Summary
Summary of The American Claimant
The American Claimant at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 4 h 10 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 59,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1892by Mark Twain
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of The American Claimant, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Berkeley gives up inherited privilege
Viscount Berkeley learns that his father has long known an American has a moral claim to their earldom. The law protects the family, but Berkeley cannot accept wealth and rank that he believes belong to someone else. His family motto, to each man his own, would become a joke if he stayed.
He decides to leave for America and live as a plain man. His father calls the decision idiocy. Berkeley sees it as a matter of principle, before he knows what that principle will cost.
Key idea 2
Sellers lives inside his hopes
In Washington, Colonel Mulberry Sellers surrounds himself with signs of the greatness he expects.
Start free to read
Key idea 3
The family shares a borrowed title
The death of Simon Lathers makes Sellers the claimant to the earldom.
Start free to read
Key idea 4
A fire gives Berkeley another identity
A hotel fire entangles Berkeley's escape from privilege with Sellers's hunt for a bank robber.
Start free to read
Key idea 5
Equality meets the boardinghouse test
Calling himself Howard Tracy, Berkeley deposits the found money and sets out to earn his own living.
Start free to read
Key idea 6
Tracy still wants to be admired
Unable to find work, Tracy wins the boarders' respect by knocking down a man who mistreats the tinsmith.
Start free to read
Key idea 7
Useful work brings Tracy new dignity
Barrow introduces Tracy to a portrait business whose artists cannot paint the objects their customers want.
Start free to read
Key idea 8
The truth sounds like a lie
Working at Sellers's house brings Tracy close to Sally, and they quickly fall in love.
Start free to read
Key idea 9
Rank and hope depend on belief
Berkeley wants to be valued without his title; Sellers builds his household around a title he believes is his.
Start free to read
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest free
Who it’s for
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.
What this book is
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.
In this summary
- 1Berkeley gives up inherited privilegeFree
- 2Sellers lives inside his hopes
- 3The family shares a borrowed title
- 4A fire gives Berkeley another identity
- 5Equality meets the boardinghouse test
- 6Tracy still wants to be admired
- 7Useful work brings Tracy new dignity
- 8The truth sounds like a lie
- 9Rank and hope depend on belief
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.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Check yourself
Why does Berkeley decide to leave for America?
Right. “Morally the American is the rightful earl, he says, though legally the man has no more right than his dog.”Not quite. “Morally the American is the rightful earl, he says, though legally the man has no more right than his dog.”
What does Tracy discover about his feelings toward rank?
Right. “The telegraph boy treats him with awe when he sees the address, and Tracy enjoys it far more than he expected.”Not quite. “The telegraph boy treats him with awe when he sees the address, and Tracy enjoys it far more than he expected.”
How do Sellers's dreams affect his household?
Right. “It can make a poor household cheerful, and it can also ruin the people who live with it.”Not quite. “It can make a poor household cheerful, and it can also ruin the people who live with it.”
Go deeper: the whole of The American Claimant
About 4 h 20 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 59,200 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 10 min
Questions about The American Claimant
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.
Cite this edition
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}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of The American Claimant, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
