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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Penguin Classics)
by: Mark Twain

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.4
EAN: 9780140430646
ISBN: 0140430644
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: February 28, 1972
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Reading Level: Young Adult
Sales Rank: 95929
Studio: Penguin Classics

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
When A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court was published in 1889, Mark Twain was undergoing a series of personal and professional crises. In his Introduction, M. Thomas Inge shows how what began as a literary burlesque of British chivalry and culture developed to tragedy and into a novel that remains a major literary and cultural text for generations of new readers. This edition reproduces a number of the original drawings by Dan Beard, of whom Twain said 'He not only illustrates the text but he illustrates my thoughts.'

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Excellent literature, not a children's book
This is Twaine at his best. The book provokes thought, draws sympathy, and is downright hilarious. It also reads smoothly and at a brisk pace. It's a quick, fun read. I should also emphasize that while this is frequently labelled as children's literature, I find that label to be completely misleading. While it can no doubt be enjoyed by children at their level, there are a number of subtleties, particularly in the humor, that will be beyond the comprehension of most 13 year olds.

The most pervasive feature of theme of the book is the ignorance of people in the sixth century. The Yankee is constantly dazzling both king and commoner with all manner of "miracles" (really just works of engineering or culture that he has as a result of his 19th century education). The people are the most easily duped idiots imaginable, and hold the most base conceptions and prejudices, and have no conception of justice. ... Read More

Rating:

- Twain pays his debt to Cervantes and Swift
Not quite a classic, Twain pays his debt to Cervantes and Swift in this satiric fable about the collision between the "modern" world (19th Century America) and the world of Arthorian (authorian?) legend (6th century England). Twain gets in some sharp jabs against both time periods, with a deft touch of modern irony that makes the book seem surprisingly fresh at times (Twain even pops a "dudes and dudesses" reference!).

He puts his finger on the clear difficulty of interacting with (or portraying on books and movies) that pre-modern world: they inability to grasp the concepts of irony, reasoning, or disbelieve, leave Twain literally unable to communicate at times to both satiric and serious effect..

But the train wanders off the track in long dissertations on purchasing power, class and slavery, and Twain's seemingly gleeful telling of his facile ability to kill 50,000 knights with modern explosives, ... Read More

Rating:

- Anti-Catholic polemic dressed up as a classic
I have always loved Mark Twain since reading Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as a kid. At one point I had even memorized "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" as a seventh-grader in Catholic school. Twain has always held a sentimental place close to my heart, so when our book club chose to read and discuss A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, I was all for it.

I had heard vaguely of Twain's atheist mindset and his antagonism toward religion in general. But until I read Connecticut Yankee, I had no idea how much irrational and unfounded antipathy Twain had for the Catholic Church in particular. The pervasive theme in Connecticut Yankee is that our modern enlightened world is far superior to that which went before and that the "bad old days" of slavery and oppression were almost completely the fault of the Catholic Church. This anti-Catholic sentiment can hardly be denied as Twain himself urged reviewers ... Read More

Rating:

- Love Twain's writing, but not so much in this one
Although I usually enjoy Twain's writing style, and his sense of wry humor, there was something about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court that was less than satisfying.

Some of the situations that the protagonist gets himself into are "classic" Twain. When the narrator is transported back to the time of Camelot, he begins to speculate about rituals, customs and general style of life. There is one part where the townspeople are convinced that he can perform great magical feats (he actually has Merlin as his rival), and when they corner him about performing one, he has to think of a way to please them or face punishment. He realizes that he can remember when an eclipse is going to come, and there is the way out of his situation. There are many adventures, where the narrator becomes critical of their ways, as a time warp will do. He is a fish out of water in many ways in this new world, not understanding, for ... Read More

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