A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

One of the tougher reading prompts in the Back to the Classics Challenge this year is to read a classic comic novel. I don't mean to say that there aren't a lot of classic comic novels in the world, because there definitely are. What I mean is that comedy is not a genre I normally gravitate towards, and as I'm trying to combine Back to the Classics with my Classics Club reads, I didn't have many novels on it that would work for that category. I ended up going with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I've wanted to read this book for a while, since I've seen a lot of different media adaptations of it over the years, and I'm always interested in reading more Mark Twain. However, I was still a little skeptical about how much I would actually enjoy it. For some reason, I thought it might be boring. Summer is a good time to plow through classics though, so I decided to give it a chance.

The story begins with an unnamed narrator describing a visit he took once to Warwick Castle. While on a guided tour through the building, he strikes up a conversation with a fellow tourist named Hank Morgan. The narrator is immediately struck with how much Hank seems to know about the Middle Ages; he speaks of historical events and places as if he experienced them firsthand. Intrigued, he continues the discussion and gets Hank to agree to meet up for a drink with him at the inn where they are both staying later that night.

That evening, their discussion continues over their drinks. Hank begins to share a remarkable story about his background. He explains that he is from Hartford, Connecticut and used to work there as the head superintendent at an arms manufacturing facility. One day, he got into a fight with one of his workers, which culminated in him getting whacked in the head with a crowbar and passing out. When he regained consciousness, he was astonished to discover that he had somehow gone back in time to King Arthur's Camelot. At his point, Hank becomes too drunk and sleepy to continue telling the tale, but he helpfully produces a manuscript of his story and allows the narrator to read it. This manuscript forms the bulk of the rest of the novel.

Before Hank can get his bearings in Camelot, he is captured by the famous knight Sir Kay and hauled in front of the royal court both for their entertainment and so they can decide his fate. King Arthur promptly decides that he is to be hanged and he is taken to the dungeons. Things seem bleak, but Hank is a clever man, and he uses a combination of empty threats and modern knowledge to get himself out of his predicament (he also gets people to believe that he is a very powerful wizard, much to Merlin's chagrin). From that point on, he decides to make the best of his unusual situation and become a rich and successful man using all he knows about future ideas and technology. Before long, he is an adviser to King Arthur, has established a series of factories making everything from guns to telephones, and is dreaming of destroying the monarchy and turning medieval England into a democratic republic.

Interspersed within the narrative of how Hank transforms England are several chapters describing different adventures he takes part in along the way. Some of the stories are funny, with Hank getting into all kinds of scrapes while learning how to live in the past. Others are tragic, showing the brutality that often characterized life in the Middle Ages, especially for the poor. Hank does his best to advocate for the people, promoting ideas like universal suffrage and the abolition of slavery, which meet with limited success. He lives this way for years, and eventually settles down with a wife and child.

The good times, however. don't last.  A conflict between King Arthur and Sir Lancelot leads to a war that rips the kingdom apart and begins to set people against all the advancements that Hank put into place. He hatches a plan to eliminate his enemies, but the consequences of his actions set into motion a chain of events that lead to the end of his time in Camelot.

So, my concern before going into this novel was that it might be boring. It wasn't, for the most part. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, is still pretty funny. A lot of Mark Twain's jokes still made me laugh and some of the scenes he created blending modern elements with the Middle Ages were fantastic. A group of knights in full armor racing down the road on bicycles and Hank winning a jousting tournament using a lasso were treats to visualize, and genuinely hilarious besides. Hank's voice as a narrator is clever and sarcastic, and his observations on the absurdities of medieval life made for a pretty enjoyable reading experience. The character of Merlin also deserves a mention here because his encounters with Hank were my favorite parts of the book. Mark Twain's Merlin is a grouchy old fraud, and he is intensely jealous of Hank's rising status in Camelot. They clash continually, usually with very funny results.

What I didn't like so much about the novel was the structure. It felt very episodic, with Hank wandering from one encounter to the next without much tying them together. The overall goals he has to reform the kingdom take place largely off-page, with readers getting brief summaries on their progress from time to time, in between other scrapes Hank gets himself into. It honestly felt very similar to Don Quixote, with each chapter being its own little adventure. I would have preferred a stronger overall story; there were definitely times when I struggled to stay engaged throughout the choppy nature of it.

Also, the abrupt tone shift at the end of the novel was strange. The plot goes from being lighthearted and funny to shockingly serious in the final chapters and I wasn't sure what to make of it. It might have been reflective of Mark Twain's conflicting views on modern versus medieval life; throughout the novel, he showed positive and negative views on both. It could have also been a comment on the futility of forcing advancement on a culture that isn't ready for it. I'm not sure what the ultimate message was meant to be, but it sure was jarring and weird. It almost felt sloppy, but I'm not enough of a literary scholar to make that bold of a claim with a straight face. Twain must have intended something that I didn't pick up on.

This wasn't a novel that I either loved or hated. It was mildly entertaining and I'm glad I finally took the time to explore it, but I don't see myself ever reading it again. This is my third Mark Twain novel. I read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn years ago, and I preferred both of them over this one. However, I still think that was an odd, funny little story that was worth the read. I'm glad that the Back to the Classics Challenge pushed me to try it.



Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#84 on my list): 49/100 
Back to the Classics 2019 (Classic Comic Novel) 9/12 Books Read 

Total Books Read in 2019: 37