Mark Twain is an iconic American author. He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. Raised along the Mississippi River, Twain is best known for the two books he wrote inspired by this life in that setting: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckelberry Finn (1884). The latter of these is occasionally referred to as the first Great American Novel.

In the late 1870’s, Twain went on his second European tour, a trip around many of the historically and culturally significant parts of Europe that lasted several months. During this time, he read extensively about English history, especially the works of Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume. The lasting impression he took from this was the brutality of the English legal system during previous eras. He decided to write about a king from that time being forced to live as an ordinary person in the land he ruled. The result was his first historical novel, The Prince and the Pauper, published in 1881. The novel’s characters speak in a parody of Shakespearean speech, which Twain uses to heighten the satire.

As well as being a commentary on the past, The Prince and the Pauper critiques elements of Twain’s contemporary time.