Guide Note:
In Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court a Connecticut Yankee named Hank is transported back to the historic Camelot and the Court of King Arthur in 528. As Hank looked strange to the people in King Arthur's Court he was sentenced to burn at the stake. He used his knowledge of the solar eclipse that occurred on the day he was scheduled to be burned in order to convince the people that he had great powers. He becomes King Arthur's principal minister. He uses his power to give the people technical advances, but is opposed by the Catholic Church. He then uses his technology to kill knights leading to the destruction of his technology.
Fast Facts:
- Published in 1889
- Published by Charles L. Webster
- Early example of time travel in a novel
- Parodied in Disney's Bugs Bunny special, A Connecticut Rabbit In King Arthur's Court
- BBC TV show Life on Mars has similar premise
- Set in and around Warwick Castle and Camelot in England
- Major theme is the clash of science and superstition
- Satirical novel
- One of Twain's main inspirations was Malory's Morte Darthur
- Was written in three periods during the winter of 1885-1886, the summer of 1887, and the summer of 1888-1889
Important Quotations:
- "You see, he was going for the Holy Grail. The boys all took a flier at the Holy Grail now and then. It was a several years' cruise. They always put in the long absence snooping around, in the most conscientious way, though none of them had any idea where the Holy Grail really was, and I don't think any of them actually expected to find it, or would have known what to do with it if he had run across it.
- We speak of nature; it is folly; there is no such thing as nature; what we call by that misleading name is merely heredity and training.
- It was only just words, words,—they meant nothing in the world to him, I might just as well have whistled. Words realize nothing, vivify nothing to you, unless you have suffered in your own person the thing which the words try to describe.
