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The Prince and the Pauper

by Mark Twain

A prince and a pauper born the same day in London will swap lives.

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Original language: EnglishLevel: Intermediate1,365 characters · ≈ 2 minSource: Project Gutenberg

Opening lines

In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. On the same day another English child was born to a rich family of the name of Tudor, who did want him. All England wanted him too. England had so longed for him, and hoped for him, and prayed God for him, that, now that he was really come, the people went nearly mad for joy. Mere acquaintances hugged and kissed each other and cried. Everybody took a holiday, and high and low, rich and poor, feasted and danced and sang, and got very mellow; and they kept this up for days and nights together. By day, London was a…

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About the book

The Prince and the Pauper is a novel by American author Mark Twain, first published in 1881 in Canada and then in the United States in 1882. It was Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. The plot centers on the accession of nine-year-old Edward VI to the English throne in 1547 and his interactions with Tom Canty, a look-alike London pauper living with his abusive, alcoholic father, whose fate becomes intertwined with the prince's.

About the author

Mark Twain (1835–1910), born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. His works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Pudd'nhead Wilson.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: The Prince and the Pauper (CC BY-SA)

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Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

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