A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court

I have recently read a book called A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, the book was about a man named Hank Morgan who traveled from the 1800’s into medieval England after taking a blow to his head. Once unconscious, Hank woke up in Camelot in the middle of King Arthur’s Court, he was very confused and saw many strange things, and through an odd series of events he ended up as a prisoner to be burned as the stake. His only hope to save himself was to tell his captors that he was a magician, and using his future knowledge he was able to predict an eclipse and claim it was his magic, this stunned the whole nation and gained Hank, or The Boss, as he entitled himself a high position, second only to the king. Following that, he did many tricks that he claimed as sorcery but were really only sciences of the future, he also began to industrialize England, he invented things like the telegraph to aid in communication, and also became good friends with King Arthur. Together, the King and Hank had some adventures, one of which they disguised themselves as peasants to see what their lives were like, but their adventure was suddenly cut short when they were arrested and almost hanged, but using a new telephone, they were able to call for knights to affirm that it was actually the king who was to be hanged, and they arrived just in time riding on bicycles, another wonder of the future. For the next few chapters The Boss went on a journey with a maid named Sandy who wanted him to rescue some friends of hers from some so-called ogres, who turned out to be nothing more than herdsmen and the friends turned out to be just a herd of pigs, it was rather strange but The Boss did not really care, because he did not want to go on the quest in the first place. On his way back, The Boss was able to repair a well that his rival magician named Merlin was not able to fix, stating that it was cursed, again though, The Boss claimed it was his magical wonders that had fixed the well but it turned out to be nothing more than basic engineering. Throughout the book Merlin and The Boss had a rivalry but it was finally proven who the best was in a magic duel in which The Boss defeated Merlin and many other knights using a lasso and two of his pistols. After that the book traveled three years later in which The Boss was married to Sandy and had a child. When the child fell ill they were told to move over seas until it recovered, but this turned out to be a plot by the Catholic Church to get rid of The Boss whom they strongly disapproved of. Nearing the end of the book there was a war in England due to The Boss and his small group of young men uprising against the Catholic Church, with about thirty thousand knights. Using Gatling guns, electric wire, and mine fields, The Boss and his men slaughtered the entire opposing army. Sadly thought, the mouth of the cave that they were hiding in was blocked by dead body’s and Hank was injured trying to give aid to a wounded knight, in the end disease killed everyone except Hank who slept for thirteen hundred years because of a spell that was cast upon him and once he woke up he too died.

            I found this book quite amusing and captivating, one of my favorite parts about it was its progression, unlike other books that stay in one place through the entire plot A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is ever progressing and always moving to the next exciting scene. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in an enjoyable read. Also in the description I chose to leave out many exciting parts that I am sure the reader will enjoy.