The American Claimant / Pudd'nhead Wilson

by Mark Twain

The American Claimant is an 1892 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. Twain wrote the novel with the help of phonographic dictation, the first author (according to Twain himself) to do so. This was also (according to Twain) an attempt to write a book without mention of the weather, the first of its kind in fictitious literature. Indeed, all the weather is contained in an appendix, at the back of the book, which the reader is encouraged to turn to from time to time. Possibly the most stunningly original and influential book you've never read, The American Claimant is the precursor to all the screwball romantic comedies, science fiction and fantasy, farce and political satire that followed!
A madcap romp through aristocratic Europe and freewheeling America, Twain's tale of a mad scientist overflows with ideas well ahead of their time: terraforming, fax machines, cloning, photocopiers, climate change, and many more. As Twain delves into themes of identity, moral dilemma, and cultural change, his brilliant language sweeps you along on a Monty Pythonesque crazy ride of epic proportions. Replete with some of the author's favorite plot devices - twinship, mistaken identity and role changing - The American Claimant emerges as one of the most extraordinary books in American literature.
As the author said, "I think it will simply howl with fun. I wake up in the night laughing."
You will, too!

Pudd'nhead Wilson
The setting of this novel is again the world that Sam Clemens grew up in, although now MT calls the village Dawson's Landing, and has moved it several hundred miles down the Mississippi River. The book was originally published in America, on 28 November 1894, as The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins. It began as a farce about Siamese twins -- two different temperaments inseparably linked in one body -- and wound up becoming an irony about two babies -- one slave, one free -- switched in their cradles. It was never very popular with MT's contemporaries, but as his most direct, sustained treatment of slavery it has attracted considerable attention in our time; there is as yet, however, no agreement about what it's saying. In Roxy the novel offers MT's most complex woman character. Despite the title, most commentary on the book assumes that her son, Tom/Valet de Chambers, is the central character. My own reading of it begins with the title. It is curious that MT should call it a tragedy when its ending is classically comic: true identities and an apparent social order are restored. And curiouser that he calls it Pudd'nhead Wilson's tragedy, when Wilson enacts the rise from obscurity to popularity and prestige that is usually thought of as the archetypal American success story.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

337 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Mateo Tomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot recall ever reading anything funnier. This would have been a perfect Mel Brooks and Zero Mostel play/film as Sellers/Rossmore and Hawkins.

[Adam Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story, "The American Claimant", may be more deserving of 4 stars. It follows a British heir who comes to America to live without his family's legacy defining him. In typical Twain fashion, this American Claimant ends up in a rather odd series of events to threaten his reputation in society. In any case, the strength of the novel is questioning the real worth of titles and heirdoms where a person could be more worthwhile without them.

The second story, "Pudd'nhead Wilson", is definitely one of Twain's best works. Wilson is the titular character but the main of the book looks to Tom/Chambers. He is a slave (1/32 black) switched after birth with his master's son and raised as that son. Later on, he comes to know his heritage and gets involved in plots to enrich himself and damage others. Wilson is the one, thought an idiot by those who don't understand him, who uses the newly developed forensic science of fingerprinting to exonerate his legal clients. Twain looks to what parts race play in character and general behaviour, suggesting that nurturing has a larger part to play than nature.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A style unto itself.

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Twain (Mark, not Shania) novel seemed a bit light-weight to me. I enjoyed his introduction and appendix, and the story was easy to read, with some humor. But there seemed to be too much caricature unnecessary to the story. Either the story lacked or the character development was overdone.

Finished reading Pudd'nhead Wilson today (first book of 2013). MUCH better than The American Claimant; it provided insight into slavery (from a white southern perspective) and also was a murder mystery. I rate it as at least 4, and would like to give it a 4.5 if allowed. The headings to each chapter, ostensibly adages from Pudd'nhead Wilson's calendar, add both to the story and to general interest.

[Cws]

JAR6-Twa

[Jamie Eberle]

Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain