" I prefer Pudd'nhead Wilson to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The idea of the slaveowner's son and the slave's son switched as babies is rich ground. However, I think that Pudd'nhead Wilson feels incomplete, that the story had only just begun when it abruptly ended. Rather than have it end on its ironic and tragic endnote, I think Mark Twain could have written a much more intriguing story by either fleshing out the characters who are virtually ignored--for example, the true Tom Driscoll who lived his life as the slave, Chambers--or by continuing the story where it ends. I want to know what happens to these characters after their lives have been upended. And what about the other relationships? What kind of relationship does Roxy have with the false Chambers? Why is it easy for her to go off and work on the riverboats and leave the son she raised as her own? And why's it called Pudd'nhead Wilson when he's barely a character in the story until the end? I think Mark Twain took the easy way out, but there is still a lot of pith to this story--Roxana being the most well-written character, a black slave who gives up her son so he will never be sold down the river; the false Tom, a slave switched as a baby to be raised as the master's white son, overindulged and privileged, he becomes a thief and a murderer, and David Wilson's interest in fingerprinting makes for a dramatic courtroom scene. "
— Kristine, 1/15/2014