A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

This satirical novel, with a total eclipse of the Sun at its heart, was one of the most loved books of my childhood. It tells the story of Hank Morgan, the foreman of an American factory in the late 1800s, who receives a blow on the head from one of the employees. He wakes up in Camelot at the time of King Arthur. As he does not fit in, he is brought before the king and sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Fortunately, just as the execution is about to begin, a total solar eclipse occurs, and Morgan persuades… show more.

This novel may seem an odd choice since King Arthur is likely more fictional than historical, yet Mark Twain, for all his humor, uses the novel as a satire upon the wrongs of capitalism and his late nineteenth-century society.

Hank Morgan, the Connecticut Yankee, intentionally tries to change history by making medieval England a better place. He does this by trying to rid the land of superstition and the hold that charlatans like Merlin have over the country, but he is also a complex character who is not unwilling to use medieval superstition to his advantage.

By the end of… show more.

What can I say about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court? Seriously, what can I say? I was just a young kid when I read it. I still have the book. But I don’t remember details or have anything insightful that I can say about it. But I do remember being highly entertained and digging the time travel idea. That plot device really caught my imagination and I just have this very vague memory of being transported back to those mythical days as if the book itself were a time portal.

I also remember feeling really at home… show more.

I love Mark Twain and it was hard to choose just one of his many books. Several fit the bill of my theme: a person pulled out of their place or time and having to contend with the possibility of magic. Connecticut Yankee fits my idea of great fantasy. I like to have characters one might reasonably meet at a bar. At the same time, I want those characters to be out of place or time and have to use their wits in extraordinary ways. Hank Morgan is an average guy who is thrust back in time to King Author's… show more.

It is the year 528 and Hank, an unsuspecting time traveler, plunges straight into the court of King Arthur in Camelot only to find himself tasked with looking after a damsel in distress. The book was first published in 1889 and still has me in stitches. It is a comedy, a satire, with a beautifully imagined power struggle between the highly suspicious Merlin and Hank, a modern-day engineer. It’s a light-hearted treat of a book with wonderful characters and a fabulous setting that brings King Arthur’s court with all its chivalry and intrigues vividly to life.