane, is a hard life in one of London's poorest neighborhoods. He is forced by his father to go out begging daily, and he is beaten severely if he returns empty-handed.
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This treasured historical satire, played out in two very different socioeconomic worlds of 16th-century England, centers around the lives of two boys born in London on the same day: Edward, Prince of Wales and Tom Canty, a street beggar.