Mark Twain's darkly comic short classic set in the antebellum South stands as a literary condemnation of slavery and racial inequality. Each enriched classic edition includes: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information. A chronology of the author's life and work. A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context. An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations....

On the same day in 1830, two boys are born, one the son of a prosperous landowner, the other the son of his mulatto slave girl. To help advance her child, the slave girl arranges to substitute him for the other boy. Then the trouble starts.

Pete Riley answers the door one morning and lets in a parent's worst nightmare. On his doorstep is Miles Lambert, a stranger who breaks the devastating news that Pete's son, Theo, isn't actually his son; he is the Lamberts', switched at birth by an understaffed hospital, while their real son was sent home with Miles and his wife Lucy. For Pete and his family, life will never be the same again. The two families, reeling from the shock, take comfort...

"The two narratives published together in The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins are overflowing with spectacular events. Twain shows us conjoined twins, babies exchanged in the cradle, acts of cross-dressing and racial masquerade, duels, a lynching, and a murder mystery. Pudd'head Wilson tells the story of babies, one of mixed race and the other white, exchanged in their cradles, while Those Extraordinary Twins...

The lives of Mika and her husband, celebrated pianist Andre Polonski, are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Jeanne, a young woman who has learned that she almost had been switched at birth with Polonski's son in the hospital. Also a pianist, Jeanne speculates that she may be Andre's daughter. Her suspicions further aroused by Mika's behavior, Jeanne begins the dangerous task of unraveling a dark web of family secrets and lies.

Inspired by true events, this is the story of Fauna Hodel, a teenage girl who was given away at birth. Fauna lives with the mysteries of her origin, until one day she makes a discovery that leads her to question everything. As Fauna begins to investigate, she meets a ruined reporter, and together they follow a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Los Angeles gynecologist, a man involved in some of Hollywood's darkest debauchery, and...