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The American Claimant
"The American Claimant is enormous fun. I'm here to celebrate the mad energy of this strange novel. In it we have the pleasure of seeing Mark Twain's imagination go berserk," writes Bobbie Ann Mason in her introduction. The American Claimant is a comedy of mistaken identities and multiple role switches--fertile and familiar Mark Twain territory. Its cast of characters include an American enamored of British hereditary aristocracy and a British earl entranced by American democracy. The central character, Colonel Mulberry Sellers, is an irrepressible, buoyant mad scientist, Mason writes, "brimming with harebrained ideas. Nothing is impossible for him.... He's totally loopy." His voluble wackiness leaves the reader reeling in the wake of inventions that prefigure DNA cloning, fax machines, and photocopiers. Twain uses this over-the-top comic frame to explore some serious issues as well--such as the construction of self and identity, the role of the press in society, and the moral and social questions raised by capitalism and industrialization in the United States. A unique melange of science fiction and fantasy, romance, farce, and political satire, Twain's least-known comic novel is both thought-provoking and entertaining.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1892
53 people are currently reading
560 people want to read
About the author
Mark Twain
8,880 books18.7k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
June 28, 2022
My favourite Mark Twain book. All of the weather is included in the appendix at the end, and there’s an entire chapter about actresses involved in hotel fires.
June 23, 2020
Hilarious
February 26, 2022
Divertidísimo, me he reído a carcajadas.
December 26, 2018
Το "Ο Αμερικανός κόμης" είναι ένα βιβλίο το οποίο κυκλοφόρησε για πρώτη φορά στα ελληνικά, πριν λίγες μέρες, από τις εκδόσεις Πατάκη. Είναι το πέμπτο βιβλίο του συγγραφέα που διαβάζω και διαφέρει σε πολύ μεγάλο βαθμό, σε σχέση με τα προηγούμενα τέσσερα. Πρόκειται για ένα σαφέστατα κωμικό και έντονα σατιρικό μυθιστόρημα, έτσι, οι αναγνώστες πρέπει να το διαβάσουν με την ανάλογη διάθεση και με όρεξη για κουλές και αξιοπερίεργες καταστάσεις. Ο Μαρκ Τουέιν, μέσω των διαφόρων κωμικοτραγικών περιστατικών και των τραγελαφικών συμπτώσεων της πλοκής, ελάχιστα πράγματα αφήνει όρθια: Από την πολιτική και την θρησκεία, μέχρι τα κοινωνικά στερεότυπα και τις ανθρώπινες προκαταλήψεις, όλα μπαίνουν στο μικροσκόπιό του, με το καταιγιστικό χιούμορ, την ειρωνεία και τις κάθε είδους υπερβολές, να είναι τα εργαλεία με τα οποία αγγίζει αυτά τα θέματα. Φυσικά, σκοπός του συγγραφέα δεν ήταν απλά να κάνει τον κόσμο να γελάσει, αλλά να τον βάλει να σκεφτεί και κάποια πράγματα για τον κόσμο γύρω του. Άλλωστε, κάπως έτσι λειτουργούν τα περισσότερα σατιρικά έργα: Προσφέρουν γέλιο, αλλά και τροφή για σκέψη. Το βιβλίο κυκλοφόρησε για πρώτη φορά το μακρινό 1892, αλλά θεωρώ ότι έχει να προσφέρει πράγματα και στους σύγχρονους αναγνώστες. Γιατί, κακά τα ψέμματα, μην νομίζετε ότι έχουν αλλάξει και πάρα πολλά από τότε...
January 4, 2019
3,5. Καλός είναι, έχει πλάκα, αντιλαμβάνεται κανείς γιατί θεωρείται από τους κορυφαίους αμερικανούς συγγραφείς αλλά δεν είναι Χένρυ Τζέιμς. Θα το πρότεινα σε κάποιον που θέλει να γελάσει, να μην πέσει σε κατάθλιψη.
October 14, 2021
"Irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty." Mark Twain's novel, The American Claimant contains gems of political wisdom, wrapped a little less slyly than in Huck Finn, but powerful and still, sadly, relevant in 2021.
The story is as wiggly as a seven year-old's loose front tooth but is in the Twain tradition of hilarious and absurd characters masking the weight of their cold hard truths. Nobody likes being lectured to now any more than they did in 1891, so having a little fun as we talk politics is his way.
Twain digs into this matter of reverence deeply, showing how crucial it is to understand. Coming off the Trump presidency we all got a reminder of a leader who craves reverence the way despots throughout the ages have. He shrank from the prospect of the White House Correspondents' dinner, refusing to attend an event the President traditionally attends at which people are free to poke fun at him or her. Trump stated after returning from the dictatorship of North Korea that he ,'wished his people would stand up when he entered a room.' Twain is having none of it, seeing that nonsense as the antithesis of American values. Political cartoons, the columns of Gail Collins, late night comedy all poking fun at our leaders, this is not just a cool thing we get to do, Twain reminds us it is the life blood of democracy.
Amid the fun of the book one character, an English Lord with the guts to question his position, hears an American speaker explain how monarchies in Europe cultivated reverence, how the people have been "diligently taught to avoid reasoning about the shams of monarchy and nobility, been taught to avoid examining them, been taught to reverence them, and now as a natural result, to reverence them is second nature. In order to shock them it is sufficient to inject a thought of the opposite kind into their dull minds. For ages, any expression of so-called irreverence from their lips has been sin and crime. The sham and swindle of all this is apparent the moment one reflects that he himself is the only legitimately qualified judge of what is entitled to reverence and what is not...So long as I reverence my own ideals my whole duty is done, and I commit now profanation if I laugh at theirs. I may scoff at other people's ideals as much as I want to. It is my right and my privilege. No man has any right to deny it."
Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Lord Buckley understood this conclusion of Mark Twain's, "I thought caste created itself and perpetuated itself; but it seems quite true that it only creates itself, and is perpetuated by the people whom it despises, and who can dissolve it at any time by assuming its mere sign names themselves."
Long live Mark Twain, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Zunar, Trevor Noah, Saturday Night Live, all those who unmask idolatry and poke holes in the inflated egos of those who would be bowed to.
The story is as wiggly as a seven year-old's loose front tooth but is in the Twain tradition of hilarious and absurd characters masking the weight of their cold hard truths. Nobody likes being lectured to now any more than they did in 1891, so having a little fun as we talk politics is his way.
Twain digs into this matter of reverence deeply, showing how crucial it is to understand. Coming off the Trump presidency we all got a reminder of a leader who craves reverence the way despots throughout the ages have. He shrank from the prospect of the White House Correspondents' dinner, refusing to attend an event the President traditionally attends at which people are free to poke fun at him or her. Trump stated after returning from the dictatorship of North Korea that he ,'wished his people would stand up when he entered a room.' Twain is having none of it, seeing that nonsense as the antithesis of American values. Political cartoons, the columns of Gail Collins, late night comedy all poking fun at our leaders, this is not just a cool thing we get to do, Twain reminds us it is the life blood of democracy.
Amid the fun of the book one character, an English Lord with the guts to question his position, hears an American speaker explain how monarchies in Europe cultivated reverence, how the people have been "diligently taught to avoid reasoning about the shams of monarchy and nobility, been taught to avoid examining them, been taught to reverence them, and now as a natural result, to reverence them is second nature. In order to shock them it is sufficient to inject a thought of the opposite kind into their dull minds. For ages, any expression of so-called irreverence from their lips has been sin and crime. The sham and swindle of all this is apparent the moment one reflects that he himself is the only legitimately qualified judge of what is entitled to reverence and what is not...So long as I reverence my own ideals my whole duty is done, and I commit now profanation if I laugh at theirs. I may scoff at other people's ideals as much as I want to. It is my right and my privilege. No man has any right to deny it."
Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Lord Buckley understood this conclusion of Mark Twain's, "I thought caste created itself and perpetuated itself; but it seems quite true that it only creates itself, and is perpetuated by the people whom it despises, and who can dissolve it at any time by assuming its mere sign names themselves."
Long live Mark Twain, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Zunar, Trevor Noah, Saturday Night Live, all those who unmask idolatry and poke holes in the inflated egos of those who would be bowed to.
April 1, 2012
There's a couple notes at the beginning, one an explanatory saying that the Colonel Mulberry Sellers was the Eschol Sellers in the 1st edition of The Gilded Age, and as Beriah Sellers in subsequent editions, the change the result of someone named Eschol who showed up threatening a lawsuit...
Then there's this other, the weather in this book that tells the reader, "no weather will be found in this book. this is an attempt to pull a book through without weather...." So...no weather delays. Heh! He has borrowed weather, he says, from those more qualified! Course, it is in the Appendix, out of the way.
Chapter 1 begins:
"It is a matchless morning in rural England. On a fair hill we see a majestic pile, the ivied walls and towers of Cholmondeley Castle, huge relic and witness of the baronial grandeurs of the Middle Ages. This is one of the seats of the Earl of Rossmore..."
Onward and upward.
update
complete, finished, 1APR12, Sunday afternoon, 5:55 p.m. e.s.t.
And he does, he does include some weather from other sources...including Genesis...it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.
A fanciful tale, initially difficult to read, to figure where Twain was going with this, where he was coming from. Starts out there in England at the Earl of Rossmore's place, the Earl and his family, as I understand it, subject to demands from some folk in the states to what they believe is their rightful station...the Earl's station. Well, the Earl has a son and like sons everywhere, this one heads out to sow his oats, not wanting to be an Earl.
After that initial opening with the Earl and his son there...that goes on for a time...then the story switches to Colonel Mulberry and his wife. Mulberry is only the latest of his line who believes he should be an Earl, that the one there is an usurper...and then this senator/politician guy shows up for a visit...Hawkins.
These two, Mulberry and Hawkins, they are a hoot. Mulberry believes he can materialize dead people, has been working on gadgets, has invented some sort of child's puzzle, and they need money to finance the purchase of Siberia. Mulberry figures to start a republic with all the brains that the czar sends there, keeping the mass of Russia down at his level of intelligence.
Meanwhile, the Earl's son is out and about, trying hard not be an Earl and having a hard time of it. He eventually meets Sally, or Sarah as she is properly called...Sally Sarah, Gwendolyn, or Lady Gwendolyn, as she should be called, her old man has his way...Sally meets the Earl's son who goes by a variety of names and is confused with a number of others, including a one-armed bank robber name of Pete.
An entertaining read, amusing for all the misunderstandings in it.
Then there's this other, the weather in this book that tells the reader, "no weather will be found in this book. this is an attempt to pull a book through without weather...." So...no weather delays. Heh! He has borrowed weather, he says, from those more qualified! Course, it is in the Appendix, out of the way.
Chapter 1 begins:
"It is a matchless morning in rural England. On a fair hill we see a majestic pile, the ivied walls and towers of Cholmondeley Castle, huge relic and witness of the baronial grandeurs of the Middle Ages. This is one of the seats of the Earl of Rossmore..."
Onward and upward.
update
complete, finished, 1APR12, Sunday afternoon, 5:55 p.m. e.s.t.
And he does, he does include some weather from other sources...including Genesis...it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.
A fanciful tale, initially difficult to read, to figure where Twain was going with this, where he was coming from. Starts out there in England at the Earl of Rossmore's place, the Earl and his family, as I understand it, subject to demands from some folk in the states to what they believe is their rightful station...the Earl's station. Well, the Earl has a son and like sons everywhere, this one heads out to sow his oats, not wanting to be an Earl.
After that initial opening with the Earl and his son there...that goes on for a time...then the story switches to Colonel Mulberry and his wife. Mulberry is only the latest of his line who believes he should be an Earl, that the one there is an usurper...and then this senator/politician guy shows up for a visit...Hawkins.
These two, Mulberry and Hawkins, they are a hoot. Mulberry believes he can materialize dead people, has been working on gadgets, has invented some sort of child's puzzle, and they need money to finance the purchase of Siberia. Mulberry figures to start a republic with all the brains that the czar sends there, keeping the mass of Russia down at his level of intelligence.
Meanwhile, the Earl's son is out and about, trying hard not be an Earl and having a hard time of it. He eventually meets Sally, or Sarah as she is properly called...Sally Sarah, Gwendolyn, or Lady Gwendolyn, as she should be called, her old man has his way...Sally meets the Earl's son who goes by a variety of names and is confused with a number of others, including a one-armed bank robber name of Pete.
An entertaining read, amusing for all the misunderstandings in it.
June 12, 2019
Ramshackle satire filled with riotous farce. The satire is on the elitist snobberies of democratic Americans.
December 13, 2018
Es una comedia de enredos entretenida. Tiene momentos muy entretenidos.
January 13, 2022
No reading has ever made me laugh this much. I normally read to fall asleep, but this kept me up laughing. My opinion is that it's Twain's best work after Huck Finn. Too few people know about this hilarious story.
**Edit**
I seldom read fiction, and I never read anything twice. But I did this one. So many impossible twists, turns, and ridiculous misunderstandings - it's like the Coen brothers stretched an episode of Seinfeld into a screenplay. Hilarious * 10.
**Edit**
I seldom read fiction, and I never read anything twice. But I did this one. So many impossible twists, turns, and ridiculous misunderstandings - it's like the Coen brothers stretched an episode of Seinfeld into a screenplay. Hilarious * 10.
October 12, 2024
*****3.5*****
The American Claimant isn’t what I was expecting. I found it really interesting and even thought-provoking at times though I’d never heard of this Twain book before my dad gave it to me. In this story, an American family has ties to a British earldom and are the rightful heirs to the title and land, but since their ancestors moved to the States years ago, the British side of the family has kept the title. Now, the American side writes the British side that they’re fighting for their rightful title and property, and the British earl is upset and defiant, but his son is glad of it as he’s rebelling against the classist society and believes in the American Dream. He wants to go to America, slough off his title and money, and tell the Claimant he can have the earldom when his father passes.
Well, the Claimant dies first, and the new American heir isn’t as pushy about the title as his cousin. The story shifts focus to him and his family and his idealism about inventing and making money to change his situation. Meanwhile, the young heir to the earldom comes to the States and sees what it’s like not to have property and the respect that a title brings in England. His rebellious ideals are challenged, especially as he meets people who question the truth of equality and reverence and different philosophical questions the young earl-to-be has pondered.
For me, the story is interesting as a portrait of American life of its time and also for the social commentary and ideas. The most interesting to me was about reverence and awe and how, if you remove them and let people revere what they want, not what they are told, a class-based society is impossible. The argument is that people have to agree to value the class system, and if they don’t, the people who demand respect are left with empty titles. Another interesting thread is the idea of making money and what people will do to make it (I kept thinking subconsciously of Shark Tank with all Sellers’ inventions) and what fails versus what succeeds. There’s also the contrast between what a person is and what they think they are.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I just wish the ending were different. I’m not sure what Twain wanted his readers to take away from the story because of the way it ends. As I’m writing this, it clicked, and I get it now, especially knowing Twain’s wry humor. “Ideals” is definitely a key word.
As for the “Merry Tales,” “The Private History of a Campaign that Failed” was just okay. I liked the tone, and it was easy to read, but I’m not a fan of war stories, and this is about a Civil War company that never saw battle. “Luck” is very short, and it was okay. The idea behind it is interesting, that great people seem to be wise and savvy but are really just lucky, and only the people closest to them know whether they are fools or not. “A Curious Experience” is the best of the stories in my opinion. It’s about a Southern boy separated from his family and forced up North during the Civil War. A Northern regiment takes him in to protect him. What happens after that is surprising in multiple ways with a couple of twists I wasn’t expecting. “Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning” is probably supposed to be funny, but it wasn’t really to me. “Meisterschaft” is all right. As someone studying French for a million years, I appreciate the humor about learning another language, but a bulk of the play is actually in German, and I skipped over those parts. I think that’s the point as Twain is playing on the language grammars that teach sentences that nobody would ever use in real life, but still—it was just an okay experience to read. Finally, “Playing Courier” has a good tone and is lighthearted and comical in a slapstick sort of way, but again, I didn’t find it as funny as maybe his contemporary readers would.
Overall, the main book in this collection is my favorite. I would have given it four stars if not for the ending, and the tales were okay. They read quickly, and they weren’t boring, but I don’t think I’ll particularly remember any of them except “A Curious Experience,” which I’d give 5 stars on its own.
I recommend this to Twain fans and to 19th-century American literature fans. If I was still a student and read this for a class, I’d definitely enjoy writing a paper about it!
The American Claimant isn’t what I was expecting. I found it really interesting and even thought-provoking at times though I’d never heard of this Twain book before my dad gave it to me. In this story, an American family has ties to a British earldom and are the rightful heirs to the title and land, but since their ancestors moved to the States years ago, the British side of the family has kept the title. Now, the American side writes the British side that they’re fighting for their rightful title and property, and the British earl is upset and defiant, but his son is glad of it as he’s rebelling against the classist society and believes in the American Dream. He wants to go to America, slough off his title and money, and tell the Claimant he can have the earldom when his father passes.
Well, the Claimant dies first, and the new American heir isn’t as pushy about the title as his cousin. The story shifts focus to him and his family and his idealism about inventing and making money to change his situation. Meanwhile, the young heir to the earldom comes to the States and sees what it’s like not to have property and the respect that a title brings in England. His rebellious ideals are challenged, especially as he meets people who question the truth of equality and reverence and different philosophical questions the young earl-to-be has pondered.
For me, the story is interesting as a portrait of American life of its time and also for the social commentary and ideas. The most interesting to me was about reverence and awe and how, if you remove them and let people revere what they want, not what they are told, a class-based society is impossible. The argument is that people have to agree to value the class system, and if they don’t, the people who demand respect are left with empty titles. Another interesting thread is the idea of making money and what people will do to make it (I kept thinking subconsciously of Shark Tank with all Sellers’ inventions) and what fails versus what succeeds. There’s also the contrast between what a person is and what they think they are.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I just wish the ending were different. I’m not sure what Twain wanted his readers to take away from the story because of the way it ends. As I’m writing this, it clicked, and I get it now, especially knowing Twain’s wry humor. “Ideals” is definitely a key word.
As for the “Merry Tales,” “The Private History of a Campaign that Failed” was just okay. I liked the tone, and it was easy to read, but I’m not a fan of war stories, and this is about a Civil War company that never saw battle. “Luck” is very short, and it was okay. The idea behind it is interesting, that great people seem to be wise and savvy but are really just lucky, and only the people closest to them know whether they are fools or not. “A Curious Experience” is the best of the stories in my opinion. It’s about a Southern boy separated from his family and forced up North during the Civil War. A Northern regiment takes him in to protect him. What happens after that is surprising in multiple ways with a couple of twists I wasn’t expecting. “Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning” is probably supposed to be funny, but it wasn’t really to me. “Meisterschaft” is all right. As someone studying French for a million years, I appreciate the humor about learning another language, but a bulk of the play is actually in German, and I skipped over those parts. I think that’s the point as Twain is playing on the language grammars that teach sentences that nobody would ever use in real life, but still—it was just an okay experience to read. Finally, “Playing Courier” has a good tone and is lighthearted and comical in a slapstick sort of way, but again, I didn’t find it as funny as maybe his contemporary readers would.
Overall, the main book in this collection is my favorite. I would have given it four stars if not for the ending, and the tales were okay. They read quickly, and they weren’t boring, but I don’t think I’ll particularly remember any of them except “A Curious Experience,” which I’d give 5 stars on its own.
I recommend this to Twain fans and to 19th-century American literature fans. If I was still a student and read this for a class, I’d definitely enjoy writing a paper about it!
November 5, 2019
The English Earl of Rossmore receives a letter from an American named Berkeley who claims he is the rightful Earl and plans to file a claim to the title. The son and heir of the Earl, Howard Tracy, believes that the American is correct and goes to America to find his own fortune in the United States.
Meanwhile, before Howard can arrive, the claimant Berkeley dies and his heir is a relative named Colonel Mulberry Sellers who is married to Polly Sellers and has a beautiful daughter named Sally.
Colonel Sellers has appeared in a previous Mark Twain novel named "The Gilded Age" although Twain had to change his first name a couple of times in order to avoid a lawsuit from someone with the same name.
Colonel Sellers and his friend Washington Hawkins are a bit off their rocker we find out. Although Colonel Sellers is a wonderful person who would give the shirt off his back, he is a bit scattered with exceptionally hare-brained ideas to strike it rich. One of his many schemes is that he believes he can "materialize" people from the past and bring them back to life and he plans to make a fortune by hiring these "people" out in various professions that they had in life. He also changes the name of his home to Rossmore Towers and asks his wife and daughter to call him M'Lord or Rossmore and he changes his daughter's name from Sally Sellers to Lady Gwendolen.
When Howard Tracy arrives from England, a hilarious case of mistaken identity ensues not only with Colonel Sellers but with the other people in town as he arrives penniless and will not tell anyone who he really is. When he meets the Lady Gwendolen they are smitten with one another but he is afraid to divulge his real identity.
This is a light cheery Romantic Comedy with some real Laugh Out Loud moments.
Meanwhile, before Howard can arrive, the claimant Berkeley dies and his heir is a relative named Colonel Mulberry Sellers who is married to Polly Sellers and has a beautiful daughter named Sally.
Colonel Sellers has appeared in a previous Mark Twain novel named "The Gilded Age" although Twain had to change his first name a couple of times in order to avoid a lawsuit from someone with the same name.
Colonel Sellers and his friend Washington Hawkins are a bit off their rocker we find out. Although Colonel Sellers is a wonderful person who would give the shirt off his back, he is a bit scattered with exceptionally hare-brained ideas to strike it rich. One of his many schemes is that he believes he can "materialize" people from the past and bring them back to life and he plans to make a fortune by hiring these "people" out in various professions that they had in life. He also changes the name of his home to Rossmore Towers and asks his wife and daughter to call him M'Lord or Rossmore and he changes his daughter's name from Sally Sellers to Lady Gwendolen.
When Howard Tracy arrives from England, a hilarious case of mistaken identity ensues not only with Colonel Sellers but with the other people in town as he arrives penniless and will not tell anyone who he really is. When he meets the Lady Gwendolen they are smitten with one another but he is afraid to divulge his real identity.
This is a light cheery Romantic Comedy with some real Laugh Out Loud moments.
October 14, 2020
A farcical tale of chicanery that is as grating as its protagonist, who also appeared in a minor role in The Gilded Age. But I didn’t remember him, partly because I read that novel 18 years ago, and partly because I was equally unimpressed with it. I loved Twain’s voice when I was younger, but I have grown to find him exceedingly coarse and annoying -- much the same criticism leveled by his frenemy, Willa Cather. Like Tom Wolfe in the late 20th century, Twain is such an apt chronicler of his times that he tends to come too close to embodying that which he ridicules. In the case of Twain, it is the vulgar American. Despite the fact that I agree whole-heartedly with Twain’s charge that Americans are defined by their constantly falling for buffoonish charlatans (see also: TRUMP, Donald J.), I struggled to appreciate Twain’s off-putting, absurd tone. Perhaps recommended for those who like Twain's fiction, but I will stick to his memoirs and travelogues.
August 16, 2019
A more obscure work of Mark Twain whose storyline tracks a young English earl and a rich distant American relative each believing that they want to live the life of the other. This was an interesting though slightly labored read.
March 28, 2020
Τα 5 αστεράκια είναι λίγα 😂. 10 ίσως θα ταίριαζαν καλύτερα.
June 12, 2022
What if it was the same book
Read
January 28, 2018The American Claimant is a novel filled with several strains of Quixotism that are combined with Mark Twain's masterful use of irony to illuminate. The love story that unfolds in the later portion of the book is a pleasure to read. Twain's gifted exploration of the free press and its possibilities is wincingly instructive. To add to these delights, the American Claimant allows Twain to explore beauty, the stumbling quest for identity & purpose, the precarious nature of equality in aristocracies & democracies -- amongst many other eternal, infernal, and confounding aspects of life. I highly recommend reading this (or any Twain) in the Oxford edition. The faithful (and near perfect) facsimiles of the texts as Twain intended them to be published allow readers more of Twain's genius -- including the illustrations he often commissioned for this books.
Here's a favorite quote,
"The exercise of an extraordinary gift is the supremest pleasure in life."
Here's a favorite quote,
"The exercise of an extraordinary gift is the supremest pleasure in life."
July 12, 2018
8 July 2018
I’ve made a pretty decent run of all Mark Twain novels in the last couple of years, but I recently stumbled across a couple titles that have escaped my meticulous survey of the master humorist’s output. I downloaded them on audiobook (Librivox has an excellent version of The American Claimant … and it’s hard to beat the price [free]) and then sat on them until the right moment arrived.
Well, we are currently on a drive across the country and one of our stops was at Hannibal, Missouri--Mark Twain’s hometown. If this was not the right moment, then the right moment would never come!
There are immediately a couple of things that The American Claimant has going for it. The main character in this story is a proven Mark Twain gold mine: Colonel Sellers. The name may not be as familiar nowadays, but apparently he was just as recognizable back in his day as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Colonel Sellers makes his debut in Twain’s first fiction novel (The Gilded Age, co-authored with Charles Warner) and went on to have a successful run in play form (“The Curious Case of Colonel Sellers”). The fact that Sellers would go on to get his own novel (he was a side character in The Gilded Age) in Twain’s later years and that that would go unnoticed by me … why, it felt almost like a travesty! Who has been hiding this from me?!
So Colonel Sellers takes top billing in The American Claimant, and his naive, over-the-top idealism pays off immediately. Right from the start I wondered how this novel was not more well known or successful enough to be on the radar. The setup is a sort of Prince and the Pauper situation, but with a British Lord and an American (Colonel Sellers) taking the place of royalty and peasant. The premise alone is worth a few anticipatory chuckles. The writing has strong Twain wit laced throughout. Heck, even the preface continues a strong tradition of Mark Twain never taking himself too seriously as he explains the lack of weather descriptions in the novel (with a promise to include some in an appendix for the reader who felt deprived--promise kept, by the way!).
Once we get past the opening set up and premise, the story sputters around and never really takes the obvious direction it feels like it should take. This is very Twain-like. Besides The Prince and the Pauper, he does not have much discipline when it comes to sticking to a strong plot design (even in his masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn, ask most people what they think about the meandering Tom Sawyer conclusion, and they’ll volunteer some frustration). It is also here that Twain slips into his Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson mire, where the most compelling, main character (Pudd’nhead Wilson in that case, Colonel Sellers in this), disappears from much of the story in the middle of the novel. In both cases, we are still being entertained. There is never a moment in either novel where I wanted to give up on it … but in both I kept on thinking, “This is fine and all, but where is [insert super interesting and creative main character here]? I want more of him.”
But I did end up enjoying where The American Claimant ends up, even if I felt there were some missed opportunities or meanderings to get there. And I was entertained throughout, even if I did not get that extra shot of heart that Twain manages to inject into his best works. And I still feel like this should be a more well known and more often read work of his (it captures a lot of the same themes as The Gilded Age, but it is mercifully shorter and more entertaining). So if Twain has some more gems hidden away that I have not heard about--even if they are not quite up to the standard of his best works--I will be happy to download them and wait for the right moment … and I probably won’t even wait for a trip to Hannibal, Missouri before deciding that the right moment is the next chance I get.
I’ve made a pretty decent run of all Mark Twain novels in the last couple of years, but I recently stumbled across a couple titles that have escaped my meticulous survey of the master humorist’s output. I downloaded them on audiobook (Librivox has an excellent version of The American Claimant … and it’s hard to beat the price [free]) and then sat on them until the right moment arrived.
Well, we are currently on a drive across the country and one of our stops was at Hannibal, Missouri--Mark Twain’s hometown. If this was not the right moment, then the right moment would never come!
There are immediately a couple of things that The American Claimant has going for it. The main character in this story is a proven Mark Twain gold mine: Colonel Sellers. The name may not be as familiar nowadays, but apparently he was just as recognizable back in his day as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Colonel Sellers makes his debut in Twain’s first fiction novel (The Gilded Age, co-authored with Charles Warner) and went on to have a successful run in play form (“The Curious Case of Colonel Sellers”). The fact that Sellers would go on to get his own novel (he was a side character in The Gilded Age) in Twain’s later years and that that would go unnoticed by me … why, it felt almost like a travesty! Who has been hiding this from me?!
So Colonel Sellers takes top billing in The American Claimant, and his naive, over-the-top idealism pays off immediately. Right from the start I wondered how this novel was not more well known or successful enough to be on the radar. The setup is a sort of Prince and the Pauper situation, but with a British Lord and an American (Colonel Sellers) taking the place of royalty and peasant. The premise alone is worth a few anticipatory chuckles. The writing has strong Twain wit laced throughout. Heck, even the preface continues a strong tradition of Mark Twain never taking himself too seriously as he explains the lack of weather descriptions in the novel (with a promise to include some in an appendix for the reader who felt deprived--promise kept, by the way!).
Once we get past the opening set up and premise, the story sputters around and never really takes the obvious direction it feels like it should take. This is very Twain-like. Besides The Prince and the Pauper, he does not have much discipline when it comes to sticking to a strong plot design (even in his masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn, ask most people what they think about the meandering Tom Sawyer conclusion, and they’ll volunteer some frustration). It is also here that Twain slips into his Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson mire, where the most compelling, main character (Pudd’nhead Wilson in that case, Colonel Sellers in this), disappears from much of the story in the middle of the novel. In both cases, we are still being entertained. There is never a moment in either novel where I wanted to give up on it … but in both I kept on thinking, “This is fine and all, but where is [insert super interesting and creative main character here]? I want more of him.”
But I did end up enjoying where The American Claimant ends up, even if I felt there were some missed opportunities or meanderings to get there. And I was entertained throughout, even if I did not get that extra shot of heart that Twain manages to inject into his best works. And I still feel like this should be a more well known and more often read work of his (it captures a lot of the same themes as The Gilded Age, but it is mercifully shorter and more entertaining). So if Twain has some more gems hidden away that I have not heard about--even if they are not quite up to the standard of his best works--I will be happy to download them and wait for the right moment … and I probably won’t even wait for a trip to Hannibal, Missouri before deciding that the right moment is the next chance I get.
May 5, 2020
"The American Claimant" is a fairly traditional mistaken identity farce, although under Mark Twain's skilled pen it is wrapped in a few additional layers of humor. One aspect of the story follows Colonel Mulberry Sellers, an eccentric renamed character from "The Gilded Age," as he pursues a dubious claim to a British earldom (and spends a bit of time with friend and congressional delegate Washington Hawkins trying to capture a bank robber). Twain also looks into the struggles of Howard Tracy, the idealistic son of the "pretender" earl, as he comes to the United States to try to advance on his own merit.
The story is a fairly meandering one. An opening with the earl is quickly abandoned to follow Sellers and Hawkins, who also fall by the wayside for roughly half the book as the narrative turns to Tracy. A slate of characters Tracy encounters is wonderfully illustrated, but they are also promptly abandoned to bring Tracy into contact with Sellers and Hawkins.
As can be expected with Twain's works, "The American Claimant" is often uproariously funny. Some of the hilarious vignettes include Sellers' scheme to resurrect the dead for moneymaking purposes and Sellers and Hawkins mistaking Tracy for a ghost.
The framework of the novel is fairly disjointed, and the romantic subplot at the end is rather laborious. Fans of Twain will enjoy it, but newcomers should explore some of his more well-known works first.
The story is a fairly meandering one. An opening with the earl is quickly abandoned to follow Sellers and Hawkins, who also fall by the wayside for roughly half the book as the narrative turns to Tracy. A slate of characters Tracy encounters is wonderfully illustrated, but they are also promptly abandoned to bring Tracy into contact with Sellers and Hawkins.
As can be expected with Twain's works, "The American Claimant" is often uproariously funny. Some of the hilarious vignettes include Sellers' scheme to resurrect the dead for moneymaking purposes and Sellers and Hawkins mistaking Tracy for a ghost.
The framework of the novel is fairly disjointed, and the romantic subplot at the end is rather laborious. Fans of Twain will enjoy it, but newcomers should explore some of his more well-known works first.
August 27, 2021
Twain wrote some books of great genius, most notably "Huckleberry Finn," but he also wrote some mediocre books, and this is unfortunately one of the latter. In "The American Claimant," the English are too stiff, the Americans are too busy, the love story is prosaic, and the identity switch plot is just not that interesting. Still I have to love Twain as a great expositor of the American character. His Americans may be crude, undereducated and a bit given to flim flam, but they are also honest, well meaning, filled with energy and damned funny. It's a kinder and truer picture of America than we get from Dickens in "Martin Chuzzlewit," and I think also truer than the picture of America and Americans that we get from Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser or Henry James.
The great Russian literary critic, Vissarion Belinsky, was very hot on the idea that Russia needed a literature that could be emblematic of the Russian national character. Perhaps that is true of every nation as a necessary part of building the national mythology. If so, we are fortunate in America to have found it in Mark Twain.
The great Russian literary critic, Vissarion Belinsky, was very hot on the idea that Russia needed a literature that could be emblematic of the Russian national character. Perhaps that is true of every nation as a necessary part of building the national mythology. If so, we are fortunate in America to have found it in Mark Twain.
May 26, 2010
This book was a real delight! One of Twain's lesser known works, I had never even heard of it until a GR friends recommended it to me. I'm a bit surprised The American Claimant is not more widely read, as Twain's humor and gift of farce really shine in this short but wonderfully comical and romantic little tale.
The audio version narrated by Richard Henzel (who, admittedly is above- said GR friend) is superbly done. I have listened to literally hundreds of audio-books and it is rare to find a narration so well-acted and effortlessly performed. His passion for the story really brought the characters to life.
I would recommend this without hesitation to any and all Twain fans.
The audio version narrated by Richard Henzel (who, admittedly is above- said GR friend) is superbly done. I have listened to literally hundreds of audio-books and it is rare to find a narration so well-acted and effortlessly performed. His passion for the story really brought the characters to life.
I would recommend this without hesitation to any and all Twain fans.
December 10, 2021
Banged out in 71 days, this late novel is a satire on aristocracy vs. democracy, but unfortunately it's got multiple themes and tones, none well developed, and the result is nearly incoherent. Of course this has its moments -- it's by Twain, after all -- and there's his famous admonition to readers that no weather would be found in the book. But there's a reason this book is scarcely available in print.
October 14, 2018
The truth is, my favorite Twain is Twain as polemicist. I love the short stories and sketches and speeches. I *try* to love the novels...and even in this farce, loaded with commentary on hereditary title, and class, and journalism...I kind of always find myself wanting more polemic.
April 3, 2017
Petty funny, but some very contrived plot. Good satire on American democratic ideals and English aristocracy. Marred by some what by brief racist passages.
April 4, 2018
wonderful!
June 13, 2023
This book was silly and I couldn’t get into it. Definitely not one of my favorites from Mark Twain.
August 31, 2022
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, más conocido por el público como Mark Twain (1835-1910), es mundialmente conocido por su pluma acerada y su talento para la sátira y el humor paródico, instrumentos a través de los cuales realiza una brillante descripción de los vicios y virtudes de su época, así como muestra sus preocupaciones sociales y desarrolla certeras e inquisitivas críticas.
El pretendiente americano (The American claimant), publicada en 1892, puede ser una obra aparentemente menor y casi desconocida para el público actual, pero recoge lo mejor de un Twain en estado de gracia que se muestra inmisericorde con la hipocresia del igualitarismo aparente imperante en la Norteamérica de finales del XIX.
Toma como elemento de comparación el Viejo Mundo, en la figura de un joven e idealista heredero a conde, que aspira a hacer justicia, devolviendo el título al legítimo heredero, una suerte de fantasioso y cándido inventor norteamericano, y llevar una vida normal y sin privilegios. Tras su llegada a América, comienza a comprender con horror que el igualitarismo norteamericano es más una fachada que una realidad, cambiando simplemente la forma en que se jerarquiza la sociedad.
Repleto de situaciones hilarantes, es un libro de una actualidad fascinante, 130 años después de su publicación.
El pretendiente americano (The American claimant), publicada en 1892, puede ser una obra aparentemente menor y casi desconocida para el público actual, pero recoge lo mejor de un Twain en estado de gracia que se muestra inmisericorde con la hipocresia del igualitarismo aparente imperante en la Norteamérica de finales del XIX.
Toma como elemento de comparación el Viejo Mundo, en la figura de un joven e idealista heredero a conde, que aspira a hacer justicia, devolviendo el título al legítimo heredero, una suerte de fantasioso y cándido inventor norteamericano, y llevar una vida normal y sin privilegios. Tras su llegada a América, comienza a comprender con horror que el igualitarismo norteamericano es más una fachada que una realidad, cambiando simplemente la forma en que se jerarquiza la sociedad.
Repleto de situaciones hilarantes, es un libro de una actualidad fascinante, 130 años después de su publicación.
June 29, 2017
Formally and thematically, The American Claimant is a mess--slipshod and incoherent stuff, not that it doesn't have a few hilarious scenes. In the novel, the rightful heir to an English earldom, a socially ambitious American attorney and inventor (with bizarre schemes) secures his title and switches places with the newly deposed earl, a man enamored with American democracy, bent on making his way in the world based on his own merit. Comic moments aside, the novel is fascinating for the way it exposes inequalities in American democracy and shows Twain working through his distaste for and fascination with the English aristocracy (a subject that he tackles again in A Connecticut Yankee and The Prince and the Pauper). The essayist at the town hall meeting condemns aristocracy as an illegitimate form of governance, wherein the majority of people are duped into slaving away for the benefit of a small elite. The starry-eyes American adorers of aristocracy are satirized as ridiculous. But democracy, as the the former earl learns, is far from ideal. Speaking of the illegitimacy of aristocracy a character points out its grotesqueness:
"Well, then, let a man in his right mind try to conceive of Darwin feeling flattered by the notice of a princess. It’s so grotesque that it—well, it paralyzes the imagination. Yet that Memnon was flattered by the notice of that statuette; he says so—says so himself. The system that can make a god disown his godship and profane it—oh, well, it’s all wrong, it’s all wrong and ought to be abolished, I should say.”
"Well, then, let a man in his right mind try to conceive of Darwin feeling flattered by the notice of a princess. It’s so grotesque that it—well, it paralyzes the imagination. Yet that Memnon was flattered by the notice of that statuette; he says so—says so himself. The system that can make a god disown his godship and profane it—oh, well, it’s all wrong, it’s all wrong and ought to be abolished, I should say.”
February 18, 2024
Заслужено забыто
Не самый известный роман МТ, может быть один раз слышал до того как начал читать. Я сначала думал, что здесь что-то политическое типа предвыборной гонки и ирония на американскую демократию. Нет.
Здесь линия английского молодого графа Трейси, который решил порвать с титулами знатности отправится осуществлять свою американскую мечту в страну равных возможностей и быстро сталкивается с суровой реальностью. Быстрое понимание, что и в США английские титулы знатности кое-что значат и знатью в США является тот у кого много долларов. Вторая линия это полковник Селлерс и джентельмен Вашингтон из "Позолоченный век". Селлерс оказался с новым именем и без детей, которые внезапно умерли, кроме дочки, которая и выходит за графа, соединяя две линии Росморров. Вашингтон просто балбес, теперь уже средних лет. Это, по сути, американские Дон Кихот и Санчо Панса, только не в поисках великанов и сарацинов, а долларов.
К сожалению взгляду здесь не на чем отдохнуть и я понимаю почему этот роман не слишком вспоминают.
Пока у МТ лучше всего травелоги, на втором месте Том и Гек, остальные романы мне не слишком нравятся, рассказы - есть немного хороших и много очень плохих.
Не самый известный роман МТ, может быть один раз слышал до того как начал читать. Я сначала думал, что здесь что-то политическое типа предвыборной гонки и ирония на американскую демократию. Нет.
Здесь линия английского молодого графа Трейси, который решил порвать с титулами знатности отправится осуществлять свою американскую мечту в страну равных возможностей и быстро сталкивается с суровой реальностью. Быстрое понимание, что и в США английские титулы знатности кое-что значат и знатью в США является тот у кого много долларов. Вторая линия это полковник Селлерс и джентельмен Вашингтон из "Позолоченный век". Селлерс оказался с новым именем и без детей, которые внезапно умерли, кроме дочки, которая и выходит за графа, соединяя две линии Росморров. Вашингтон просто балбес, теперь уже средних лет. Это, по сути, американские Дон Кихот и Санчо Панса, только не в поисках великанов и сарацинов, а долларов.
К сожалению взгляду здесь не на чем отдохнуть и я понимаю почему этот роман не слишком вспоминают.
Пока у МТ лучше всего травелоги, на втором месте Том и Гек, остальные романы мне не слишком нравятся, рассказы - есть немного хороших и много очень плохих.
October 31, 2023
Mark Twain's "The American Claimant" is a delightful exploration of the idiosyncrasies of lineage, identity, and innovation. Using his characteristic cleverness, Twain deftly contrasts the snobbishness of aristocratic England with the ambitious and unconventional aspirations of America. Colonel Mulberry Sellers, with his outrageous inventions like the "Pneumatic Burial Case," symbolizes the limitless optimism and hilarity that Twain observed in the American character. Through lines such as, "We should appreciate the fools, for without them, the rest of us would not succeed," and "Familiarity breeds contempt—and children," the author humorously critiques societal norms and human behavior. Twain's wit is sharp yet affectionate, making "The American Claimant" a satirical masterpiece that both stimulates the mind and tickles the funny bone.
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