Mark Twain, Prince and the Pauper

Poor boy Tom Canty admires the royals who seem so far out of his reach in sixteenth-century English society, but when he meets young Prince Edward, he realizes they are very much alike. They share the same birthday and the same face. And when Edward dons Tom's rags, and Tom slips into the royal cloak, no one can tell them apart. The wrong prince will soon be crowned king, unless Edward can produce the Great Seal of England in time to prove his right to the throne. In The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain sheds satiric light on class distinctions, personal identity, and power dynamics that seem as germane today as ever before.