Pudd'nhead Wilson (Webster's Thesaurus Edition)

272 Pages·2006·2.27 MB·English

by  Mark Twain

PUDD'NHEAD WILSON

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Mark Twain

PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship
Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered trademark of the College
Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and Advanced Placement are registered
trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book
nor endorses this book, LSAT is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither
sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
Pudd'nhead Wilson

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Mark Twain

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
ICON CLASSICS

Published by ICON Group International, Inc.
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www.icongrouponline.com

Pudd'nhead Wilson: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP®
English Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005
Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.
Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved.

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PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the
National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book;
SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses
this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the
Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither
affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law
School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights
reserved.

ISBN 0-497-25301-1
iii

Contents

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR..........................................................................................1

A WHISPER TO THE READER...........................................................................................3

CHAPTER 1 PUDD'NHEAD WINS HIS NAME....................................................................5

CHAPTER 2 DRISCOLL SPARES HIS SLAVES.................................................................11

CHAPTER 3 ROXY PLAYS A SHREWD TRICK.................................................................19

CHAPTER 4 THE WAYS OF THE CHANGELINGS............................................................25

CHAPTER 5 THE TWINS THRILL DAWSON'S LANDING..................................................33

CHAPTER 6 SWIMMING IN GLORY................................................................................39

CHAPTER 7 THE UNKNOWN NYMPH.............................................................................45

CHAPTER 8 MARSE TOM TRAMPLES HIS CHANCE.......................................................49

CHAPTER 9 TOM PRACTICES SYCOPHANCY.................................................................59

CHAPTER 10 THE NYMPH REVEALED...........................................................................65

CHAPTER 11 PUDD'NHEAD'S THRILLING DISCOVERY..................................................71

CHAPTER 12 THE SHAME OF JUDGE DRISCOLL..........................................................85

CHAPTER 13 TOM STARES AT RUIN..............................................................................91

CHAPTER 14 ROXANA INSISTS UPON REFORM.............................................................99

CHAPTER 15 THE ROBBER ROBBED..........................................................................109

CHAPTER 16 SOLD DOWN THE RIVER........................................................................119

CHAPTER 17 THE JUDGE UTTERS DIRE PROPHESY..................................................123

CHAPTER 18 ROXANA COMMANDS.............................................................................127

CHAPTER 19 THE PROPHESY REALIZED....................................................................139

CHAPTER 20 THE MURDERER CHUCKLES.................................................................149

CHAPTER 21 DOOM....................................................................................................157

CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................169

AUTHOR'S NOTE TO THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS.................................................173

GLOSSARY...................................................................................................................177

Mark Twain 1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain was edited for students who are actively building
their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced Placement®), GRE®,
LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations.1

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-
dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org
1 P S A T ® i s a r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k o f t h e College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.

Mark Twain 3

A WHISPER TO THE READER

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed
by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance:
his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the
humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of
feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.%
--Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar

A person who is ignorant of legal matters is always liable to make mistakes
when he tries to photograph a court scene with his pen; and so I was not willing
to let the law chapters in this book go to press without first subjecting them to
rigid and exhausting revision and correction by a trained barrister--if that is
what they are called. These chapters are right, now, in every detail, for they were
rewritten under the immediate eye of William Hicks, who studied law part of a
while in southwest Missouri thirty-five years ago and then came over here to
Florence for his health and is still helping for exercise and board in Macaroni
Vermicelli's horse-feed shed, which is up the back alley as you turn around the
corner out of the Piazza del Duomo just beyond the house where that stone that
Dante used to sit on six hundred years ago is let into the wall when he let on to
be watching them build Giotto's campanile and yet always got tired looking as
Beatrice passed along on her way to get a chunk of chestnut cake to defend

Thesaurus
campanile: (n) bell tower; (adj) steeple, exhausting: (adj) difficult, grueling, (v) approve; (n) approval,
cupola, dome, turret, tower, spire, tiring, tiresome, exhaustingly, admiration.
pillar, obelisk, monument, minaret. strenuous, draining, wearing, southwest: (adj) southwestern,
chestnut: (adj, n) auburn, wearisome, wearying, hard. Colorado, California, Arizona; (n)
commonplace; (n) chestnut tree, ANTONYMS: (adj) undemanding, Sw, geographic area, geographical
sweet chestnut, wood, anecdote, joke, refreshing, easy, light. region, geographic region,
banality; (adj) bay, trite, castaneous. howsoever: (adv) however, although, geographical area, compass point;
choicest: (adj) optimum, best. though, howso. (adv) sou'west.
chunk: (n, v) lump; (n) clump, bit, ridicule: (n, v) laugh at, deride, banter, witless: (adj, n) silly, brainless, foolish,
fragment, section, mass, portion, ball, insult, taunt, scorn, scoff; (n) derision, stupid, unwise, simple; (adj)
block, piece, cut. ANTONYMS: (n) mockery; (adj, n) irony; (v) jeer. mindless, senseless, thoughtless, dull,
particle, scrap, whole. ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise, respect; nitwitted.
4 Pudd'nhead Wilson
herself with in case of a Ghibelline outbreak before she got to school, at the same
old stand where they sell the same old cake to this day and it is just as light and
good as it was then, too, and this is not flattery, far from it. He was a little rusty
on his law, but he rubbed up for this book, and those two or three legal chapters
are right and straight, now. He told me so himself.%
Given under my hand this second day of January, 1893, at the Villa Viviani,
village of Settignano, three miles back of Florence, on the hills-- the same
certainly affording the most charming view to be found on this planet, and with
it the most dreamlike and enchanting sunsets to be found in any planet or even
in any solar system--and given, too, in the swell room of the house, with the
busts of Cerretani senators and other grandees of this line looking approvingly
down upon me, as they used to look down upon Dante, and mutely asking me to
adopt them into my family, which I do with pleasure, for my remotest ancestors
are but spring chickens compared with these robed and stately antiques, and it
will be a great and satisfying lift for me, that six hundred years will.
Mark Twain.

Thesaurus
approvingly: (adv) approving, enchanting: (adj) captivating, offense.
approve, sympathetically, kindly, delightful, fascinating, bewitching, mutely: (adv) dumbly, wordlessly,
positively, constructively, lovely, alluring, magical, glamorous, stilly, speechlessly, taciturnly,
admiringly, deferentially, adorable; (adj, v) charming, engaging. unspokenly, quietly, noiselessly,
enthusiastically, flatteringly, ANTONYMS: (adj) unhappy, dully, soundlessly, dummily.
encouragingly. ANTONYMS: (adv) revolting, repulsive, repellent, foul, ANTONYM: (adv) noisily.
censoriously, negatively. everyday, dull, disenchanting, remotest: (adj) furthest, uttermost,
dreamlike: (adj) unreal, imaginary, annoying, uninteresting, despicable. endmost, extreme, last, utmost.
dreamy, fanciful, unsubstantial, flattery: (n, v) cajolery; (n) blarney, robed: (adj) garmented, habilimented,
fantastic, charmed, vague, weird, compliment, adulation, taffy, palaver, dressed, appareled, clothed, garbed,
strange, nonexistent. ANTONYMS: praise, gloze, sweet talk, sycophancy, fixed, dolled up, clad, polished,
(adj) real, ordinary. soft soap. ANTONYMS: (n) insult, vested.
Mark Twain 5

CHAPTER 1

PUDD'NHEAD WINS HIS NAME

Tell the truth or trump--but get the trick.%
--Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar

The scene of this chronicle is the town of Dawson's Landing, on the Missouri
side of the Mississippi, half a day's journey, per steamboat, below St. Louis.
In 1830 it was a snug collection of modest one- and two- story frame
dwellings, whose whitewashed exteriors were almost concealed from sight by
climbing tangles of rose vines, honeysuckles, and morning glories. Each of these
pretty homes had a garden in front fenced with white palings and opulently
stocked with hollyhocks, marigolds, touch-me-nots, prince's-feathers, and other
old-fashioned flowers; while on the windowsills of the houses stood wooden
boxes containing moss rose plants and terra-cotta pots in which grew a breed of
geranium whose spread of intensely red blossoms accented the prevailing pink
tint of the rose-clad house-front like an explosion of flame. When there was room
on the ledge outside of the pots and boxes for a cat, the cat was there-- in sunny
weather--stretched at full length, asleep and blissful, with her furry belly to the
sun and a paw curved over her nose. Then that house was complete, and its

Thesaurus
accented: (adj) strong, emphatic, fuzzy, smooth, like velvet, covered palings: (n) inclosure, fencing,
heavy. with hair. ANTONYM: (adj) rough. enclosure.
blissful: (adj) happy, heavenly, merry, geranium: (adj) asphodel, buttercup, steamboat: (n) liner, steamer, steam
joyful, delighted, glad, cheerful, anemone, ranunculus, boat, steamship, cruise ship, ocean
delightful, ecstatic, elated, blest. rhododendron, windflower, day lily; liner.
ANTONYMS: (adj) unhappy, (n) rose geranium, storksbill, herb, tint: (n, v) color, tinge, hue, stain, dye,
grieving, sad, sorrowful, depressed, fish geranium. tinct; (n) shade, tincture, tone, cast;
unpleasant, down, dreadful. opulently: (adv) richly, plentifully, (v) paint. ANTONYMS: (n) white,
fenced: (adj) hedged in, provisional, profusely, luxuriantly, prosperously, pallor; (v) whiten, pale.
guarded, bounded. luxuriously, exuberantly, affluently, whitewashed: (adj) overpowered,
furry: (adj) furred, hirsute, soft, wealthily, generously, abundantly. overcome, crushed, conquered,
velvety, downy, shaggy, bushy, ANTONYM: (adv) meagerly. beaten, routed, painted.