Lighthearted farce featuring an American charmed by the British aristocracy and a British earl equally intrigued by his conception of the nature of America's democratic society. Illustrated by Dan Beard.
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Lighthearted farce featuring an American charmed by the British aristocracy and a British earl equally intrigued by his conception of the nature of America's democratic society. Illustrated by Dan Beard.
Read Less
Add this copy of The American Claimant to cart. $3.82, new condition, Sold by Pumpkin Wholesale Ltd rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Abingdon, Oxon, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2019 by Dover Publications Inc.
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This lighthearted farce features an American under the spell of Britain's aristocracy and an English earl equally intrigued by American democracy. While eccentric inventor Colonel Mulberry Sellers attempts to pursue his claim to the earldom of Rossmore, the rightful heir determines to renounce his title and find a place in American society. When the young lord's identity is wiped out in a hotel fire, he's free to assume a new name and realize his egalitarian dreams-an undertaking that leads him into the company of Colonel Sellers and a romance with the Colonel's daughter, who is practical seamstress Sally Sellers by day and romantic Lady Gwendolen by night. An unjustly neglected gem by the great American storyteller, this novel is a fast-moving comedy that also offers thought-provoking reflections on the construction of self and identity. This volume is enhanced by Dan Beard's charming line drawings, reproduced from the first edition.
'The American Claimant' is a preposterous sitcom from the American master of preposterosity, Mark Twain.
Col. Mulberry Sellers, a nutbag, claims he is rightful heir to the seat of an English earl. He threatens to sue the present earl to regain his title and lands.
The earl's son, meanwhile, has 'modern' ideas about the stigma of inherited wealth and position, says he wants to throw it all up. The silly young man goes to America to renounce his title, give his inheritance to the American claimant and make his own way in the world.
The situation, already grossly unlikely, is then resolved by a grossly unlikely train of coincidences: The young earl falls in love with the American claimant's beautiful, featherbrained daughter. His father, the stern and stolid present earl, approves. The nutbag American claimant approves. The young couple marry and are deliriously happy. Then the nutbag claimant suddenly finds himself vastly and independently wealthy. Hence he loses all interest in the English title and lands. Like a 19th century Al Gore, he sets out instead to buy a controlling interest in global climates and in the ownership of Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, and all of the sunspots on Sol.
So it is that 'The American Claimant' is not for serious readers nor is it for sane people generally. It's a romp for pathologically simple-minded people who are able to suspend all disbelief and laugh at comedic elements in a set of characters and situations that bear no resemblance to real life.
It seems to this writer that in 'The American Claimant,' Mark Twain somehow lost control of his narrative (or his mind). He stepped over the line that separates parody from absurdity and for whatever reason could not pull back. The ending is more of a train wreck than a resolution.
Solomon sez: 'The American Claimant' is a stinker in which one finds a few amusing situations and some clever lines floating, like bits of crackers, adrift in a soup of drivel. Maybe for you but not for me.
