A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

First published in 1889, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" was inspired by a dream in which the author, Mark Twain, imagined himself as knight in the time of chivalry. The book relates the tale of Hank Morgan, an engineer from 19th century Hartford Connecticut, who is inexplicably transported to the early medieval England of King Arthur. While there he uses his knowledge of modern technology to appear as though he is a magician. Despite his best intentions, Hank's attempts to modernize the past bring about a tragic end. A bittersweet depiction of the Arthurian legend through the eyes of a 19th century American, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" satirizes the romanticized notions of chivalry and the idealization of the middle ages, in a delightful and enchanting way, exemplifying Mark Twain at his satirical best. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Mark Twain was America's foremost novelist, journalist, and satirist who has been hailed as the "father of American literature. And he was also an accomplished travel writer. Born in Missouri in 1835 as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, he spent his early years as a Mississippi River pilot and as a prospector in Nevada before he settled in California. He wrote his first travel book, "The Innocents Abroad," after an 1867 trip to Palestine. After his second trip to Europe, which took him (and his family) to Germany for the first time, he wrote "A Tramp Abroad." His third trip abroad brought the family to Berlin, from October 1891 to March 1892, first in a tenement in the district of Tiergarten, later in a posh hotel Unter den Linden. Twain was invited to Berlin salons and socialized with Prussian royalty, including the Kaiser. However, he suffered from rheumatism, so he never wrote a book about Berlin, even though he pondered many ideas. He did write a number of shorter pieces, as well as the first chapter of a novel, most of it unpublished up to today. He also met one of his future friends in Berlin, Rudolf Lindau, a well-traveled novelist and Bismarck's press secretary. Eventually, the family would move to Vienna and Italy. Twain embarked on a world tour to pay off his debts. He returned to upstate New York in 1900, where he died ten years later.