Story summary
Trama e riassunto di Il pretendente americano
- 8 min di lettura
- 10 parts
- Audio a breve
An English lord gives up his title to start over in Washington, where a dreamer plans to buy Siberia.
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Il pretendente americano in breve
Riassunto: 8 min di lettura
- Tempo di lettura
- Circa 4 h 10 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 55 min slow
- Durata
- 59.200 parole
- Livello nella biblioteca
- Medio longer sentences, everyday words
- Prima pubblicazione
- 1892by Mark Twain
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Quanto tempo ci vuole per leggere i classici · Aggiornato
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Il pretendente americano in short
The American Claimant is a comic story about two men who each want something they cannot get honestly. Viscount Berkeley wants to be valued for himself, so he gives up his title and becomes Howard Tracy. Colonel Sellers believes he is the rightful earl and builds a household of fantasies around his rank.
What Il pretendente americano is about
Would you give up a castle, a huge income and a title that reaches back to William the Conqueror, just to learn what you are worth on your own? That is the choice of young Viscount Berkeley in The American Claimant. He sails for Washington, certain that in America every man starts on equal ground.
Mark Twain published this comic novel in 1892. It brings back Colonel Mulberry Sellers, the white-haired dreamer from The Gilded Age, who believes he is the rightful Earl of Rossmore. You get the story, its people and the ideas behind the jokes, including a plan to buy Siberia for a republic.
A chi è rivolto. You will enjoy this if you like comic novels full of big talkers and wild schemes, satire that pokes at snobbery, and warm love stories.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A son gives up an earldom
The story opens at Cholmondeley Castle in Warwickshire. The Earl of Rossmore, seventy years old, stern and rich, paces his breakfast room while his son stands by the window. The son is Viscount Berkeley, a mild man of nearly thirty who looks like a lamb in armor.
For ten years an American named Simon Lathers has written letters claiming the earldom. The son has read his evidence and thinks the proof is complete. The old earl admits he has known the facts for forty years. Morally the American is the rightful earl, he says, though legally the man has no more right than his dog.
That confession decides the matter. The family motto says to each man his own, and Berkeley cannot live under it as a sarcasm. So he will go to America and live as a plain man. His father calls it idiocy, yet lets him go.
Someone who gives up everything for a principle has to learn what the principle costs.
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Colonel Sellers builds castles in the air
Chapter two takes us to Washington and to Colonel Mulberry Sellers, who has not changed in fifteen years.
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The family plays at being nobility
News of Lathers's death turns Sellers into the claimant.
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A fire, a mistaken death and a basket of ashes
The chase for the bank robber One-Armed Pete brings the first big accident.
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An English lord becomes Howard Tracy
Berkeley's first move is to burn his bridges.
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Hard times, a rooftop fight and a lost cause
Weeks pass and Tracy cannot find work.
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Paint, work and a meeting at Rossmore Towers
Barrow brings Tracy a box of fourteen oil portraits, each showing a mechanic beside the same cannon and the same ship.
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Love, tests and an earl no one believes
Tracy meets Sally while painting at the house, and Sellers hires him to restore his old masters.
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What the story says about equality and rank
Twain's central question is whether equality is a fact or a feeling.
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Dreamers, fraud and a satire told with weather
The second theme is the dreamer.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Colonel Mulberry Sellers A warm, boundless dreamer in Washington who believes he is the rightful Earl of Rossmore and wants to buy Siberia for a republic.
- Viscount Berkeley (Howard Tracy) A gentle English heir who gives up his rank to live as an equal, and finds that equality is harder than he expected.
- Sally Sellers (Gwendolen) The colonel's clever, romantic daughter, who designs gowns by day and wants to be sure she is loved for herself.
- Polly Sellers (Lady Rossmore) Sellers's patient wife, who sees through every scheme, goes along with them out of love, and keeps the household afloat.
- Washington Hawkins The Colonel's loyal, easily led friend from Cherokee Strip, who hopes his schemes will finally bring in money.
- The Earl of Rossmore The proud English lord who knows the American claim is morally sound and wants only to protect his son.
- Barrow A quick-witted Washington chairmaker who befriends Tracy, finds him work and explains the strange ways of equality.
How it ends (spoiler)
Tracy's father, the Earl of Rossmore, crosses the Atlantic and arrives at Rossmore Towers just as Sally forgives her suitor. He accepts the match after talking with her through the night. Berkeley reclaims his name, the ashes are forgotten, and a quiet wedding is held at the Towers. Sellers vanishes before the trip to England, leaving a letter that promises to control sunspots and sell climates.
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Domande su Il pretendente americano
What is The American Claimant about?
It follows a young English viscount who gives up his title to live as an ordinary man in Washington. There he meets Colonel Sellers, an inventor and dreamer who claims the same earldom, and Sellers's daughter Sally.
Who is Colonel Mulberry Sellers?
Sellers is a hopeful, generous schemer who first appeared in The Gilded Age. In this book he lives in Washington, claims to be the rightful Earl of Rossmore, and dreams up inventions that range from cursing phonographs to buying Siberia.
When did Mark Twain write The American Claimant?
Twain published it in 1892, and it is a work of fiction. It grew out of the play based on Sellers, and it reuses that character in a new comic story about class and money.
What does the weather appendix mean?
At the start Twain promises a book without weather and sends readers to an appendix at the back, which gathers storm passages from other authors. The device is a joke about how often novels pause for scenery.
What is the main message of The American Claimant?
The book suggests that rank is a matter of what people agree to believe, in England and in America. It also shows that giving up privilege is harder than praising equality, and that honest love can cut through both.
Cita questa edizione
Twain, Mark. The American Claimant. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant.
Twain, M. (2026). The American claimant. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant (Original work published 1892)
Twain, Mark. The American Claimant. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant.
@book{twain2026american,
author = {Twain, Mark},
title = {The American Claimant},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant},
note = {First published 1892}
}
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