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 More
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. $4.82, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2016 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of The American Claimant (Seawolf Press Illustrated to cart. $4.94, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published by SeaWolf Press.
Add this copy of American Claimant Etc to cart. $4.99, very good condition, Sold by Sixth Chamber Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from River Falls, WI, UNITED STATES.
Add this copy of The American Claimant and Pudd'Nhead Wilson (the to cart. $5.00, very good condition, Sold by Persephone's Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gastonia, NC, UNITED STATES, published by Nelson Doubleday.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. pp. 337. 337 pp. Very light rubbing to the extremities of the covers. The binding is tight and square, and the text is clean.
Add this copy of The American Claimant-Vol IV-the Complete Works to cart. $5.00, good condition, Sold by Pepper's Old Books rated 2.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hanson, KY, UNITED STATES, published 1924 by Harper & Brothers Pub.
Add this copy of The American Claimant to cart. $5.62, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2014 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of The American Claimant to cart. $6.03, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of The American Claimant to cart. $6.54, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2018 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of The American Claimant (1892) to cart. $6.60, good condition, Sold by Warner Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Girard, OH, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Oxford University Press, USA.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good in good dust jacket. EX) Library copy. Typical library stampings, stickers and markings. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. Oxford Mark Twain. Audience: General/trade.
'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.
