A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court / Edition 1

by Mark Twain, Bernard L. Stein, Daniel Carter Beard

Overview

A Connecticut Yankee is Mark Twain’s most ambitious work, a tour de force with a science-fiction plot told in the racy slang of a Hartford workingman, sparkling with literary hijinks as well as social and political satire. Mark Twain characterized his novel as "one vast sardonic laugh at the trivialities, the servilities of our poor human race." The Yankee, suddenly transported from his native nineteenth-century America to the sleepy sixth-century Britain of King Arthur and the Round Table, vows brashly to "boss the whole country inside of three weeks." And so he does. Emerging as "The Boss," he embarks on an ambitious plan to modernize Camelot—with unexpected results.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520268166
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/14/2011
Series:	Mark Twain Library , #4
Edition description:	First Edition, Edited by Bernard L. Stein. Original illustrations by Daniel Carter Beard
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Mark Twain (1835-1910) was an American humorist, novelist, and lecturer. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, he was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, a setting which would serve as inspiration for some of his most famous works. After an apprenticeship at a local printer’s shop, he worked as a typesetter and contributor for a newspaper run by his brother Orion. Before embarking on a career as a professional writer, Twain spent time as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi and as a miner in Nevada. In 1865, inspired by a story he heard at Angels Camp, California, he published “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” earning him international acclaim for his abundant wit and mastery of American English. He spent the next decade publishing works of travel literature, satirical stories and essays, and his first novel, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873). In 1876, he published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a novel about a mischievous young boy growing up on the banks of the Mississippi River. In 1884 he released a direct sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which follows one of Tom’s friends on an epic adventure through the heart of the American South. Addressing themes of race, class, history, and politics, Twain captures the joys and sorrows of boyhood while exposing and condemning American racism. Despite his immense success as a writer and popular lecturer, Twain struggled with debt and bankruptcy toward the end of his life, but managed to repay his creditors in full by the time of his passing at age 74. Curiously, Twain’s birth and death coincided with the appearance of Halley’s Comet, a fitting tribute to a visionary writer whose steady sense of morality survived some of the darkest periods of American history.

Date of Birth:

November 30, 1835

Date of Death:

April 21, 1910

Place of Birth:

Florida, Missouri

Place of Death:

Redding, Connecticut

Read an Excerpt

Chapter I Camelot
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"
by .
Copyright © 1972 Mark Twain.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

ILLUSTRATIONS
FOREWORD

A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT
    Preface
    A Word of Explanation
1. Camelot
2. King Arthur's Court
3. Knights of the Table Round
4. Sir Dinadan the Humorist
5. An Inspiration
6. The Eclipse
7. Merlin's Tower
8. The Boss
9. The Tournament
10. Beginnings of Civilization
11. The Yankee in Search of Adventures
12. Slow Torture
13. Freemen!
14. "Defend Thee, Lord!"
15. Sandy's Tale
16. Morgan le Fay
17. A Royal Banquet
18. In the Queen's Dungeons
19. Knight-Errantry as a Trade
20. The Ogre's Castle
21. The Pilgrims
22. The Holy Fountain
23. Restoration of the Fountain
24. A Rival Magician
25. A Competitive Examination
26. The First Newspaper
27. The Yankee and the King Travel Incognito
28. Drilling the King
29. The Small-Pox Hut
30. The Tragedy of the Manor House
31. Marco
32. Dawley's Humiliation
33. Sixth-Century Political Economy
34. The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves
35. A Pitiful Incident
36. An Encounter in the Dark
37. An Awful Predicament
38. Sir Launcelot and Knights to the Rescue
39. The Yankee's Fight with the Knights
40. Three Years Later
41. The Interdict
42. War!
43. The Battle of the Sand-Belt
44. A Postscript by Clarence

REFERENCES
EXPLANATORY NOTES
NOTE ON THE TEXT

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Dufris's enthusiastic narration is perfect; the deep drawl he produces might very well be the voice of Twain himself, and his pacing and comedic timing will delight listeners." —-Publishers Weekly Starred Audio Review

Reading Group Guide

1.  How does Hank Morgan change throughout the novel? Is this change for the better, or for worse? How does his speech reflect his change in attitude?

2.  The theme of the “mysterious stranger” (an outsider who enters a community or circle and enacts some kind of disruption) often appears in Twain’s works. How does Hank use his status as an “outsider” to his advantage? What does he bring from the outside that benefits sixth-century England? Into which world does Hank ultimately fit?

3.  What is Hank Morgan’s view of the Catholic church?

4.  Many critics consider A Connecticut Yankee to be Twain’s most flawed work because he simply wanted to do “too much.” Do you agree? If so, why?

5.  Consider the end of the novel. What statement does Twain make with this ending? Do you feel it is a fulfilling way to end the book?

Editorial Reviews

When Hank Morgan is transported from 19th-century Hartford, Conn., to sixth-century England, his misadventures begin as he navigates a host of dangers en route to becoming “The Boss” of Camelot. William Dufris’s enthusiastic narration is perfect; the deep drawl he produces might very well be the voice of Twain himself, and his pacing and comedic timing will delight listeners. Dufris is clearly enjoying himself, and he produces a series of unique voices for the knights and damsels Morgan meets in Camelot. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Twain is the funniest literary American writer. . . . [I]t must have been a great pleasure to be him."
—George Saunders

From the Publisher