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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. A 19th-century New Englander wakes up in King Arthur's Age of Chivalry for a hilarious tale of anachronisms, romantic history, and biting social satire. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (136)

Overwritten, Absurdist, Unrealistic
Mark Twain is a great author, but not here. I liked his "Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and, I've a fine appreciation for the man's sheer wit."The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is the best short story I had to read in High School."A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is an overblown rant against religion dressed in the trappings of novelization.

I found the plot absurd.Twain's barbs against religion were witty, but so over-the-top they interfered with the actual story.I kept finding the novel stupid instead of funny, and pointless instead of witty, especially when 'technology/modern civilization' began dominating the court. The use of detail detracted from the story; extremely overwritten. The main character was an 'expert' on everything, and felt more like an author's mouthpiece than a real man, even a caricature of a man. If you aren't amused by old-style religious slanders, expect a plot, and have read modern time travel stories, you'll hate this so-called 'great' novel.

Please feel free to discuss in the comments rather than giving me rage-unhelpfuls because you disagree with my opinion.Thanks!

Great Item- slow shipping
This item arrived in excellent condition.A little dissapointed in the amount of time it took to ship.

a fantastic story
first of all, for those of u who dont know what "thou" or "thee" means,they both mean "you"! and for all of you who say this book is anti-religion, you must fail to understand that the catholic church was a very powerful and disliked back in the middle ages, and he was describing what religion was like back then.and finally for those of you who say that they dont like the 1800's speech,IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE 1800's!do you expect mark twain to write like we would nowadays?just because he writes a book about time traveling doesnt mean he IS a time traveler!

This is a very interesting book,describing in detail what it would be like to mix middle ages with the 19th century.would recomend this book to anyone that knows what "thee" or "thou" means.

Excellent literature, not a children's book
This is Twaine at his best.The book provokes thought, draws sympathy, and is downright hilarious.It also reads smoothly and at a brisk pace.It's a quick, fun read.I should also emphasize that while this is frequently labelled as children's literature, I find that label to be completely misleading.While it can no doubt be enjoyed by children at their level, there are a number of subtleties, particularly in the humor, that will be beyond the comprehension of most 13 year olds.

The most pervasive feature of theme of the book is the ignorance of people in the sixth century.The Yankee is constantly dazzling both king and commoner with all manner of "miracles" (really just works of engineering or culture that he has as a result of his 19th century education).The people are the most easily duped idiots imaginable, and hold the most base conceptions and prejudices, and have no conception of justice.Twain believes these shortcomings are a product of their environment and education, rather than inherrent deficiencies ("training, all is training").He also tackles slavery (an institution out of practice by the time of this book's writing), draws sympathy for slaves, and advocates the equality of all humanity.All pretty simple stuff.At a slightly deeper level, he tackles economic policy, namely protectionism vs. free trade, a debate that raged into his day and even into our own.He ridicules the views of the protectionists and their inability to understand the meaning of real vs. nominal wages, clearly a slap at certain arguments of his own day.

Though the social commentary is interesting, if elementary, the satire is by far the best part of this book.Twain takes so many shots at so many targets that it's difficult even for the careful reader to notice them all.By far the funniest character is Alisande, a charicature of Arthurian women, who the yankee pejoritively nicknames "Sandy."When she rambles on for hours to no apparent purpose "running her mill," by whihc Twain pokes fun both of women in general and of their style of speech in Arthurian literature.A very funny scene is when Sandy relates a story from Thomas Mallory ver batim, with the Yankee constantly interjecting with suggestions to improve Mallory's arid writing style."The Irish guy sounds like all the others, Sandy.You ought to give him a brogue, or at least have him say something like 'be jabbers' so that you'd know it's him speaking," which of course is a suggestion Sandy takes.

Another great piece of satire is Twain's commentary on the yankee himself.When he defeats opposing knights, he makes them sell all sorts of trinkets and products, from top hats to soap to stoves, as his way of spreading civilization.Of course these goods don't make a nation civilized, but that the yankee thinks they do is Twain's pejorative commentary as a westerner on eastern materialism.Twain's way of telling it is very funny stuff.There's much more excellent humor that can't be mentioned for the sake of space.

The ending is another excellent commentary.The yankee's beautifully crafted civilization crashes down because of the irrascible prejudices of the people, which the church uses to its advantage.Twain's negative view of imperialism is here reflected, in how he depicts the folly of elevating a society by outside influences.A civilization must grow at its own pace, developing its views and values through a long process of trials.Attempts to import institutions from without are bound for failure.Though relevant in Twain's day, this is equally applicable in ours.

So, if you want the whole package:a quick, easy read that also provides thought-proviking commentary and great humor, I'd recommend reading this.It would be hard to find a better book that has everything this one does.

Twain pays his debt to Cervantes and Swift
Not quite a classic, Twain pays his debt to Cervantes and Swift in this satiric fable about the collision between the "modern" world (19th Century America) and the world of Arthorian (authorian?)legend (6th century England).Twain gets in some sharp jabs against both time periods, with a deft touch of modern irony that makes the book seem surprisingly fresh at times (Twain even pops a "dudes and dudesses" reference!).

He puts his finger on the clear difficulty of interacting with (or portraying on books and movies) that pre-modern world:they inability to grasp the concepts of irony, reasoning, or disbelieve, leave Twain literally unable to communicate at times to both satiric and serious effect..

But the train wanders off the track in long dissertations on purchasing power, class and slavery, and Twain's seemingly gleeful telling of his facile ability to kill 50,000 knights with modern explosives, electric fences, and Gatling guns seems jarringly horrific and disturbing, especially after the historically-realized horrors of the last hundred years. ... Read more

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Looking for lost ancestors in Windham County, Connecticut? Puzzled because land records seem to be missing? Could be they're noted in one of the over 1600 lawsuits, petitions, and appointments abstracted from these early court records. This work offers glimpses of never before published ledgers from a rather obscure source - an excellent resource for the pre-census era. Names of thousands of early Windham County residents are noted along with litigants from other Connecticut counties, neighboring states, and from as far away as London, England. The residences of plaintiffs, defendants and petitioners are noted along with their occupations (if known) and even familial relationships in some instances. Cases include complaints of debts, issuing of tavern and tanning licenses, property attachments, thefts, trespassing, assault, fornication, and highway petitions, just to name a few. The index includes every person's name, including witnesses and court officials, every location mentioned, types of suits, occupations, and other noteworthy subjects. This is an excellent resource tool for those who are unable to visit the archives, and a shortcut to poring over old, under-indexed volumes with faded script. ... Read more

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Publisher: [New HavenPublication date: 1919Subjects: MedicinePublic healthPeriodicalsNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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Did you ever wonder as to the reason for the paucity of births in early vital records? A hint of scandal or embarrassment associated with a birth may have made an ancestor reluctant to document it in a public record. This work is a compilation of Fornicat ... Read more

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Lists Connecticut's libraries with special or unusualcollections.Includes activities that teach students about the importanceof libraries, the Dewey Decimal System, the Library of Congress, Books- in-Print, contributions of Andrew Carnegie and how and why to uselibraries.Listing includes many libraries with special collections aboutConnecticut.Free teacher's guide. ... Read more

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Each of the 52 volumes in the World Almanac Library of the States is filled with the most up-to-date information, including the latest Census results. Full-color photos bring to life the story of each state, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other outlying areas. In addition to an in-depth factual profile of each state in the form of a state Almanac, each book offers fascinating and lively discussions of the state's history, people, geography, government, economy, culture, and lifestyles. Each title also includes a section on notable people, a calendar of events, and enough primary source documents, time lines, maps, and other tools to make this unquestionably the best young adult reference material on the United States of America available anywhere. Grades: 3 + Manufacturer:Weekly Reader ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1919.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Surveys the history of the colony of Connecticut from its early days up through the American Revolution. Includes biographical sketches of prominent individuals. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1911.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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The Windham County, Connecticut: County Court Records, 1726-1732: Abstracts of Vol. I, Connecticut State Library Archives, Capitol Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut – Marcella Houle Pasay. Over 1800 lawsuits, petitions, and appointments abstracted from early court records. This work offers abstracts of never before published court records from an obscure source—an excellent resource for the pre-census era. All the towns of early Windham Co. are represented, plus towns in neighboring counties and states (Massachusetts, Rhode Island & New York). 2000, 184pp., fullname+location index, paper.
#P1683-A1226HB
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