A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (a book by Mark Twain himself) is the tale of a soul from the late 19th century by the name of Hank Morgan, who one day after a blow to the head, somehow travels back in time and finds himself in 6th century Arthurian England. With his modern knowledge of technology, Hank is able to convince the people he is a very skilled magician even outclassing the likes of Merlin and earns himself a very important seat in King Arthur’s court and becomes known far and wide by the nickname, “The Boss”. With his high ranking position and knowledge from thirteen centuries in the future, this Yankee tries to reform England from the inside.
This book was strangely interesting to me, and for many good reasons. I read this book for a school assignment and finished it way before my project deadline (very rarely do I finish a book for school so quickly). I enjoyed how Mark Twain developed the main character’s conflicting attitudes throughout the story. For every moment he seemed very unsympathetic and mean there was an equal moment where he was the most fragile and empathetic being in the entire story. To me, Hank’s character represented the duality of human nature as well as its ability to adapt to a variety of different situations. Although Hank stated to originally hate and despise the culture and society of the time he was transported to, across the book you see him become accustomed to it as he adapts, builds relationships, and even, later on, builds a family for himself in this accursed time. But even so, he still holds the idea that his time is superior. It isn’t until toward the end of the book, but eventually, Hank is able to advance England with the introduction of the telephone and even names the child he has “Hello Central”, which is what telephone operators would say when you called the telephone office in his time. In the midst of all the comedy and satire throughout the book, that plot point was the big dash of irony that I feel defines Hank’s character and made him human and relatable.
What I didn’t like about the book was the childish criticism about the Catholic Church, which wasn’t exactly wrong but was expressed in a way that got boring over time. The Church was a big part of the governmental system in the 6th century, and so as such, it has a large impact on the course of the book. The Yankee, coming from America where the separation of church and state exists as well as most likely living amongst more Protestants, outwardly hates on the Catholic Church and their toxic influence over the peasants of England as well as the nobility in his commentary. His opinions about The Church are well supported and reasonable, but over time it gets boring as he always seems to blame everything on them. It seemed like a very childish way of expressing his genuine distaste, and it got old when The Church didn’t seem to have a very direct role in the story for most of the book (though they do later on). It made me think of when in Scooby-doo they always say “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids,” except in Hank’s case it is more annoying and would say “And I would be able to revolutionize England if it wasn’t for that meddling Church!” Hank would also say it at least once every chapter. I mainly got irritated because it was the SAME thing EVERY time he mentioned them. But luckily, that was one of the only things I had a problem with in the book, and I have more things that I liked about it than not.
My favorite part of reading this book was getting to experience the peculiar sense of humor that Twain littered throughout the entire book. The time the book was written in was full of nothing but tragedy, and we are constantly hit with the realities of slavery, disease, and great poverty that plague the land. Naturally, you’d think that a time with such suffering would be hard to make very comedic (especially to the point of making a reader laugh aloud), but there’s something about how Mark Twain utilizes ‘dark humor’ that makes parts of the book hilarious. There are two parts in particular in which I think this ‘dark humor’ made me laugh the most. The first was rather early on and broke me with a single sentence, “For some reason or other the queen had the composer hanged after dinner.” The queen in question was King Arthur’s half-sister, Morgan Le Fay, who is presented to be one of the most heartless characters in the book. What had me on my knees in laugher was how casually her cruelty was expressed. There wasn’t a reason specified for the hanging, she didn’t do it because he had angered her or because he had said something outwardly mocking her, she just did it “[f]or some reason or other”. The second instance was simply the title of one of the later chapters, “The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves.” The King and Hank end up going undercover with the common folk, but in the process get captured and sold as slaves, not even selling for more than the average slave. While it is commenting on a very serious subject, imagining such a high and mighty figure such as the legendary King Arthur getting sold as a slave, being worth no more than about average, is priceless to me. While reading it I thought “where’s your divine right now?” Both instances are probably moments that in another book, could be the most devastating and intense scenes in the entire story. But with Mark Twain’s way of twisting the situation, sometimes you can’t help but laugh.
Overall, this book has become one of my favorites out of all the stories I’ve read for school. If you are someone who takes books very seriously, I would definitely stay away from this book. But if you’re someone who is okay with a little bit of questionable humor that is in no way meant to be taken seriously, then I would definitely recommend reading this book. Besides the satire and comedy, this book also has a lot to offer in terms of intricate themes and complex messages that I feel can only be truly understood if you read the book itself. As the author of this book, Mark Twain never ceased to amaze me. I feel that through his writing, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court could potentially offer something to anyone who reads it and is definitely worth the time to finish.
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We got this damaged so it was going back anyway but opening it up showed the print way too small you can tell that the page numbers are normal size for and it’s bizarre that the story itself is so small compared to that. Like clearly they know what normal size font is and they just decided not to do that. My kid couldn’t even read this comfortably.
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