Adventure · Historical
The Prince and the Pauper
A prince and a beggar boy who look exactly alike swap clothes, and then cannot swap back.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
Two boys, one face
In London in 1537, two boys are born on the same day: Tom Canty, into a family of beggars and thieves in Offal Court, and Edward Tudor, the longed-for son of Henry VIII. Tom grows up dreaming of palaces and princes. One day at the palace gates a guard throws him back, and the prince, angry at the guard, invites him in. Alone together, the two boys discover that they look exactly alike, and for fun they exchange clothes. Minutes later the prince, in rags, is thrown out into the street, and nobody will believe who he is. Mark Twain published it in 1881, his first historical novel.
Why it works for learners
The idea is simple and the consequences are clear: each boy has to survive in a world he doesn’t understand. Tom learns court manners and the weight of royal power; Edward learns hunger, cruelty and what the laws made in his name do to ordinary people. The two stories alternate, so the book has a steady rhythm. The vocabulary moves between palace and street: king, crown, seal, guard, servant, beggar, thief, prison, law. Twain writes the dialogue in a playful imitation of Tudor English, full of “thou” and “prithee”; at lower levels the story is told in plain modern language.
Which level to start at
B1 is ideal; the plot and the moral are clear. A2 works for the main story. At B2 and above you’ll catch Twain’s satire of law and privilege, and the comedy of Tom trying to behave like a king. Miles Hendon, a penniless soldier who befriends the prince, is reason enough to read a fuller edition.
Read next
- The Prisoner of Zenda, another stand-in on a royal throne
- Oliver Twist, London’s poor and its thieves, three centuries later
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Twain’s sharper look at kings and power