Saturday, July 21, 2012

Book Review: The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.


The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.
Rich with surprise and hilarious adventure, The Prince and the Pauper is a delightful satire of England’s romantic past and a joyful boyhood romp filled with the same tongue-in-cheek irony that sparks the best of Mark Twain’s tall tales. Two boys, one an urchin from London’s filthy lanes, the other a prince born in a lavish palace, unwittingly trade identities. Thus a bedraggled “Prince of Poverty” discovers that his private dreams have all come true—while a pampered Prince of Wales finds himself tossed into a rough-and-tumble world of squalid beggars and villainous thieves. Originally written as a story for children, The Prince and the Pauper is a classic novel for adults as well—through its stinging attack on the ageless human folly of attempting to measure true worth by outer appearances.

Liana's summary: When Tom Canty meets Prince Edward of Wales, they immediately switch places, for Tom is sick of being beaten by his cruel father, and Edward is sick of attending to his royal duties. When they actually live each other's lives, though, it's not as easy as they thought it would be.

Rate(1-10): 8.7

This book is going to be my last classic and or historical book for a long, long while. I can't stand 3 in a row! Fine. Two. I seriously can't. I think I'll go on to Cameron Dokey now. So, I'm not sure if this is the original story of where all the retellings came from, but, it's by Mark Twain, so yaknoe. If you watch the Barbie movie, (Yes I watched the Barbie movie.) of Princess and the Pauper, they switch places too, obviously, but the only difference really is a crazy old antagonist that wants the throne badly and there's Barbie guys out of nowhere. I don't know. I guess you can watch the movie for the Princesses, or you can read this book. I personally like the book. I like the movie too, but yeah. LOL, me and my recommendations of Barbie movies. Hey! It's a good reference and comparison.

I don't know, this book reminded me of the Princess Bride somehow. I love that book. <3

Since Mark Twain is an  'old dead white guy', I half-expected this book to be history-related and the opposite Genre of what I like.  Buttt, Twain's a surprisingly good author! Yay! (: I LOVE IT. Now he makes me want to read more of his books. But I said, break from classics. Okay. I'm sick of the vocab too. Recently, I just started a vocab journal, and I think it's a great idea, but I'd rather not waste my tabs. I used all my sticky tabs on vocab. D: I don't want to keep a journal with me when I read, either, so yeah. I don't know how I'm going to fit the book back in the drawer, because..
 
Look at all those tabs! I know you can't see it. My hair is in the top right corner. I mean left. It's late in the night. Ehe.

All the chapter titles in this book are actually quite spoiling, which reminds me of Rick Riordan and his awesome chapter titles. (x

I would like to bring it to everyone's attention that I am so thankful I was born in this century. Seriously, I wouldn't be able to stand pooping in a chamber pot. ._. What if I fall in?! OMG. Dismiss this matter.

Also, what I like is that the narrator is still engaged into telling the story and adding additional comments, like, "Let us leave him there for present." And I think it's pretty cool. In my currently-processing-book Incend, I just let the narrator be sort of like me and inherit my way of attitude and talking. And then the rest of the book is first person. In the preview on this blog, I didn't include the Prologue because it's a PREVIEW. So no prologue. And I wanted to give you a sensation for BOTH character introductions. <3 I know, I know, Harry Stephens is so much like Daniel Wing. But lamer. :c Okay. I'll keep trying. I'll never be able to surpass the hotness of Daniel Wing from Legend by Marie Lu, but I'm still writing! (: That's my motive to make Harry merely 'sort-of' like him. I'm giddy.

So, behold: QUOTE REACTIONS. <3
Note: All dialogue in this book is old English. (thy, thou, thee, shall.) Except for the narrator, and I was kinda thrown aback. I was like, how am I supposed to read this? I think I've gotten the hang of it now. Anyways, here you go! Right. One more thing:

Thy= your
thee=you
thou=you

In case you didn't know. (: And they tend to add -eth to present perfect verbs. (ex- This book teacheth thy lessons.)

"...and soundly beaten for it by her husband."

-horrified.- What kind of dad and husband is he? MONSTER!

"...Prince of Wales!" 

WHALES. AHAHA. Sorry. I tend to be immature during classic novels.

"Oh, my lord, on thy knees?-and to me!"

What's with servants doing that? ._.

"Kiss me, my prince."

Saaay whaaaaat?

"..scratching his nose himself."

This part was the part where Tom the pauper was afraid of scratching his nose because of his fear of breaking the rules of etiquette. And then he quit trying and just scratched his nose. I thought he was going to sneeze!

"Go: Time flieth!"
Flieth. (x That sounds funny.

"Let these swine do their will upon me alone."
Let me take a moment to laugh at his use of 'swine'. And how he used it. Ahem, anyway,WHAT A NOBLE PRINCE. <3 

"..hanged, drawn, and quartered,.."
D: You're mad.

"..worser fate?"
Worser's not a word! >:T No fair, how come he gets to use it, but I don't? D: I was always told that worser wasn't a word, but I liked to use it anyway, haha.

"Why should he whip thee for the faults of mine?"
That's not right. Whipping somebody because you did something wrong yourself. Ugh. Pompous royalty is disgusting.


"..To save thee thy whipping?"
Thee thy!

"My memory mendeth, thou seest."
Sounds so weird. I wondered how I would sound if I were born back then.

"By pulling off their stockings, sire."
Oh, hey, these people pulled off their stockings so they should die. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM?! SKFL:SDJ

"..by knocking Hobbs down with his fist.."

aha! HA! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET, YOU CRUEL MAN! A WHACK IN THE FACE!

"..to furnish a breakfast for them."
Barging into someone's house and putting their dirty feet on the table, demanding they cook breakfast. I really hate these people.

"I? Thou idiot!"
It would've sounded better if he used 'dolt' instead of 'idiot." This made me laugh so hard. THOU IDIOT! (x When I wrote... fine, gave a.. bad attempt to write a Medieval story with dragons and princesses, I didn't know that I was supposed to make them talk like that. D; Whale. I'm sticking to Dystopian for now. I liketh it. I know, I think I didn't use that right either. Aha.

"Thou shalt have three, though hapless creature,..."

Ugh. Liars are disgusting! Look at this poor dolt pitying the wrong person!

"The king was cordially ashamed of himself..."
Do not be ashamed. I would've been scared too. D;

"..made a cozy bed for itself in his bosom.."
EW! I would scream.

"..gave him a basket of kittens to drown,"

Who would drown kittens?! D; Is this like, a tradition, or something? KITTEN ABUSE! I don't like cats, or dogs, or flies, or anything that can fly, or ladybugs, you get the point. But kittens are cute enough. (Which reminds me of the time I was in the car, and there was this ladybug on the car ceiling, and it fluttered down and I screamed so much my dad thought I was getting kidnapped. And then it went to the window and I tried to blow it out and then I couldn't budge it and my dad tried to squish it but then I told him not to because that's disgusting and I didn't want to look at ladybug flesh afterwards. So then I told my dad to open the window, and then he opened all three windows BESIDES the one the ladybug was on, and I just got so exasperated that I just leaned over really fast and rolled the window down. And then I started blowing. I had to do it like a billion times and then the ladybug flew away. I screamed so much! LADYBUGS ARE GRUESOME. And that, is the story, from last last week. Hope you enjoyed yourself. LOL. What has this come to? From drowning kittens to stupid ladybugs. I hate ladybugs. Even ladybug earrings give me the creeps. So do butterflies. :c Anyway, back to the quotes.)

"....a fagot fire..."
Faggot? Faggot? What? Fagot? I pronounced it 'faggot' this whole time! I think it's kind of like, a type of coal? Yay me, I taught myself vocab from context clues. ._.

"..be not afraid-touch it."
NO DON'T TOUCH IT EDWARD I'M SCARED. D:

"Pray the prayer for the dying!"
CRAZY OLD MAN SAYING THIS CRAZILY. Imagine that.

"..it was Miles Hendon's voice!"
MILES HENDON TO THE RESCUE. <3 So brave. And, that, is why, he is my favorite character. He so reminds me of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. Maybe that's the only resemblance.

"Lie me no lies, sir priest, play me no deceptions!"
HENDON'S WISE QUOTE. I think this is my favorite line. Besides, "Thou idiot!" of course. I must use this line. Sometime.

"But I am not a man."
Nooo, you're a deceiving, nasty, dirty fat old ajd;flajklfdj man!

"...and lead thine ass..."
Sorry. I forgot that 'ass' meant donkey. AHAHA. I laughed at this part with all the immaturity I could muster. I mean, all my immaturity came out at that word. (x

"Unhand me, thou foolish creature; it was not I that reaved thee of thy paltry goods."
This sentence doesn't seem to fit together with itself. LOL. I still laughed at 'thy paltry goods.'

"But Hugh only drew back.."
D; YOU'RE NOT ACCEPTING YOUR LOVING BROTHER?! CURSE YOUUU. -seethe-

"And whom does thou imagine thyself to be?"
Dumbest. Question. Ever.

"I know him not!" 
Stupid lady. You know him too. I know you know you know you know him. And I think you know I know what you know.

"I swear."
Stupid lady.

"...and sentenced him to death."
Once again, I am glad I wasn't born in that century where people just get sentenced to death without a proper trial!

"I do not know you, woman!" 
HOW DARE YOU. YOU SHOULD GO TO HAAAAIL FOR SAYING THAT.

"-the stone of Scone."
It sounded funny. :3 STONE OF SCONE. ehhe.

"I am the king!"
Yes you are, and Tom is foolish.

So, that is the end of my quote reactions. The end of this book, is pretty much happy, where the bad guys die and get punish for their sins, and the main characters just go back to their lives, with their minds full of adventure. I do dare say that this book is worth reading!

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