Fairy Tale Spotlight: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [Book Review]

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is a novel written by Mark Twain, otherwise known as Samuel Clemens. It was published in 1889. I read the physical copy of this book, and I am glad I did. It had over 300 illustrations in it that really did add to the enjoyment of the book. A lot of Kindle books I get don't have the illustrations included. If you can believe it, I have read 33 Oz books without seeing one of their famous illustrations.

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" relates the story of a man named Hank Morgan who gets decked by some guy he worked with and ends up being sent to the place and time of the reign of King Arthur. From the get-go, we have ourselves a time-traveling science fiction from Mark Twain!

The thing about Hank is he is a jack-of-all-trades. He can really do anything he sets his mind to, and that was an interesting sort of person to introduce to a primitive society. Through Hank, we see that a lot of the romanticized legends of the days of chivalry are extremely overhyped. He even exposes that the writing of the time was underwhelming to read, and later generations were forced to spin those stories into better literature to make it more interesting to us.

The world that Hank fell into was full of slavery, diseases, extreme mistreatment of individuals based on class. The knights of of the Round Table came across as mostly delusional, likely to having too much power. It also showed the overreach of the Roman Catholic Church which, according to their own Bible, should not have been rising to such power as they did. Everything has essentially turned into a caste system.

Although the book does have numerous humorous moments, such as when Hank had to wear armor for the first time [It got really sweaty and itchy in there!], much of the book is actually taken seriously, and I found a story that was very immersive from beginning to end.

I don't have the heart to spoil much of the book, but I do want to say that Mark Twain has created a science fiction adventure masterpiece here. The fact that Hank is coming from an older time does not mean that you won't be able to understand him. In fact, I related to him perfectly well. Much of the technology he tries to introduce to ancient England was stuff we all still use to this day, such as telephones, electricity, and guns. Even his point of view on politics, wages, and such are things still discussed to this day.

Nothing feels too overwritten, although there are times where it seems done on purpose. I'll give him a pass on that. But however you see it, this book feels way ahead of its time. It was a thrilling adventure filled with a number of adventurous genres such as romance and war. There's a lot here to digest, but it all works perfectly well as if the event actually took place.

I absolutely recommend "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." I would also recommend the Barnes & Nobel classic version which has all the illustrations. It's very rare to find such a large book so heavily illustrated. Usually novels like this are left only to the written word. Pick this one up. It's very good.

This blog was written on April 8, 2022.

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