His father and his grandmother are frequently drunk and both beat Tom regularly. His parents are both beggars and thieves. Tom grows up in a slum called Offal Court with his two sisters, his parents and his grandmother. The novel begins by saying that Tom Canty and Prince Edward are born on the same day. It may not have happened but it COULD have happened.'

He does not know if it is history or legend, saying, 'It may have happened. In a preface, Twain says that the story that he is writing was passed down from father to son for three hundred years. There have been numerous adaptations of the novel to other media. Edward has much more difficulty adapting to his new life but is profoundly influenced by the injustices that he sees in his father's kingdom. They are both considered mad at first, Edward for claiming that he is the Prince of Wales, although he is dressed in rags, and Tom for claiming that he is not the Prince of Wales.

The main characters are Tom Canty, a beggar child who has known nothing but poverty his entire life, and Edward the Prince of Wales, the only son of King Henry VIII who later becomes King Edward VI of England. The story takes place in England in the year 1547. It was first published in Canada in 1881 and in the United States in 1882. The Prince and the Pauper is a historical fiction novel by the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens who wrote under the pseudonym of Mark Twain. Illustration from an 1882 edition of The Prince and the Pauper.

Tom canty the prince and the pauper