Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - One of Mark Twain's Best Books

This book had been gathering dust on my shelf for a good six years. Apparently I bought it, put it away, then forgot I had it. What a ghastly oversight! Thankfully, I ran out of reading material that interested me at the moment and started browsing my bookcases for one to read over again... and stumbled happily upon Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by the irrepressible Mark Twain. HUZZAH!!

The gist of this wonderous tale is that a gentleman, Hank Morgan, happens to end up back in the day..that is to say, The day.. as in King Arthur, Camelot... you know, the days of damsels and knights and all form of mischievous rogue. He's promptly captured by one of these knights and sentenced to die when he stumbles upon a most brilliant scheme.

Ya see, he finds out the day and, having been a bit of a science buff back in Connecticut, he remembers there is to be a full eclipse soon... so he pretty much challenges ol' Merlin (the current head wizard) by saying he will black out the sun.

Merlin calls his bluff by moving the day of his execution up, figuring that if the man is dead, he cannot possibly block out the sun on the day quoted. Luckily for our hapless hero, he was given the wrong date when he inquired and the Eclipse begins as he is tied to the stake.

Having garnered fear and adulation for then saving the world by restoring the sun after said Eclipse, he is come to be called 'The Boss' and pretty much does as he pleases, much to Merlin's chagrin.

And thus goes the tale.... what he pleases to do mostly involves trying to rush this kingdom into the 19th century with newspapers and such.

Twain has such a way with comedy and social satirical commentary. Hardly a page flew by without grins, chuckles, and outright laughter from me. He takes great joy in denouncing the church and I take great joy in reading him do so. Now don't get in a huff, I said the church, not God...there is a big difference, and Twain was famous for using the church as a favorite target.

During the time of Camelot, the Church and it's representatives were viewed as without flaw, having supposedly been chosen by 'hisself.' They did, of course, take great advantage of this, as they still do today. It's nothing more than a political power-head and Twain flays that open for all to see brilliantly.

About the middle of the book was perhaps one of the best church-ridiculing chapters. The Valley of the Holy (or was that Hellish? hey.. Twains joke, not mine) is having a bit of a crisis. Seems their holy fount has gone and dried up. The last time that happened it was blamed on the evil baths... they had not bathed since. ewwwwwwwwww. Good ol' Merlin huffs and he puffs and he tries his wicked best to get that water flowing but he just hasn't got what it takes: mortar to fix the blasted leak. Luckily, the Boss has the 19th century know-how and the medieval resources to handle the problem with much to-do via fireworks and smoke. This, naturally, gains him even more renown...and gives him a chance to play a bit of head-game with the religious powers that be. The bath is reinstated.

You will get this if you read the book. heh. The idea is that they held something sooooo sacred and as the will of God for so long, then along comes some guy and basically says 'oh sorry that's wrong, it's really this way' and snap, total church turn-around. Touche Twain. Tou-freakin-che.

The other victim of Twain's wit is the idea of those-that-have being better than those-that-have-not. One is not automatically a better person or more deserving simply because of bloodline or money. Indeed, Twain makes a good argument that it is the other way around...

Much of the basis of Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is Le Morte D'Arthur, the book that started the many glorious tales of King Arthur. I was afraid that most of it would be in hard-core Olde English which is fun in small chunks but tedious in book-length. Thank heavens I was wrong. Parts are that way, but small enough to easily follow and digest. For the most part this is just Twains normal modus operandi. Very flowing and easy to read, a page-turner as always. If the print in this book had not been so small as to give my old eyes a hard time, I'd have gone through this book in one sitting easily.

I highly recommend this one to everybody. I'm of a mind that no education is complete without having read at least one book by Twain, and this is one of his best. Witty, satirical, fun... you just can't go wrong with this even if you are not into the time period. Hie thee to a bookseller forthwith! You can thank me later.