num_pages: 656
description: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is one of Twain's best-loved tales. A pioneering work of science fiction, it vibrates with slapstick comedy and serious social commentary as well. In this complex and ambitious tour de force , an inventive nineteenth-century resident of Hartford namedHank Morgan travels back in time to sixteenth-century England where he tries to introduce modern technology and political ideas. Along the way he founds the first tabloid, the Camelot Weekly Hosannah and Literary Volcano , organizes a game of baseball between armor-clad knights, and "keeps up asteady fire of flippancies, so frequent that no reader registers all of them on the first go-around," as Louis Budd reminds us in his introduction. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is Twain's most complex and disturbing meditation on technology, as well as a powerful consideration ofpolitics and power. The original illustrations by Dan Beard, chosen by Twain himself to illustrate the book, brilliantly mix buffoonery with sharp social satire in an effective counterpoint to the text. By turns side-splittingly funny and somberly thought-provoking, A Connecticut Yankee in KingArthur's Court is Twain at his finest.
language: English
title: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
titlecomplete: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
characters: Hank Morgan, Merlin (Arthurian wizard), King Arthur
genres: Classics, Adventure, Fantasy, Time Travel, Humor, Arthurian, Historical Fiction, Literature, Fiction, Science Fiction
ratings_count: 102176
places: Hartford, Connecticut, United Kingdom, Connecticut, England
publisher: Oxford University Press