Introduction to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

             Published in 1889, Connecticut Yankee is one of the world's first stories about time travel. The seed for this novel was probably planted during Mark Twain's 1884-1885 reading tour for Huck Finn, when George Washington Cable bought him a copy of Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D'Arthur in an upstate New York bookstore. But Mark Twain's interest in travel to "old worlds" was a longstanding one, as his first book shows. And his interest in the British past was also a lifelong preoccupation, as can be seen in texts like The Prince and the Pauper, or even the Memory-Builder game he invented and patented to help American children learn the dates of England's various monarchies. As Twain’s fantastic attempt to locate his time and place in terms of its imagined pasts and its possible futures, Connecticut Yankee is perhaps his most complex book:

            “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court met with mixed reviews when it was published in 1889. The British especially took offense at the novel, feeling that it maligned their history and culture and disgraced the ideals of King Arthur and his Round Table. Others hailed it as a triumph, full of genuine insight and sensitivity to social injustices throughout the ages. Many critics call attention to the cynical ending as evidence of Twain's own disenchantment with the promises of technology and progress as a result of his financial hardships, particularly the failure of an automatic typesetting machine in which he had invested. His later works share this tone of disillusionment. He died in 1910, survived by only one of his four children.”  (Spark Notes)

Major& Minor Characters

Hank Morgan

Clarence (Amyas le Poulet)

Sandy (Alisande)

King Arthur

Merlin

Sir Launcelot

Guenevere

Sir Sagramor le Desirous

Morgan Le Fay

Sir Kay

Marco

Dowley

Primary Themes

Magic/ Superstition vs. Technology

Religion/ Church

Education/ Training vs. Nature

King Arthur/ Monarchy

Chivalry/ Round Table/ Knighthood

Justice

Slavery

Topics for Analysis Discussion

Use of humor & satire

Role of the narrator

Contradictions